This document provides guidance on creating a social media business plan. It outlines key sections to include such as goals and objectives, audience analysis, competitive analysis, selecting platforms, content planning, establishing a brand presence, promoting your network, and measuring and optimizing performance. Goals and objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. The audience and competitive analyses provide important insights to inform content and platform selection. Content should align with goals and be tailored to each network. Metrics like followers, engagement, and shares should be tracked to optimize the strategy.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA
BUSINESS PLAN
PR Writing

2. Goals &
Objectives
Audience
Analysis
Competitive
Analysis
Select
Platforms
Content
Planning
Establish a brand
presence
Create
content
Promote
your
network
Measure
&
optimize
Social Media Business Plan

3. Goals & Objectives
• What are they & how do you achieve them?
• Goal: broad primary outcome1
• Strategy: the approach you take to achieve a goal
• Objective: a measureable step you take to achieve a
strategy
• Tactic: a tool you use to achieve a strategy
1 Forbes

4. Goals & Objectives
1 http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2202307/Social-Media-ROI-How-To-Define-a-Strategic-Plan

5. Goals & Objectives
Strategic Planning Steps1
1. Select Scope (department, business function)
2. Identify business goals (specific to the scope)
3. Define social media mission / purpose
4. Define social media goals
5. Define 1-2 objectives related to each goal
6. Determine key performance indicator’s (KPIs) for each
objective
7. Choose tactics for each goal
8. Determine how you’ll measure each tactic
1 http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2202307/Social-Media-ROI-How-To-Define-a-Strategic-Plan

6. Audience Analysis
• Key considerations:
• General
• Primary and secondary audiences
• Demographics
• Interests
• Needs
• Expectations
• Relationship with your brand/organization
• Other considerations (as they apply)
• Technical background
• Consumer behavior
• Continue learning throughout process

7. Competitive Analysis
• Key considerations:
• What channels are competitors using?
• How many followers do they have?
• What type of content are they posting?
• How are followers interacting with their content?
• What appears to be working? Not working?

8. Selecting Platforms
•Which platforms are best suited to help you
achieve your goals?Goals
•Which networks is your audience on?
•How engaged are they on particular platforms?Audience
•What networks are competitors actively using?
Not using?
•Which networks do they have the most
engagement on? Least?
Competitors
•What types of content are shared on the
networks (images, videos)?
•What types of content get the most engagement?
Messaging

10. Content Planning
• Align content with your goals & objectives
• Are you trying to build followers? Relationships? Site traffic?
• Use your audience & competitive research
• Why does (or would) your audience follow you?
• What types of messages engage with?
• Why types of messages perform well for competitors?
• Know your voice
• Social messages should look & sound like your brand
• Time your content
• Create a content calendar
• Consider trends & current events
• Cater your messages
• Don’t copy & paste across platforms
• Include calls to action

11. Promote Your Networks
• Make sure your profiles can be easily found
• Promote your social profiles
• Social sharing buttons
• Blog posts
• Press releases
• Consider social media advertising
• Use your existing ‘fans’

12. Measure & Optimize
Platform Important Metrics
Facebook
• Reach
• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Mentions
Twitter
• Potential reach
• Potential impressions
• Followers
• Retweets
• Replies
YouTube
• Subscribers
• New video views
• Average views per video
• Comments
• Ratings
• Favorites
Social Metric Glossary: http://simplymeasured.com/blog/2012/12/20/40-key-social-media-
metrics-defined/