Social Media Plan

Sometimes people don’t get started with a Social Media plan for their businesses because it seems so overwhelming. I found this Infographic that breaks down some specific steps you can take to develop an online presence for your business. I wrote down my take on the information in the Infographic, which does not take the place of a well conceived social media plan designed to meet your business goals.

Please don’t get overwhelmed by this to do list, because you do not have to do all of these things at the same time. But trust me, many of you spend more time on your personal Facebook sharing than these items would take in a week!

Download your copy of the Infographic.

Keep Up to Date: For 30 minutes per day, use your favorite methods- Twitter, Facebook, Pinterst or Blogs you follow, to find interesting information relevant to your business. Keep track of it using apps such as Evernote or BufferApp so you can find it again to use for research for your posts and to share it with your followers. The content you find can help you craft blog posts and that same information can be reformatted to be used in many ways such as creating videos or social media updates.

Blog Posts: Writing blog posts is one of the most crucial parts of a successful social media plan. Write one to two blog posts per week on your website. Create them on topics that people will search for to find your business. Use relevant keyword phrases in the title and content of your posts. Share these posts on Twitter, Facebook Page, LinkedIn and Google +.

Facebook Page: Update your page status daily with what is going on. You can ask questions of your community or answer them. Add one or two interesting posts to your Facebook Page each week. Tag people and pages in your posts.

Twitter: Each day send at least 3 new Tweets daily that are business related, promotional, fun or interesting, or about your blog posts or events. Retweet 2 interesting tweets a day. Thank people for retweeting your posts by retweeting theirs. Respond to people who mention or direct mention you. Follow new people each week. Use Tweepi to find them.

LinkedIn: Remember to update your company profile with new information. You can have your blog posts and Slideshare decks posts automatically post. Post relevant blog posts or comments on groups that you belong to. Ask for recommendations and give one recommendation per week.

Google+: Share content on Google+ Profile and Company Page each day. Each week, find circles with relevant business contacts or prospects and share the entire circle. Host a monthly Google+ Hangout session for a topic in your industry and use Google +Events to publicize it.  Make sure your posts are set to public so they are searchable to the max number of people.

Pinterest: Each month post product images or work examples as pins leading back to your website. Each month follow other relevant and interesting pin boards or users related to your field. Always use keywords in your pin descriptions and board titles as they have huge ability to come up in searches. Add new boards and pins as needed.

YouTube: Add videos to your social media plan. Each month subscribe to several new channels relevant to your industry. Find relevant, interesting or fun videos that you can share on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Learn to create your own video tutorials, upload them to YouTube, add them to your blog and share them on Social Media channels.