The #1 Step of Successful Social Media Campaigns

“If you fail to plan you are planning to fail” – Benjamin Franklin

It’s always interesting to come back to work after a break and see what has changed in the field of my business. As you may know I took 15 months off to spend time with my baby girl and have just come back to work with clients again.

During my first week back the most interesting thing was the number of clients asking for a ‘plan’ or ‘program’.

I have always talked about the importance of strategy and planning to ensure my clients’ marketing campaigns stay on track, bring steady stream of leads and the results they are after.

Now that the dust has settled after the initial social media hype a few years ago and Facebook has made it harder to get pages’ post to appear in the newsfeeds, it’s become obvious that without understanding how marketing on social media works, it is hard to get any long term results…

Many business owners jumped on social media a few years ago and by now have a good idea about how it is working or not working for their business.

Without a plan it is easy to lose focus on how every day actions link to the bigger picture for your business and move your business towards your goals.

In other words the direction of your business is build from those little daily steps you take day after day. If you haven’t made sure that those little steps are somehow linked to your bigger goals the chances are you have no idea where your business is heading.

But WHY is it that we need plans?

It is because us humans are not programmed to change, we are programmed to stay the same (it is safe)

: 98% of our daily actions are based on our subconscious habits and routines and only 2% of our daily actions are something we more or less consciously choose. Ever wondered why it is so hard to make changes or adjust to changes? This is the reason: Habits and routines keep things the same with an unfair advantage! Even when you make a decision to change things one day (e.g. New Years Resolutions!), without a plan to follow your daily habits will keep pulling you back to what you’ve always done until you are back where you started.

A plan is designed to overcome this key piece of human psychology and keep you on track as long as your new actions become the new habit and routine.

So, if having a strategy and plan is the step #1, equally important step #2 of your social media campaign is taking action daily on those steps outlined in your strategy and plan (with that 2% of conscious decision making!) until you reach your goals!

So, let’s recap:

Step #1: Design a social media strategy & a daily posting plan

Step #2: Follow your daily plan (no exceptions!)

Step #3: Review how your plan is working and make adjustments

Step #4: Repeat steps #2 and #3

 

Did I miss anything?

Do you have a daily online marketing plan or questions about how to get started? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Post them below >>

 

Come back for next week’s blog post: 36 Brilliant Social Media Tips For Boring Brands

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Blog post by:

Minna Salmesvuo

Owner & Social Media and Online Marketing Consultant @ Social Media Tribe