As per a leading consultancy, social networks are growing at a brisk pace and their audience is expected to reach 2.5 billion by the end of this year. That means a brand’s digital footprint expands when it uses social media channels for engaging with its customers and prospects in real time. But for evolving with the always-on social networks, a business has to plan first.

The science behind creating a power-packed social media marketing plan

A plan for social media includes all the elements found in any other traditional marketing strategy. A business has to first identify its target markets and factor in its prospects’ buying power. Apart from this, the business has to know its brand’s weaknesses and strength too.

After researching and analyzing, the business has to develop a powerful social media marketing plan. So here are the six steps for creating a marketing plan that improves a business’s discoverability on the hyper-connected social media channels and drives its revenue growth to a whole new level.

Find a social media manager

Running a business includes juggling a lot of responsibilities. Managing so many tasks at one time makes a business put social media on the back burner. Which is why, it is better to hire a social media marketing company having the expertise to manage even the most complex social media campaigns. A reliable team managing social media for your business not only ensures that the content is posted on time but also responds to all the feedback and comments promptly.

Develop brand pages

Now, there are so many social media channels to pick from. Whether it is Facebook or Pinterest, businesses can be active on one or many social networks. But it is better for a business to focus its budget and attention on one single social media channel. For this, a company should work alongside its social media manager to analyze which website will be the best for doing paid and organic marketing. One tip: While designing a brand page for social networks, designers should make sure that its look and feel is similar to that of its business’s website.

Create a planning calendar

Once a business’s social sites go live, it should develop a full-fledged planning calendar that will manage its activity on different channels. Ideally, this calendar should be developed every month without fail. This calendar should include a number of details such as:

• The number of posts that will get published every week
• The timings of the posts; a business should vary its posting times
• Identify, develop, or curate content for every post

Generate sharable content

After this work comes the real heavy lifting of creating the most engaging content with high shareability. Once a business is done with creating powerful content, it should plug it to different date/time slots in the planning calendar. While developing or finding the most sharable content, a business should step into the shoes of its customers—it should think about what its customers or prospects would like to read, see, or hear. Some cool content ideas include:

• Posting “How To” videos
• Publishing weekly advice and tips
• Uploading humorous videos or images
• Asking interactive questions
• Updating visitors about coupons, contests, and special events
• Recognizing and highlighting the most loyal customers

Monitor the responses

If a business is not responding to all the comments, questions, and feedback from customers, it is not being social. Good or bad, every feedback should be replied no matter what. If the comment is negative, the reply should resolve the issues or should do damage control; if, however, it is a shout-out, the reply should be a simple thank-you message. A business is generally busy with a number of other planning, sales, and operational efforts, so it should hire a social media manager who can monitor and reply to all the feedback on time.

Gain insights for performing better

Social media channels are the best place for any company to gain insights into improving its performance; it is the best place for a company to understand its targeted audiences. So once a business’s social site is brimming with super-sharable content, the company should interact with its customers/followers/prospects in real time. Every single conversation with prospects or customers will let a business build a road map for creating trust and goodwill both online and offline.

So here are the top six steps through which any business can make a detailed plan of excelling at social media optimization. With a reliable digital brand manager, any ordinary business can surely become an extraordinary brand on different social networks.