Definition: A social media campaign is a coordinated marketing effort to reinforce or assist with a business goal using one or more social media platforms. Campaigns differ from everyday social media efforts because of their increased focus, targeting and measurability.
Setting social media campaign goals
A social media campaign should focus around a singular business goal, whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram. Common goals for a social media campaigns include:
Getting feedback from users.Building email marketing lists
Increasing website traffic
Improving overall brand engagement
Directly driving sales
Goals must be discrete and measurable. Before a campaign, obtain a baseline measure of your targeted metric so you can track changes and performance throughout the campaign and beyond. Goals are shaped by the means, the message and the target audience. Different demographics also have varying preferences for social media platforms, so pick the platform suited to your target audience.
A successful social media campaign should focus on a particular business goal. Whether it’s increasing your following on Facebook, or driving sales through Instagram.
Practical goals for a successful social media campaign might include:
Getting direct feedback from your target audienceGenerate FB page messages
Building an email marketing list of engaged consumers
Improving brand engagement across social media networks
Increasing website traffic and brand recognition
Driving sales directly through your campaign advertisements
To get the best results, goals for social media campaigns must be specific and measurable.
What started off as a medium for personal interaction is now a channel through which you can showcase your brand. The audience relies on social media to a great extent for gaining information about brands as well as products in an effort to make informed decisions.
This only means that your brand is always under the spotlight of your audience. Leverage this attention to fulfill your business goals by creating content that generates engagement. But good content alone will not suffice to achieve your goals. You need a full-fledged social media campaign to gain traction for your brand.
Campaign ideas
Creating great social media campaigns may seem daunting.
We see the enterprise-level companies with deep pockets hitting the front pages of our favorite social networks. But how can a social marketer without the resources (or let’s be honest, time), compete?
Part of the beauty of social media is you don’t need a top-tier ad agency to run a great social media campaign. You don’t need a Scrooge McDuck room full of gold coins to compete.
What you need is a plan. That’s where this guide comes in.
We’ll cover what you need to do to create a social campaign that can compete, how you can track the impact of that campaign to look like a hero internally, and finish with some quick tips to jumpstart your strategy.
Brainstorming social campaign themes
The key to effective brainstorming is to put yourself in the mindset that inspiration can come from anywhere and from as many places as possible.
In this section, we have put together a list of resources to ignite your brainstorming sessions as you plan out your social media strategies.
Newsletters
As social marketers, research is one of our most valuable skills, helping us make sure that our own strategies stay on par with trends in the industry.
Instead of browsing aimlessly through content, rummaging through thousands of social profiles, or running endless Google searches, an easy way to streamline research is to sign up for as many newsletters as possible.
Newsletters provide insights into the state of the industry, changes in technology, updates to social networks, and explain emerging trends and best practices. Here are a few newsletters that social media marketers should add to their resource list boost your creativity while you brainstorm:
Social Media Examiner helps you discover how to best use social media to connect with customers, drive traffic, generate awareness, and increase sales. Their newsletter shares articles, expert interviews, and reviews of the latest industry research. Social Fresh has a strong focus on the future of social marketing including future trends and inspiration for fresh social campaigns.
Social Fresh provides information on conferences, articles, podcasts, research, and courses to help social marketers find inspiration and produce creative content.
Marketing Profs focuses on educating social media marketers by providing modern marketing tools, training, strategies, articles, online seminars, and discussion forums. Their solution-based content helps marketers identify gaps in their marketing strategies and provides resources needed to overcome problem areas.SocialMedia.org positions themselves as a brands-only membership organization for the people running social media at really big companies. They share best practices and provide actionable advice and solutions to the common challenges that come with being a social media professional.
Social Media Today is an online community and resource for professionals in marketing, social business, communication, customer experience, content marketing and digital strategy.
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