How is it November already?? In Dubai, we’re just embracing the lovely Winter weather in our personal lives, and for those of us in the marketing sector, we’re groaning under the weight of a hectic event and promotion season.
With this week’s Dec editorial deadlines approaching, we have to start thinking about our marketing and communications plans for 2020. Before pulling together an activity and campaign plan for the new year, it’s really important to review the existing strategy behind these plans.
For some reason, social media plans seem to be created in silo, as standalone campaign plans, rather than as part of a broader marketing or business plans, so we thought it might be timely to refresh ourselves of what we should have as a foundation for all social media work – a solid social media strategy.
But what does that look like? It should be…
1. Related to your business goals
What is the business trying to achieve? Forget what you think your social media should be doing, and what numbers you think you should be hitting – that’s focussing on the communications outputs rather than the outcomes. For your social media to really be worth doing, it should be supporting strategic business objectives – are there certain areas of business you want to grow, certain segments you want to attract, some you want to work on retaining, what are your business goals for the next year, and three years?
2. Specific
This follows on from the point above. Once you’ve worked out what communications goal you need in order to achieve the business goal, then break it down to make it specific – maybe your goals vary slightly for each social media channel, maybe you’re not separating them by channel, but for each of the target audiences, maybe its a different goal for each product/service. One goal does not fit all!
3. Measurable
What are the metrics you use to measure whether you have achieved the goal? Think about the end outcomes again, rather than immediate outputs. If you’re ultimately looking to increase sales, are you tracking your sales to see how many are a result of your communications? Are you tracking enquiries? Footfall? Website visits or link clicks? Or are you simply looking at your social media following and engagement statistics? Give yourself clear measurement criteria
4. Achievable and realistic
If you’re giving yourself a specific measurable target to hit, how do you know where to place that number? Are you plucking it from the air or from looking at competitors? Be realistic about what you can achieve and sustain – you want genuine authentic community and engagement on social media, and to achieve your end goals. You need to be tracking activity and results for some time in order to gauge what natural organic growth and behaviour is, before you can give yourself a target to hit.
5. Time-bound
Give yourself a deadline to achieve your goals. Having a time limit will ensure you have a consistent focussed approach. Don’t just give yourself a deadline at the end however, ensure you set regular reviews in order to see evaluate progress and assess whether you are on track, or if your plan needs to change.
Most of us are well aware of the important of setting SMART goals when it comes to developing strategy, but at this busy time, when we’re juggling a heavy workload and planning ahead, it’s worth just reminding ourselves. If you’d like any help or support in developing your strategy, or you’d just like to have a coffee and a chat, please do feel free to contact us on sam@footstepcommunications.com
