5 Critical Pieces of Social Marketing Advice

All eyes are on social marketing. Social marketing has become an expansive part of the marketing organization as a whole, and we’re constantly seeing updates to each network’s ecosystem and algorithms. 

This is challenging for those of us that have been tasked with keeping up with both social media’s advances and the Joneses. I’ve been officially employed as a social media marketer for a few years now and I’ve got to say, if it weren’t for these five really good pieces of advice, I would’ve pulled my hair out by now.

#1) Don’t try to be everywhere at once 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, don’t try to do it all! The majority of social media teams only consist of 1 – 3 people.

Don’t overextend yourself and your team in a futile effort to be #1 on every social media channel. Pick where you want to be and do it to the best of your ability. It’s about quality, not quantity.

#2) Don’t be afraid to experiment

Social media is rapidly growing. There are constantly new networks, features, and best-practices popping up.
Although I do believe that you shouldn’t overextend your social presence, don’t be afraid to try something new! Social media is ripe for experimentation, so have some fun and see what sticks.

#3) Never fly blind

Someone once told me that social marketers should spend 60% of their time planning, 10% of their time executing and 30% analyzing and reporting.

Initially, this didn’t make sense to me. Attributing 60% of my time to pre-campaign planning seemed crazy! However, after many hits and misses, I’ve come to find that the stronger the plan, the stronger the performance. Never go into a campaign blind — always have a plan. 

#4) Set S.M.A.R.T. goals

Back in the ‘80s, Peter Drucker came up with a way to think about goal setting called S.M.A.R.T: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound.

Utilizing the S.M.A.R.T. technique can actually transform your social strategy by inserting structure, KPIs, timelines, and a sense of direction into every campaign… down to the Tweet.

#5) Define success for YOUR brand

Before you run any type of campaign on social, you need to identify what success means to you.

For some marketers, it’s engagement, for other’s it’s conversion, or traffic, or impressions…and so on, and so on. There is not a one-size-fits-all metric for success. You should pick a success metric based on your goals as a marketing function.

Well, there you have it! What are the best pieces of social media marketing advice you’ve ever received? 

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