Are you ready for a super-duper secretive social media plan template that you always wanted, but were didn’t know what the plan should include?

Then this is your lucky day, because today we discuss how to take our social media plan template and turn it into your social media plan to get clients, love, and adoration. Well, I hope you get the last two from this social media plan template, but this is really meant for finding clients. May the other two could be a happy outcome.

So, let’s get to it!

Social Media Plan Template Overview

Let’s break down the eight different sections of the social media plan template below, so you understand exactly what you need to succeed.

1. Objectives
2. Tools
3. Customer
4. Time
5. Budget
6. Testing
7. Metrics
8. Plan

Social Media Plan Template Objectives

The first question you need to ask is what are your objectives for using social media? Do not give the obvious answer that you want more clients or you want more money. Be specific. How many clients do you want with social media? How much money do you plan on making with social media to make this profitable for your company?

Social Media Plan Template Tools

The next part of the equation is what tools will you use for social media. While a lot of social media sites are free, please keep in mind that there are some tools out there that will cost you some money. I will get into this more in the budget section, but I want you to be cognizant of that fact now.

Social Media Sites To Consider

Facebook-everyone and their grandmother are on this site. Literally! If I have to tell you about Facebook you should read up on current events first.

Twitter-Great for media and small businesses looking to update their current clients about events, specials, etc.

LinkedIn-B2B mostly, all business professionals.

Instagram– Younger audience with a visual bent.

Pinterest-this is terrific for people with a product or those who work with creatives since Pinterest is a visual pinboard.

Social Bookmarking Sites To Consider

StumbleUpon-Stumbleupon is a great site for driving traffic to your website and/or blog. In fact, some of my greatest days of blog traffic came from spikes on Stumbleupon.

Reddit- If you get too promotional on Reddit, then beware. However, for those looking to be part of a community this is a great place to connect with people on various topics.

Social Media Management

SocialOomph- this is a great way to manage your Twitter account(s) and schedule tweets out into the future. There are also some great statistics on here for Twitter accounts.

Hootsuite- This is a simple way to manage your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts from one place.

Buffer- another great tool for sharing content. This works great if you want to share your blog, podcast, or other content on social media.

Sprout Social

Blogging

WordPress- This is the premier hosting platform on the planet. It is great for not only blogging but also a social media destination to take your new network.

LiquidWeb/Godaddy– You need a hosting account. Otherwise, you will be stuck with a .wordpress.com at the end of your blog. Easy to forget and virtually impossible for a new business to brand. Update 9-14-12 Godaddy recent experienced some problems with their site. Start with HostGator.

Email Marketing

Active Campaign(Affiliate)- My personal favorite. This is a paid email marketing tool. However, it provides you with most of the automation options you want on HubSpot without the big sticker price.

MailChimp- Instead of continually repeating everything check out the post for Aweber vs MailChimp Title Bout.

Metrics

Google Analytics– The standard in analyzing website to your

Social Oomph Pro-The scheduled uploader is one of my favorite features of the pro account. I have been able to upload up to 500 tweets at once that were scheduled over 6 months. Additionally, they have Facebook integration for pro accounts.

Hootsuite Pro– this is good for enhanced analytics and unlimited social profiles.

Facebook Insights-every Facebook page has insights into how to use the pages correctly.

Social Media Plan Template Customer

Now that I went through the laundry list of social networks and tools lets begin to cut down the fat. What tools do you really need to succeed? The answer lies in your customers.

• Where do they hang out?
• What do they like?
• How can you connect with them online?
• Do you have an idea profile of your customers?

When you can start asking these questions you start to understand who you should be talking to and on what platforms you need to connect with them on. For example, if you have a white collar legal firm you can probably skip Pinterest and still have a very good income from social media. Avoid LinkedIn, however, and you are probably not going to get that far.

Vice versa! If you own a coffee shop in a trendy neighborhood like Lincoln Park or Soho you do not need to spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. It is recommended that you use Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest though. That is where your hip clients will be. You might even want to start using Foursquare and the new Google+ Local.

The more you know about your clients the more you can help them.

Social Media Plan Template Time

The biggest reason customers come to me for social media help is because they do not have the time to do it on their own. In fact, those who do have time usually do not have enough clients to pay me. That is exactly why I want busy clients. They have far greater needs for my services and the means to use them as well.

Do You Need To Spend Less Time On Social Media, So You Can Spend More With Clients? Then Contact Me To Learn How!

Social Media Plan Template Budget

What is your budget for social media? While most social networks are free that does not mean there are no costs involved with social media. For example, you more than likely need a website or blog. Perhaps both! There is a hosting cost plus other things like email marketing.

On average, I spend around $200 per month on business expenses relating to social media. This does not include any extras that I might need on a monthly basis. For example, I just bought some WP themes. One of them cost $99. It is an investment in my business to do more.

Social Media Plan Template Testing

I have often told clients and readers to this blog that I am a social media guinea pig. Constantly pushing the boundaries to determine what works and what does not. It is testing new ideas and discarding old ones to keep me fresh in the industry and enable me to help my clients to the best of my abilities.

Make sure that you continually test emails, tweets, and other social media metrics to determine what works best for your business.

Social Media Plan Template Metrics

The other side of the coin to testing is metrics. How do you know that in a split test email that campaign ‘A’ did better than campaign ‘B’? Metrics help you understand which version did better, and how you can improve upon this in the future.

Additionally, metrics show you where your best and worst results are coming from.

To give you an example, my emails were just not being read. The open rate was around 3% and then click through rate was atrocious. I did a split test and found out that my open rate increased simply by putting the name in the Subject header. The funny thing was, however, that my clickthrough rate on this split test was higher on the one where I did not put a name in the header.

You learn amazing things from metrics. I never would have even thought of this, if it were not for metrics.

Social Media Plan Template Plan

In the end, you have to create a system that works best for you. Hopefully this social media template plan will be the guide you need to get started. If you do have more questions, however, feel free to contact me for additional help.  In the meantime, please let me know in the comment area below how you are going to start using this social media template plan for your business?