I was recently asked to speak at an event about social media for business; the event was an evening networking meet-up and the speaker brief was “a mini power talk circa 4 minutes long”. Ha. Think my time was up not long after I said my name and made a bad joke!
Time limit aside, I had decided to go down the route of turning a previous blog “5 things you wish your mum had told you about a social media strategy” into a talk and used the 5 points as headline statements around using social media for business.
Have a social media plan.
One of the points was how important it is to have a plan for your business social media platforms. Think we all know by now that it’s no longer optional for businesses to use social media, but more a question of how you use these channels to deliver to your business objectives to make an impact on sales, reputation, brand, community and team.
Bringing meaningful interaction into a communications strategy means that you can communicate with purpose to your customer base via social media. And this means that a content plan is super important.
Great, but what does that mean?
So spontaneity was mentioned that night and how a plan is all well and good but sometimes stuff just happens and is good social content. I completely agree, if you read the mum-blog you will know that social is social. Spontaneity, in the moment and just doing it are all key elements of social engagement. These things can still fit into the plan.
Erm, how do you plan to be spontaneous?
Having a plan does not mean having your social media posts written and scheduled for every day of the week on any given month. A weekly plan could include something as simple as “check the weather forecast and post about the daily sandwich special” or “new product expected today, video unboxing and share on social”.
The delivery might be late and the post needs to go to the next day, if you already have your latest blog post scheduled – shift it to the next day or bring it forward.
You will be able to look at the plan and juggle some content around to work with something that has just happened – see what I did there? Spontaneity fitted in beautifully to your existing social media plan! Winning.
Your plan is not made of stone.
Your social media plan is based on strategy and business objectives; it helps you tell a story and helps you deliver consistent value-adding content. It evolves as your business and audience does and that is ok. Give yourself permission to be spontaneous in your social media plan. Or email me and I can help with that. #BirdandEmmy
