Steps to building a strong social media campaign

Sahail Ashraf posted on 27 May 2022

If you want to create a strong social media campaign you have to follow certain steps. In this post, we walk you through them.

Social media marketing is very much a bit of a science when you get down to the details. Doing things in the right order and in the right way over time will bring you success. We have put together a step-by-step playbook to make sure that you create a social media marketing campaign that works, every time.

Get the goals right

You have to ask yourself: Why am I running this campaign? This approach will determine the rest of your campaign.

Common goals for social media campaigns are:

Raising brand awareness
Lead generation
Selling more
Getting customers
Gaining more engagement

You need to be specific after setting these goals. Are you aiming for brand awareness? More traffic to your site? More followers? Set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Afterwards, state the metrics you’ll use to measure your goals’ success.

Then, create buyer personas

If you don’t target the right audience with your campaign content, the campaign is unlikely to succeed even if you create the best content ever. Therefore, you need to know your ideal target before you start a campaign.

Buyer personas describe your perfect customers in detail. Your campaigns can be more effective if you use messages that are relevant to your target audience.

You should have this info in your buyer persona:

Name

Gender

Earnings

Location

Pain points (what they want and need)

Favorite social media sites

Hobbies

Interests

Your messages will be more persuasive if you are aware of these details.

Find the right channels to use

If you concentrate on a few social media channels, you’re more likely to get better results.

Your buyer persona gave you an idea of your ideal audience’s favorite channels. It also depends on what you’re offering. For example, because many decision-makers are on LinkedIn, it is a popular platform for B2B companies.

You can also check your website analytics to see past results of social media campaigns. In the past, what social media channels brought you more visitors? Do you get more leads from social media?

Each channel has its own best practices, so listing them will affect your campaign.

Each channel has its preferred content type and posting frequency. In general, Twitter and Instagram are very different from each other and LinkedIn is very different from most of the other major social networks.

Create a social media calendar

When your team has a calendar, they can focus on the tasks that need to be accomplished. You should schedule:

Track the creation of content in time with a content creation overview.
Sharing curated content: when to do it.
Share updates from your employees’ personal accounts if/when they advocate for the company.
Social media updates throughout the campaign, for each channel.

You will be better able to manage your time with your social media calendar if you use it to ensure you don’t miss any steps toward your goals.

The content

We doubt you’re new to this part of the game, but just in case.

Use video, high quality images and a consistent approach to your content. You want to make sure that your audience comes back for more and engages with what you put out there. So ensure that your content is aimed squarely at them (remember the personas?) and that you are producing the very best work you can.

Video, on any platform, is the best. Attention spans are short. Also, make sure that you are constantly looking at your results so that you can keep tweaking the content for even better results.

This leads us nicely onto the next step in the process.

Analytics and metrics

When you are planning your campaign, use social media analytics tools to track your KPIs (key performance indicators). By using this data, you are able to adjust and optimise your campaign for the best results possible.

You can determine if your campaign has been successful or unsuccessful by tracking its performance. Furthermore, the analysis can help you adjust your social media strategy while a campaign is still in progress.

In addition to tracking your metrics, you can use it to change future campaigns. Remember, though, that your campaign metrics will depend on your goals.

Are you a social media marketing professional? Then get your hands on a wealth of analytics and metrics through Locowise. You know it makes sense. Contact us to find out more.