Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 3 Today I received a great question – What are the keys to writing a great social media marketing plan? Of course, this question can be answered in countless ways. I thought I’d mix it up by providing my opinion on this topic. I think a good marketing plan is part of a process that involves (1) setting goals, (2) measuring results, and(3) tracking performance. Most importantly, it entails regular review and revision. The first part of writing a social media marketing plan is to clearly define your goals and then set achievable and stretch objectives. What do you want to see as an outcome of your efforts and outreach? Where do you see your brand heading with all of the time and money that you will be investing in advertising and content creation? Start here first! A good marketing plan has a beginning and an end! The second part of your social media marketing plan should be spent on preparation and focus! Know that you can’t please everyone– but having a great team and well thought-out content is a sure path to success. Bill Cosby said it best – “I don’t know the secret to success, but I do know that the secret to failure is trying to please everybody.” Just know that all you can do is be your best and that there is always room for improvement. The important outcome of this is to create a clear plan that outlines how your efforts will be measured. For example, how will you tie sales revenues back to your social media content? It is critical to define this in your plan and get buy-in from your colleagues so that everyone is on board with your success metrics. Once you have launched your plan, it is really important to have a clear method to track your progress. What’s the point of doing the work if you don’t know how many people you’ve reached and if your plan is even working? For example, to track your social media and online marketing success, there are sites such as Eagle Vision, Hootsuite, Vocus, Facebook, Klout — and my all time favorite, Google Analytics — that measure your overall marketing outreach and impact. These sites make it easy for you to put together weekly or monthly reports that show, down to the demographics, who you have reached and how well your social media marketing plan is working. Its incredible how technology is evolving and making it that much easier to track all of your efforts! When you’ve done all the work, it’s time to sit down and analyze everything you’ve accomplished. How well did you do? Is your plan working and bringing in good leads and sales revenues for your business? This is the part where you review everything that you have done, down to your success metrics, to ensure that your plan is as effective as possible. After you’ve reviewed each element of your plan and how effectively it is working to meet the goals of your business, don’t be afraid to make changes if something is not working correctly. No social media marketing plan is perfect – your plan will evolve as your business does. There is always room for trial and error, so don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t get the immediate results that you had hoped for. Take the time to go through what worked and what didn’t. This will provide you with a base for improvement over time, and as you adjust over time, you’ll be armed with the data to consistently improve your overall social media marketing strategy. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Mariana Weber.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Mariana Weber Follow @https://twitter.com/OutwardMediaInc Written by Mariana Weber, marketing specialist at Outward Media, Inc., an e-marketing firm based in West Hollywood, CA. Her writing covers topics that have to do with email marketing, multi-channel marketing data, data cleansing and campaign management tools. … View full profile ›More by this author:Marketing – Strategy, Tracking and Evaluation!The First Steps to a GREAT Marketing Plan – Vision, Objectives and Tactics