Social media is awesome… if you do it right! The problem is most business owners don’t know how to execute it properly, and competition is increasing whilst attention is decreasing at the same time. In this blog I’m going to show you the pieces you need to explore your brand. Let’s get into it!

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I’m going to show you an overview of the process so you can see the big picture. If you want 1-on-1 advice for your situation and what you should be focusing on, click the button to chat with me and we’ll create a plan.

1. Plan

Create a strategy.

The goal of the Plan phase is to create a simple strategy that works. It’s the underlying function of the entire process, to keep you on track and ahead of the game. Don’t just go into marketing because you feel like you should — you want to have clear goals, a plan for achieving them and a way to track progress.

If you’re just starting out, you’ll create a strategy first. Once that’s done, each month you’ll dig into your analytics and figure out if you’re making progress, and what you should do next.

Research the market.

You don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Find out who’s already getting results, see what you can leverage and reverse engineer their strategy. Research influencers to see what they are doing and what you can cherry-pick, and also research Google, the top industry blogs and market experts for trends. There may be some new technology or strategies you should factor in.

Create a Content Calendar

Once you know your strategy and have done your research, put that all together into a content calendar. Without a content calendar, your content will be inconsistent and low quality (because you’ll make a post just to try and be 'active'). Use a calendar to plan your marketing in advance so you’ll be more organised.

Try to keep it as relevant as possible — rather than talking about anything and everything, what are the main topics your audience wants to know about more than anything else? What are they always asking about? What's trending right now? Keep all that in mind and then plan out your month.

2. Create

Prepare Visuals

Visuals are everything, and this won’t work if your visuals suck. Your content needs to POP right out of the feed, something you’d stop scrolling for even without reading the caption. To make it easier, jump on Pinterest and create a mood board for how you want your brand to look.

You can share photos, artwork, animations or a bit of everything. Check out Canva if you never have before, you’ll thank me!

On that note, do what comes easily to you. If you like speaking , shoot videos. If you like writing, write blogs. If you have a good eye, share great photos. Do what comes naturally, so it’s easy to maintain.

Write Engaging Captions

Tell a story in your captions and build a relationship. You don’t have to do this, but we found that long-form captions skyrocketed our engagement. Now whilst not every post has to be long for the sake of being long, they are worth trying.

Most businesses share a photo and a tip - this is fine, but sometimes telling a story or going into more depth can really help. You want to tell a story or add value that is creatively written to keep the reader hooked. Not many businesses do this, so you can stand out and offer them something fresh.

Recycle your best content.

One of the best ways to be productive is by repurposing your content into other platforms. So rather than thinking “how am I going to create so much new content all the time?!” just repurpose it and recycle it. For example if you create a video, don’t stop there! You can transcribe it into a blog, share short video snippets, create quotes, micro-posts… you can make 10+ posts from 1 video! Here’s how.

3. Promote

Schedule posts ahead

Using tools like Buffer, you can schedule posts ahead of time to make life a whole lot easier. It’s just like regular posting, you select the platform, upload the visuals and caption, then add it to your queue which will schedule it ahead of time. Done!

Planning and scheduling are great for keeping you organised — but if ideas pop into your head, go for it! This is also where Stories are fantastic. It’s the perfect place to share a quick thought, ask a question or share a behind-the-scenes photo. They will increase your profile views and build a relationship with your audience.

Boost your top posts each week

Each week boost your top posts for $5 - $10 a day which will push fresh content to local prospects every day even if you're not posting. It takes 5 minutes a week and you'll be getting in their feeds, staying top of mind and building authority in your sleep. Yes, you’ll get more engagement than people posting multiple times a day!

Reply to comments & messages

At this point, you’ll have a lot of people engaging with your content. Make sure you engage back! One of the best ways not only to build a following but also to show the algorithm you’re a real person is by chatting with your fans. Now that Facebook and Instagram have merged, this is now easier than ever. (In Buffer you can actually do this for all of your pages, which is handy if you have multiple accounts!)

4. Review

Review Analytics

At the end of the month, look through your analytics and insights to see what happened, what went well and what can be improved. You can do this for your social media profiles but also your website, sales funnel and any other marketing channels or strategies.

Create Action Items

Based on the analytics, what will you do? Come up with a strategy and a few action items that you will implement the following month to keep your marketing fresh and performing at a high level.

Create A Report

This may not apply to you but if you need to show your marketing efforts to someone else, create a concise and actionable report.

That’s the 4-step formula! If you follow this you will get great results and create a high-leverage marketing system. If you’ve got any questions feel free to reach out any time, and if you’d like a hand with your social media just click the button.

Mitch Hills @masteredmarketing