Included in every marketing strategy (I hope) is your content strategy.

Beyond the fact that you know you need to be creating content, it can be confusing knowing which platforms you should be showing up on. That’s what makes that marketing strategy so helpful.

Emails and blog posts are both great options, and may still be your best bet depending on your audience. However, we’re at a point in the online space where you would be remiss if you aren’t at least considering showing up on social media.

What platforms and tactics you use will be different depending on the audience you’re trying to reach. As will your tone, type and frequency of posts.

So, with all these variants—how do you build your plan?

Below I’ve outlined a few ways you can start creating an effective social media plan for your business.

Choosing your channels

There are numerous social media platforms you can leverage as channels in your social media plan, most of which you know and already feel pressure to use.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest are the current giants in the space, each serving a different demographic and favouring different content types. Other platforms you might look into if your audience is the right demographic include Snapchat, TikTok, and Clubhouse.

For example, if you’re in the business space looking to target corporate executives, sharing or writing articles on LinkedIn might be the best way to garner attraction. On the other hand, if you’re trying to target 18 to 24-year-olds, short video clips on TikTok might perform better.

This is a great article that gives an overview of the current demographics of different social media platforms. Take a look to see which might be best for your target audience!

When thinking about what platforms to show up on you also want to determine the type of content that would best serve your brand, the type of content you like to create, and the type of content your ideal client likes to consume.

For example, if you’re a photographer, you want to use channels that showcase your work effectively. On the other hand, if your work doesn’t easily translate to visual mediums, you might be better off with text- or audio-based channels.

In order to create content that converts you need to be in the right places, and that starts with choosing the right channels! But first, some  disclaimers:

1. You do not need to be on every platform, even if it might be a potential source of leads. Focus on the 1-2 platforms that will be most effective at the beginning. You need to be realistic based on the resources (energy, time and money) you have available. As you grow you can always add additional channels where needed as your business and capacity to do more grows.

2. You can always shift your plan as you learn and grow. Don’t feel like you need to have everything figured out before you start posting!

Consider these questions when choosing channels:

• What are the demographics of your ideal client?

• Where are they spending most of their time?

• What type of content would best showcase your product or service?

• What type of content do you enjoy creating?

Define the tone of  your content

As a general rule, social media content is shorter to consume and more casual than a blog post or email.  

However, like anything in marketing, this can change depending on your goals and target audience.

What do you want your brand to sound like? How can you find ways to show up on social media that align with your voice and values?

Whenever you’re deciding your content strategy, you want to ensure there is cohesion among all of the different channels you’re using. However, you also want to share in a way that is appropriate for each platform.

 Take some time to scroll through your competitors' profiles. What do they do to modify their tone on social compared to other places they post content, such as their blog or website? What about between different social platforms?

When you start to get a feel for how your competitors show up on different platforms, it will help you get clear about how you want to show up, and what your target audience responds to.

 The tone of your content helps humanize your brand and can encourage readers and viewers to connect with you on a deeper level. People are on social media to connect, so you want to encourage engagement whenever you can!

Show the person and/or personality behind your brand, and you’ll likely start to see more success with your content.

Consider these questions to establish your tone:

• What is the general feeling of your brand that you want to evoke?

• What words and language does your target audience use?

• What feels natural for you when creating content for your audience?

Topics to cover

When considering what topics to cover as part of your plan for social channels, you want to factor in your goals as a company, and the needs of your audience.

Why are you using social media in the first place? What is your audience struggling with and how does your product or service help resolve these?

It’s often useful to create brand pillars; a few main topics you can rotate through when it comes to your content that reflect your brand and the niche you speak to.

Consider how you can create content around your product or service that is educational, inspirational, and entertaining so that your audience can look forward to experiencing your content in new ways.

Your topic ideas will likely be the same ideas you already share in your blog or with your email list. For social channels, it’s about shifting your approach in new and fun ways to suit the platforms you use!

Posting regularly on these topics can help establish you as an expert in your space, and will let people know they can start to trust and rely on you.

This trust is essential for converting viewers to customers later on.

Consider these questions to decide topics you cover:

• What is the intention behind your posts? What are your business goals and values?

• What brand pillars might be helpful for sharing about your product or service?

• How can you approach these pillars in educational, inspirational and entertaining ways?

Publishing/posting frequency

When deciding on the frequency with which to post, you want to take into account both the lifespan of content on the platform you’re posting, as well as what you can commit to in terms of content creation. Your resources will be the most important factor.

While blog posts have a long lifespan and can continue to be discovered years down the road depending on the strength of your SEO efforts, most of the content you post on social media platforms has a remarkably short lifespan.

With platforms continually pushing new content to viewers, and the sheer amount of content posted each minute on each platform, most content peaks just a few hours, if not minutes, after being posted (though if a piece of content ends up going “viral” it can last a lot longer).

This blog post might be helpful for recognizing the lifespan of different social platforms.

It’s often recommended to post 3-5 times per week across platforms, which allows for your brand to remain top-of-mind as consumers hop on and off the platform throughout the week. This can be a more realistic starting point for solopreneurs and small business owners who don’t have the time or energy to post multiple times per day.

What’s arguably more important than quantity of posts, though, is the quality of what you’re posting. If content resonates and your audience shares it, it’s going to have a longer lifespan and will continue to bring attention to your business.

Consider these questions when deciding frequency:

• What is the lifespan of content on the channels I use?

• How much time can I commit weekly/monthly to social media content?

 As can be seen from the sheer number of variables discussed in this post, there’s truly no right or wrong way to show up on social media.

 However, in order to create effective content for any channel, you want to be clear on your content strategy. Take some time to look at the demographics, habits and desires of your audience, as well as your own values and capabilities as a brand.

 And know that, while there may be a tendency to want to join every platform and some pressure to show up way more than is realistic for you, you’ll see more success if you focus instead on creating helpful content for just a couple of platforms that you enjoy showing up regularly on.