Social Media planning is important for any entrepreneur or small business trying to build a following for their products and services. If you know how and where to spend your time and create a social media strategy around your business, you can leverage your social media presence to increase your brand awareness and grow your audience. If you operate without a strategy, you can waste valuable time and resources on a platform that does nothing for your business.

The first step in creating a social media strategy is to identify the platforms that you will use to reach your audience. Take your time to find the right platforms that will highlight your products and services. If you offer arts and crafts products, Pinterest and Instagram will likely be your best platforms due to their visual nature. If you sell products for moms and babies, you can add Facebook to that list since a lot of new moms frequently hang out in Facebook groups to get advice. If you want to reach influencers, Twitter is a great place to look for them. Before you create a single post, read the posts and look at the photograph that your audience likes and saves on each platform that you plan to use. If you know what your audience likes, you can represent your own products and services in a way that your audience will like and save as well.

Once you've identified the social media platforms where you will interact with your audience, determine how often you will post on each platform and what you will post. For example, create a 'Topic of the Week' for your business. If your topic of the week is a How-To demonstration video on a particular topic, you might want to use a single still photo from your demonstration or a time lapse video for your Instagram post and Pinterest, a group of still photos for your email newsletter or your blog, and post the entire video on Facebook and Google Plus. If you post multiple times each week, you can include photos of the work in progress and the finished product as well.

If you create a Content Calendar for your business, you can keep track of the posts that you share and how your audience responds. Add a section to your content calendar that tracks the number of likes or re-pins or saves that your post receives. As you continue to gather data, you'll figure out how your audience want to interact with your brand and you can adjust your posts accordingly. Information that comes directly from your potential clients and customers is incredibly valuable for your business. You can use the data you gather to create a long-term social media marketing strategy and make adjustments as you gain even more information from your audience.

The new year is a great time to start your content calendar. If you want us to create one for you, email us at info@silvershadegroup.com.