There are about 3.484 billion social media users in 2019 according to the Global Digital Report. This number represents almost 50% of the world’s population. That is why social media is one of the best places to reach your target market.

Every major social media platform such as Facebook and Twitter offer ways for brands to promote themselves online. There are thousands of brands competing with each other to catch the attention of their target customers.

You may be spending hours to create engaging and high-quality content for your social media profiles. However, it can be pretty disappointing if you get little to no response to your content. This has become a fairly common issue ever since Facebook revamped their News Feed.

It has, thus, become critical to improve your social media marketing plan to generate maximum engagement and drive traffic to your website.

Let’s take a closer look at what you might be doing wrong and how you can get it right.

Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).

1. Creating Incomplete Profiles

Your social media profiles represent your brand on social media. That is why it is imperative that you ensure that your profiles are complete and tell a story about your brand. Every applicable field should be filled in so that people visiting your profiles can find everything they need to know about your brand.

Additionally, you should consider adding a few relevant keywords to your profile descriptions and bios. Your cover photos and profile pictures should be attractive and be able to catch the attention of visitors as well.

These are the first things that people see when they visit your profile. If they aren’t attractive, people may navigate away from your profile.

Additionally, lack of information can reduce the credibility of your brand. At the same time, if users can’t find enough information about your brand, they may not know enough about your offerings.

That’s why creating complete profiles should definitely be the first step in your social media marketing plan.

2. Not Using Visual Content

Social media is all about visual content. It’s far more engaging than text and can creatively communicate information. Many social media platforms allow you to upload videos and photos to make your posts more engaging and attractive.

They help you communicate with your audience in a more lively manner and in a shorter time period. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram also allow you to post live videos where you can engage with your audience in real-time.

For the best results, your visual content should be created professionally and should match your brand’s voice. Poorly crafted visual content, on the other hand, can be harmful to your brand’s reputation.

Old Navy, for example, creates posts which have attractive images such as this one:

not using visual content social media marketing plan

Image via Instagram

3. Not Interacting With Your Audience

Your job is only half done when you publish high-quality, engaging content on your social media profiles. Merely posting the content won’t help your cause much. You need to make an extra special effort to interact with your audience on a personal level.

It is a good idea to take the time to read and respond to their comments when they comment on your posts. You can also take it a notch higher and comment on some of their posts where they’ve tagged you as well.

The goal of your social media marketing plan should be to connect with them. This will make them feel connected to your brand. Which, in turn, will make them want to know more about it.

For instance, Starbucks replies to tweets from their customers and interacts with them in a friendly manner.

not interacting with your audience social media marketing plan

Image via Twitter

If you don’t interact with your followers and customers, you won’t be able to build strong connections with them. If your audience can’t relate to your brand, your social media marketing plan won’t be successful.

4. Not Adding Social Media Buttons

Putting social media buttons on your website can go a long way to help your social media following grow. Through them, you can utilize your website traffic to get followers and engagement on social media.

These buttons include the “share” and “follow” buttons from the various social media networks where you have accounts. Make sure that they are placed at points where visitors can find them and click on them easily.

If you don’t put these buttons on your website, you may lose out on valuable social media shares and followers.

At the same time, having too many of them on your website may seem too spammy. That is why it’s important to strike a balance and just put a few necessary social media buttons on your website. This too is an important part of your social media marketing plan.

5. Not Posting Regularly

It is necessary to post content regularly to keep your audience engaged. This will help you catch their attention. However, you should be very careful about your frequency of posting.

Post too little, and they may start thinking that your profile isn’t active. Post too much, and your audience may feel that you are spamming them with posts.

You need to strike a balance and post consistently. This will ensure that your audience receives the information from your end regularly.

At the same time, it shouldn’t feel like an overload of information. Your social media marketing plan should highlight how much content needs to be posted on each platform during a given time period.

6. Not Handling Consumer Complaints Well

Social media may be a place where you can interact with your audience. However, it has also become a prime destination for consumers to post their complaints or voice their concerns.

People often take to Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms to complain about brands and expect brands to respond to them.

You should ensure that you reply to their issues as soon as possible and give your responses a personal touch. Stay away from generic replies such as, “Email us for any further questions.” These can harm your brand’s reputation.

When you respond to your customers well on social media, others will notice it. Responding well to consumer complaints can help you win the trust of other customers as well.

Apple, for example, handles complaints from their customers exceptionally well.

not handling consumer complaints well social media marketing plan

Image via Twitter

7. Not Treating Each Platform Individually

Every social media platform should be handled separately. This should be detailed well in your social media marketing plan.

While all of them may generally serve the same purpose, you need to have different approaches for each of them. This is because each platform functions differently. For instance, Instagram only focuses on photos and videos. On the other hand, YouTube only works with videos.

The optimal number of hashtags for posts varies with each platform as well. On Instagram, posts with 9 hashtags perform the best. On the other hand, on Twitter, tweets with only one hashtag perform better than the rest.

not treating each platform individually social media marketing plan

Image via Sprout Social

8. Not Doing Paid Promotions

No social media marketing plan is complete without a plan for paid promotions. Almost all social media platforms offer you the tools you need to promote your brand through paid ads.

These are a highly targeted form of advertisements because you can select your target audience based on their demographics and interests.

The paid promotions can be used to drive conversions, generate leads, or even get engagement and reach. They allow you to reach a massive audience with little expenditure. But for the best results, it is essential to know your target audience well.

Additionally, social media platforms give you highly detailed analytics which can help you understand your ad campaign even better. Based on these insights, you can further tweak your ads to get the most out of your ad budget.

Final Thoughts

Your social media marketing plan should include everything from posting times to your approach for each platform. You must ensure that you engage with your audience effectively and build personal connections with them.

Also, it’s important that you respond to their complaints well to improve customer satisfaction. Lastly, ensure that your social media profiles are complete with all relevant information and that your posts include high-quality visual content. This will help ensure that your social media marketing plan succeeds.

What other steps would you take to create a successful social media marketing plan? Let us know in the comments.

One Comment

  1. Scott Tyler says:

    These are nice tips. Thanks

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