1. Set Your Goals.

It’s important to have clear goals in mind to achieve the best results. By defining your objectives, you can determine the best approach and strategies to use. Therefore, goals should be well thought of, specific, and most of all attainable.

2. Define Your Audience.

Once your goals are set, you should now identify your target audience. Consider several factors such as age, location, and gender of your target audience. Doing so, you can start creating marketing strategies around this demographic.

3. Know Your Platforms

With clear goals and a target audience in mind, you should now take time to know your platforms. These will serve as your weapons in social media marketing. Remember that each platform usually targets a particular demographic.

4. Focus on One Channel

Small businesses should focus their limited resources on one social media channel. Choose one that specialises in reaching your target demographic to maximise the chance of conversion. It is only after you’ve managed to attain a stable presence in this social media channel that you can start creating goals for a new channel.

5. Avoid Random Hashtagging

It’s pretty easy to overuse hashtags, but you should learn to use them strategically. Always use the ones that are easy to remember and easy to spell. Make sure it isn’t used for anything else – do your homework. Don’t forget to follow your hashtag and join the conversation.

6. Deliver Consistent Content

Schedule your posts and schedule your repeat posts. Upload custom images to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other leading social media pages. Create post categories and keep track of them – make sure to create posts for each category.

7. Slowly Build the Persona of Your Social Media Channels

Select your primary content type (text, infographic, or video). Set the tone of your posts and define its structures. Edit your posts and fine tune everything to get the desired action from your customers.

8. Switch from One Format to Another

Find your best posts and convert it to a different format. Take a snippet from a favourite Facebook post and turn it into an infographic and then pin it on Pinterest. Turn a long blog post into an instructional video. Expand the ideas you introduced in a short 3-minute Youtube video and turn it into a long form post on LinkedIn and become an expert in that niche.

9. Know Your Numbers

Knowing your numbers is essential to determine how your strategies fare in certain aspects of the process. Through various social media metrics, you would be able to see where you fail and where you need to focus your strength the next time you launch a campaign.

Social media marketing is the latest marketing craze today. With that said, it is high time that you start planning your campaign and enjoy the benefits of this craze. Learning the steps above should help you get started and eventually lead to the success of your business.