business plan for social media startup

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy in 9 Easy Steps [Free Template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a nine-step plan to create a winning social media strategy of your own. We’ve even got expert insights from Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing.

How to create a social media strategy:

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template to quickly and easily plan your strategy, track results, and share with your boss, teammates, and clients.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.

Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.

Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Creating your own social media marketing strategy (video guide)

No time to read the whole article? Let Amanda, Hootsuite’s own Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing, guide you through our free social media marketing strategy template in less than 10 minutes:

How to create a social media marketing strategy: A step-by-step guide

Step 1. align goals with business objectives, set s.m.a.r.t. goals.

The first step to creating a winning social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success and return on investment (ROI) .

Each of your social media marketing goals should be SMART : s pecific, m easurable, a ttainable, r elevant and t ime-bound.

Psst: Need help getting started? We’ve got social strategy guides for small businesses , financial services , government , higher education , healthcare , real estate , law firms , and non-profits .

Oh, and if you need examples of smart social media goals , we’ve got you covered there too.

Once you’ve decided on your goals, track them in a social media strategy doc — grab our free template if you don’t have one already.

Track meaningful metrics

Vanity metrics like number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates.

For inspiration, take a look at these 19 essential social media metrics .

You may want to track different goals for different social media networks, or even different uses for each network.

For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Start developing a successful social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.

“ It’s easy to get overwhelmed by deciding what to post and which metrics to track, but you need to focus on what you want to get out of social media to begin with,” says Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing. “Don’t just start posting and tracking everything: match your goals to your business, and your metrics to your goals.”

Step 2. Understand your audience inside and out

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Average income
• Typical job title or industry

Here’s a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas .

Don’t forget to document this information in your strategy doc!

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them .

Step 3. Analyze your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It will also help you spot opportunities and weaknesses you can document in your social strategy doc.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into X (Twitter) or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them. If they’re using influencer marketing, how much engagement do those campaigns earn them?

Pro tip : Use Hootsuite Streams to monitor relevant keywords, hashtags and accounts in real-time.

Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime.

As you track, you may notice shifts in how your competitors and industry leaders are using social media. You may come across new, exciting trends. You might even spot specific social content or a campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to optimize and inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “ Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in on a monthly basis is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your own strategy and results.”

Step 4. Conduct a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts

During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind that they’re capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your accounts verified too to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• X (Twitter)

Step 5. Set up and optimize your accounts

Decide which networks to use.

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

Benefit Cosmetics’ social media manager, Angela Purcaro, told eMarketer : “For our makeup tutorials … we’re all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. [X], on the other hand, is designated for customer service.”

Hootsuite’s own social team even designates different purposes for formats within networks. On Instagram, for example, they use the feed to post high-quality educational infographics and product announcements and Stories to cover live events or quick social media updates.

Pro tip : Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use X for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

Or: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

One more: “We will use Instagram to highlight new products and repost quality content from influencers.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Note : While larger businesses can and do tackle every platform, small businesses may not be able to — and that’s ok! Prioritize social platforms that will have the most impact on your business and make sure your marketing team has the resources to handle content for those networks. If you need help focusing your efforts, check out our 18-minute social media plan .

Set up your profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip : Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a TikTok account
• Create a X (Twitter) business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account
• Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Optimize your profiles (and content) for search

Never heard of social SEO ? It’s time to learn.

44% of Gen Z consumers use social platforms to research their purchase decisions, which means it’s extra critical that your channels are optimized for social search.

That means making sure your profile names are clear and descriptive, you’re including relevant hashtags and keywords in your bio and on every post, and you’re using features like alt text and captions to include your target keywords as naturally as possible.

Step 6. Find inspiration for content creation

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

“ I consider it my job to stay active on social: to know what’s trending, which campaigns are winning, what’s new with the platforms, who’s going above and beyond,” says Amanda. “This might be the most fun step for you, or the hardest one, but it’s just as crucial as the rest of them.”

Social media success stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. ( Here’s Facebook’s , for example.)

Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.

For learning and a laugh, check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s bi-weekly awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who do you enjoy following on social media? What do they do that compels people to engage and share their content?

National Geographic, for example, is one of the best on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions.

Then there’s Shopify. The ecommerce brand uses Facebook to sell themselves by showcasing customer stories and case studies.

And Lush Cosmetics is a great example of superior customer service on X. They use their 280 characters to answer questions and solve problems in an extremely charming and on-brand way.

Source: lushcosmetics on X

Notice that each of these accounts has a consistent voice, tone, and style. That’s key to letting people know what to expect from your feed. That is, why should they follow you? What’s in it for them?

Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand even if you have multiple people on your social media team.

For more on this, read our guide on establishing a compelling brand voice on social media .

Ask your followers

Consumers can also offer social media inspiration.

What are your target customers talking about online? What can you learn about their wants and needs?

If you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you follow through and deliver what they ask for.

Step 7. Create a strategic social media content calendar

Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Set your posting schedule

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images, link sharing, and re-shares of user-generated content to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns.

Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post .

Pro tip: You can plan your whole content calendar and get recommended best times to post on every network based on your past engagement rate, impressions, or link click data in Hootsuite.

Hootsuite’s Best Time to Publish feature

Determine the right content mix

Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals.

(We know, it’s tempting to jump on every meme, but there should always be a strategy behind your social media marketing efforts!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule :

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds :

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Whatever you decide on, be sure to document it in your strategy doc.

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch, you may not have figured out how often to post to each network for maximum engagement yet.

Post too frequently and you risk annoying your audience. But, if you post too little, you risk looking like you’re not worth following.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• TikTok: 3-5 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• X (Twitter): 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Pro tip : Once you have your social media content calendar planned out, use a scheduling tool to prepare messages in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day.

We might be biased, but we think Hootsuite is the best social media management tool. You can schedule social media posts to every network and the intuitive calendar view gives you a full picture of all your social activity each week.

Try It Free

Step 8. Craft compelling and high-quality content

Remember those mission statements you created for each channel in Step 5? Well, it’s time to go a bit deeper, a.k.a. provide some examples of the type of content you’ll post to fulfill your mission on each network.

If you’re not sure what to post, here’s a long list of social media content ideas to get you started. Or (to make it even easier) you can use an AI tool like OwlyWriter to generate on-brand content in a flash.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

This last point especially will help you avoid any tension when your colleagues want to know why you haven’t posted their case study/whitepaper/blog post to TikTok yet. It’s not in the strategy, Linda!

Ideally, you will generate content types that are both suited to the network and the purpose you’ve set out for that network.

For example, you wouldn’t want to waste time posting brand awareness tweets if you’ve designated X/Twitter for primarily customer support. And you wouldn’t want to post super polished corporate video ads to TikTok, as users expect to see short, unpolished videos on that platform.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

The first question to ask is: is there cohesion between your content types? Is your content providing value? Do you have a good mix of entertaining, or educational content? What does it offer that makes a person stop and spend time? Creating a few different content pillars or categories that encompass different aspects of storytelling for your brand, and what you can offer your audience is a good start.

This brings us to Step 9.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

That’s why it’s important to document your progress along the way.

Look at performance metrics

In addition to the analytics within each social network (see Step 2), you can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Benchmark your results

You’ve got your numbers, but how do they stack up to the competition in your industry? Industry benchmarks are a great way to evaluate your performance against other businesses in your category.

If you’ve got Hootsuite Analytics , you can use our built-in social media benchmarking tool to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for metrics like followers, audience growth rate, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and much more.

You’ll also find resources to improve your performance  right in the summary section:

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

Once this data starts coming in, use it to re-evaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, social marketing campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your social media marketing strategy in real time.

You’ll want to check the performance of all your channels at least once a week and get to know the basics of social media reporting so you can track your growth over time.

Pro tip: If you use Hootsuite, you can review the performance of all your posts on every network in one place. Once you get the hang of checking your analytics, you may even want to customize different reports to show specific metrics over a variety of different time periods.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your social media strategy is working. Ask your followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations, and what they’d like to see more of. Then make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Finalizing your social media strategy

Spoiler alert: nothing is final.

Social media moves fast. New networks emerge, others go through demographic shifts.

Your business will go through periods of change as well.

All of this means that your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to stay on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to watch our 5-step video on how to updating your social media strategy for 2024:

Social media strategy template

Ready to start documenting? Grab your free social media strategy template below!

What’s next? When you’re ready to put your plan into action, we’re here to help…

Save time managing your social media marketing strategy with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can easily:

• Plan, create, and schedule posts to every network
• Track relevant keywords, topics, and accounts
• Stay on top of engagement with a universal inbox
• Get easy-to-understand performance reports and improve your strategy as needed

Try Hootsuite for Free

With files from Shannon Tien .

Do it better with Hootsuite , the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

Become a better social marketer.

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Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.

Amanda Wood is a senior social marketing professional who combines analytical and creative thinking to build brands.

As head of social at Hootsuite, Amanda oversees the global social strategy encompassing organic and paid social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, a social engagement and listening strategy, and an employee advocacy program.

As the leader of a high-performing social team, she has extensive experience collaborating with creatives to bring campaigns to life on social and drive business results.

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Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Social Media Marketing Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their social media marketing businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a social media marketing business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Social Media Marketing Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your social media marketing agency as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Social Media Marketing Agency

If you’re looking to start a social media marketing business or grow your existing company, you need a business plan. A social media marketing business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your social media marketing agency grows and changes.

Funding Sources for Social Media Marketing Agencies

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a social media marketing business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for social media marketing agencies.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a social media marketing agency.

If you want to start a business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below we detail what should be included in each section of your own social media marketing business plan:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of social media marketing business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a social media marketing business that you would like to grow, or are you operating social media marketing in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the social media marketing industry. Discuss the type of social media marketing business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of social media marketing business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of social media marketing businesses, or a full-service agency:

• Paid Ads : this type of marketing business focuses on creating social media ads and optimizing social media ad campaigns. A social media marketing agency may specialize in ads for one platform in particular or across all platforms.
• Content: this type of business focuses on creating content, either for specific platforms or across all platforms.
• Strategy: this type of marketing is where campaigns are created around specific goals that help businesses or individuals tailor where and how to best achieve results that will help them succeed.

In addition to explaining the type of social media marketing business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of customers served, number of positive reviews, total campaigns, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the social media marketing industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the social media marketing industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your social media marketing business plan:

• How big is the social media marketing industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your social media marketing business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: corporations, small business owners, nonprofits and individuals. Customers may also be segmented by industry, such as healthcare, technology, beauty, restaurants, music, B2B, and more.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of marketing business you operate. Clearly, individuals in the music industry would respond to different marketing promotions than corporations in the healthcare industry, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Only select social media marketing agencies primarily serve customers living in their same city or town. However, if your niche is to provide social media services to local businesses, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.  

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other social media marketing agencies.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes digital freelance platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr. You need to mention such competition as well.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will have a similar niche audience.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What types of social media services do they provide?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide better social media strategy, content and ad services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a social media marketing business, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of social media marketing agency that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to social media marketing, will you provide web design services, copywriting or any other services?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your agency. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your business located in a busy professional district (good if targeting local businesses), or is it fully remote (good if targeting clients that aren’t place-specific). Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local websites
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your business, including discovery calls, onboarding new clients, attending campaign meetings, managing employees and working on campaigns.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to take on your 10th client, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your social media marketing business into a new market.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your social media marketing business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing social media marketing businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing social media marketing agencies or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you gain one new client per month or per quarter? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your social media marketing business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a social media marketing business:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc. (if there will be a physical location)
• Cost of equipment and supplies (including hardware and software)
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or outlines of campaigns you are currently working on.

Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template PDF

You can download our social media marketing business plan PDF to help you get started on your own business plan.

Putting together a business plan for your social media marketing business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the social media marketing industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful social media marketing business.  

  OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

Click here to see how Growthink’s professional business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.   Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Business Plan Template for Social Media

• Great for beginners
• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Subcategory
• Get started in seconds

Are you an entrepreneur looking to harness the power of social media to take your business to new heights? Look no further than ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Social Media. This comprehensive template is designed to help you create a strategy that drives results and maximizes your social media presence. With our template, you'll be able to:

• Set clear goals and objectives for your social media campaigns
• Identify and target your ideal audience for maximum engagement
• Plan and schedule your content with ease
• Allocate your advertising budget strategically for optimal ROI
• Track and measure your social media metrics to gauge success

Don't let your social media efforts be a shot in the dark. Get started with ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Social Media and watch your business thrive.

Business Plan Template for Social Media Benefits

When using the Business Plan Template for Social Media, you can experience the following benefits:

• Streamline your social media strategy by clearly outlining your goals, objectives, and target audience
• Create a comprehensive content strategy that aligns with your business objectives and resonates with your audience
• Effectively allocate your advertising budget to maximize your return on investment (ROI)
• Measure the success of your social media campaigns using key metrics to make data-driven decisions
• Stay organized and focused on your social media marketing efforts with a structured plan in place

Main Elements of Social Media Business Plan Template

Whether you're a startup or an established business, ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Social Media has got you covered for your social media marketing strategy. Here's what you'll find in this comprehensive template:

• Custom Statuses: Track the progress of your social media plan with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do, ensuring that every task is accounted for and easily managed.
• Custom Fields: Utilize custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to add specific details and important information to your business plan, making it easier to organize and reference.
• Custom Views: Access different views such as Topics, Status, Timeline, Business Plan, and Getting Started Guide to gain a holistic view of your social media strategy, track progress, and stay on top of your goals.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with your team in real-time, assign tasks, set due dates, and communicate seamlessly within ClickUp to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives.
• Integration: Integrate with popular social media platforms and tools to streamline your workflow and automate tasks, maximizing efficiency and productivity.
• Analytics: Measure the success of your social media efforts with built-in analytics and reporting features, allowing you to track key metrics and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.

How To Use Business Plan Template for Social Media

Crafting an effective business plan for your social media strategy can be a game-changer for your brand. Follow these six steps to get started using the Business Plan Template for Social Media in ClickUp:

1. Define your goals

Start by clearly defining your social media goals. What do you want to achieve with your social media presence? Is it to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or boost sales?

Use Goals in ClickUp to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your social media strategy.

2. Identify your target audience

To create content that resonates with your audience, you need to know who they are. Identify your target audience by analyzing demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Use custom fields in ClickUp to categorize and track key characteristics of your target audience.

3. Perform a competitive analysis

Analyzing your competitors' social media strategies can provide valuable insights. Identify who your main competitors are and analyze their social media presence. Look for their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies that you can learn from.

Use the Board view in ClickUp to create cards for each competitor and track their social media activities.

4. Develop your content strategy

Based on your goals and target audience, develop a content strategy that aligns with your brand. Determine the types of content you'll create, the platforms you'll use, and the frequency of your posts.

Use Tasks in ClickUp to create a content calendar, assign tasks to team members, and track progress.

5. Set up metrics and tracking

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your social media efforts. These could include metrics like engagement rate, reach, click-through rate, and conversions.

Use Dashboards in ClickUp to create visual representations of your social media metrics and track progress towards your goals.

6. Monitor, analyze, and optimize

Regularly monitor and analyze your social media performance to identify areas for improvement. Use social media analytics tools and ClickUp's integrations to gather data on your performance. Based on your analysis, optimize your strategy by making adjustments to your content, targeting, or posting frequency.

Use Automations in ClickUp to set up alerts and reminders for monitoring and analyzing your social media performance.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for Social Media

Entrepreneurs or business owners who want to utilize social media as a strategic marketing tool for their businesses can use the ClickUp Business Plan Template for Social Media to outline their goals, objectives, target audience, content strategy, advertising budget, and measurement metrics to effectively plan and execute their social media marketing efforts.

To get started, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a comprehensive social media business plan:

• Use the Topics View to brainstorm and organize different sections of your social media plan
• The Status View will help you keep track of the progress of each task in your plan
• The Timeline View will provide a visual representation of your social media plan with start and end dates for each task
• The Business Plan View will give you an overview of your entire social media strategy in one place
• The Getting Started Guide View will provide step-by-step instructions on how to execute your social media plan effectively
• Organize tasks into four different statuses: Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, To Do, to keep track of progress
• Use the custom fields Reference, Approved, and Section to add additional information and categorize tasks
• Update statuses and custom fields as you work through your social media plan to keep team members informed of progress
• Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure maximum productivity and success in your social media marketing efforts
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How to Create a Great Social Media Strategy in 2024 (+New Data)

Create a comprehensive plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY WORKBOOK

Updated: 03/13/24

Published: 03/11/24

Creating social media strategies can be overwhelming, especially when you're just launching your brand or just building your online presence for the first time. So many channels, features, tools, and products available – but so little time to fit them all into your marketing strategy.

If you don’t have a full-time team of social media experts at your disposal, it’s even harder. But the fact is that your online success depends on having a sensible and straightforward strategy that fits your resources and goals.

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I spoke with three top-tier social media experts, and dug into recent HubSpot research (including our 2024 State of Social Media Report), to show you how to develop a social media strategy that drives traffic and ROI to your brand.

What is a social media strategy?

Why you need a social media strategy, how to create a social media strategy.

A social media strategy is an outline of the content that your business will post, the responsibilities of your social media team, and the social media channels you will use to promote your business. A social media strategy includes social media goals that complement your business' overall digital marketing strategy.

Your social media strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content.

It encompasses your social content guidelines, posting cadence, social media marketing campaigns, target audience, and engagement strategy that promote your business and brand.

To track and analyze your social media marketing performance, HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics and Dashboard Software can help you get insights, including customer lifecycle.

Many companies use social media to connect with customers, provide support, advertise new products and features, and promote special offers.

The State of Social Media in 2024

Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.

• AI Content Creation
• Community Building
• Social Media Shopping
• Social Vs. Search Engine

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According to our most recent The State of Social Media , social media marketers' top challenges include creating engaging content, generating leads, and reaching target audiences. While these are some of the trickiest challenges, they're also the items you'll want to think about most when making an effective plan.

Ultimately, well-thought-out social media strategies equip you to set goals and guardrails, track performance, and tweak your benchmarks over time.

“One of the biggest challenges I think social media marketers face is saturation and competition. There is so much content on social media that sometimes it makes it challenging to stand out from the crowd. Having a robust strategy that understands the target audience includes strong copy and unique content can help to cut through the noise,” says Ellie Nash , social community executive at Kurago .

Without a starting point, you can‘t measure what’s working and how to shift your activity to hit your goals.

A social media strategy also helps you set expectations for broader team involvement and get everyone aligned on what they should and shouldn't do on your social networks.

• Define your target audience.
• Incorporate ecommerce.
• Optimize your social channels for search.
• Focus on a few key channels.
• Make a plan for customer service.
• Develop a recipe card to guide you.
• Measure your results.
• Adjust your tactics.

1. Define your target audience.

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer personas , start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach — such as age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests.

To meet your audience where they are with marketing that won't annoy them, you first need to learn out what they want and why. 

Social Media Motivations

Are social media users visiting these apps to learn, explore, shop, or just have a good time?

In our most recent State of Consumer Trends Survey this summer, we asked over 500 general consumers to pick the three most common reasons they use social media. 

While 65% actually use it socially to keep up with friends, 53% just want to be entertained while 50% want to learn new things. Unfortunately, 28% say they prefer to go on social media to learn about new products or brands. 

The good news? Later in the survey, when we asked consumers how they prefer to research and learn about brands and products, a whopping 41% said they like to do this on social media channels (a slight increase from a similar survey we ran six months prior).

While Gen X and Boomers skew lower on this average, Gen Z and Millennial generations are using social for brand research more often – which is not surprising due to their hyper-connectedness to the web.

As you might be able to tell from our data above, your target audience plays a role in how successful the right strategy will be. And, better catering to them helps you create focused advertising that addresses your ideal consumer’s specific needs.

For instance, the below-sponsored post by Monday.com , a project management platform, highlights the platform’s flexibility and workflow customization feature.

The post targets business owners and project managers who may feel limited by other project management software.

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Consider your ideal consumer’s challenges and what problems they're solving daily. Focus on no more than four types of people representing most of your buyers. Don’t get hung up on the exceptions or outliers, or you’ll never get started.

Once you start creating content for your audience, focus on engaging your audience at every level.

Pay close attention to any questions or comments your audience posts, and be quick to address them, as that engagement could make or break a conversion or purchase.

Consumers like feeling like they’re part of a community when they’re on your social media pages. More than 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the last year.

Speaking of communities, creating social media groups is a smart move to attract, keep, and engage the audience, with 90% of marketers agreeing.

Here's why:

• Groups help people get involved.
• Followers can learn from each other.
• Your brand becomes a connector — something like a helpful friend.
• Communities feel more friendlier to chat compared to pages. 

In 2020, HubSpot made a small Facebook Group called Marketer to Marketer with 4.9k followers. It's not as big as our Facebook page, but conversions prove its worth it.

Pro tip: To reach the right audience, use social listening tools . These tools check social media for keywords, assess if the talk is positive or negative, and give you reports. This helps in creating a buyer persona for better targeting.

2. Incorporate ecommerce.

As more and more people use social media to discover new products, they’re also finding convenience in shopping for those products directly in the social app they found them in.

While one-fourth of social media marketers are already seeing more effectiveness in social shopping tools than they are with ecommerce site strategies, 80% of social media marketers believe consumers will eventually buy products directly within social apps more often than on brand websites or through third-party resellers. 

What's more, 25% of users between the ages of 18 and 44 had already bought a product on social media by summer of 2023. We wouldn't be shocked if this number increased in 2024.

Lastly, if we look at how this trend is fairing across the globe, several other countries have already made social media shopping a norm.

For example, check out this comparison of data from the UK, China, and the US:

• In the UK, social shopping saw a rise from 2021 to 2023 , with 4.1% of the population engaging in this trend. Anticipated data suggests a further increase in 2024 and a growth of approximately 2% in 2025.
• In 2022, around 84% of Chinese consumers have shopped on social media platforms. Despite some COVID-19 challenges, it reached 850 million users in 2021 , making the market worth more than 2.5 trillion.
• In 2023, the US made $68.91 million from social commerce , which is 5.9% of all online sales. This is a sharp increase from $39.51 million in 2021.

Translation? If you sell products, social media should be a key part of your ecommerce strategy in 2024. It doesn't matter where you are. Social selling is a big deal — so it’s time to take it seriously.

Most platforms offer built-in e-commerce features like shoppable posts, and 47% of social media marketers are already taking advantage of selling products directly within social media apps.

The most popular social selling tools for marketers are:

• Instagram Shops and Instagram Live Shopping — high ROI.
• Facebook Shops — average ROI.

(Psst: Need help building a Facebook page for your business? We have you covered.)

If you need inspiration for incorporating e-commerce into your social strategy, take a cue from Sephora .

Whenever the beauty brand shares an image of a product, it uses a product tag that links to its shoppable page above.

This makes it easy for its followers to instantly buy something they see on the page without ever having to leave the app.

One critical element of successfully selling on social media is establishing brand trust so users feel comfortable purchasing your products directly on the app.

While Sephora has built an established brand reputation over time, you can build trust in other ways, even if you’re building your social media strategy from scratch.

Focus on sharing customer reviews and testimonials, user-generated content (UGC), and product data to build social proof.

Pro tip: Go with image, video, and carousel ads for brand awareness to emphasize store visits, ad impressions, and engagement. For increased sales, select product, collection, or shopping ads to drive direct purchases and product page visits.

3. Optimize your social channels for search.

Social search is on the rise.

As more people turn to social with their queries instead of search engines, 89% of social media marketers agree that social search is important to their overall social media strategies in 2023.

Nearly 24% of consumers aged 18-54 use social media first to search for brands.

Pro tip: You don’t need to film an hour-long video. Even short videos, aka YouTube Shorts, can help you rank higher in SERP. You can use UGC videos and testimonials for that purpose.

4. Focus on a few key social channels.

Most small businesses or social teams don’t have the bandwidth to establish and sustain a quality social media presence on every single channel.

It's also overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on multiple networks simultaneously.

Focus on the channels that will bring in the highest ROI. For most brands, this will be Instagram.

Instagram has proven to be the best source of ROI, engagement, and quality leads. Additionally, 23% of marketers believe Instagram offers brands the most potential to grow their audiences in 2023.

Adding an Instagram feed to your website is also a smart move to keep your site looking fresh and even to nudge people towards buying, as social media content can increase conversions by up to 29%.

With a tool like Flockler, even if you’re not a tech expert, you can make your site more lively and exciting with your latest Instagram posts. See their easy guide on how to embed an Instagram feed on a website .

Or as Annie-Mai Hodge says, “You don’t need to be on every single social media platform, full stop — for most businesses, it’s a waste of time and resources to be on platforms where your audience isn’t active.”

When creating your strategy, Hodge says, “You would’ve looked at where your audience is, what your competitors are doing, and what you’re aiming to achieve with social media — all of this will help inform you as to what social media channels you should be focusing on.”

Pro tip: Check where your competitors are most active and what kind of content they post. You’ll see what works or doesn't and how engaged their audience is. Don’t copy them — just use that info to make smart decisions for your strategy.

5. Repurpose your content.

Why stress over creating different content for each platform? 

Keep it simple: repurpose and use the same awesome content in different places – within reason of course.

According to our research, most marketers repurpose content in some way, shape, or form, while 19% consider it one of their key strategies. Meanwhile 40% plan to invest more in content repurposing in 2024.

This makes sense. By repurposing content, you can leanly and easily:

• Get your message to more people on different platforms.
• Save time by using what you already have instead of starting from scratch.
• Stay visible on search engines by updating and reusing content.
• Cater to your audience's preferences with different formats.
• Make your content last longer by updating timeless pieces.
• Improve your strategy by checking how your content performs on different channels.

…to hilarious TikTok video:

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However, one word to the wise is to not lean on it for every single campaign. Although most marketers do it, only 7% told us it yields them substantial ROI compared to content that's more catered to platforms. 

So, if you're low on time or bandwidth, experimenting a new platform that's similar to one you already use, or can make light tweaks to optimize content for different channels – feel free. Just make sure you're giving your audience what they're looking for and not over-spamming them with content they've seen several times already.

Pro tip: Looking for a creative content idea that feels more personal than repurposed? Make catchy quote pictures from customer thoughts, share email insights on X or LinkedIn, and whip up quick videos from podcasts — people love that kind of stuff.

6. Make a plan for customer service.

When putting together your social media strategy, consider how you’ll use your channels for customer service.

Social media is so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that it’s no surprise that people turn to these platforms for everything from brand discovery to customer service.

According to our State of Social Media and Consumer Trends research, 1 in 5 social media users contact a brand through social DMs for customer service each quarter.

43% of marketers use customer service reps, 41% rely on platform managers, and 13% employ automated tools like chatbots.

Whether you create a separate account dedicated to customer service or have an auto-reply set up when people DM you on Instagram, have a plan for how you’ll handle customer support through social media.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the importance of good customer service on social media. According Khoros research :

• 42% felt disappointed, 43% were unhappy, and 41% reported anger with poor customer care.
• 67% shared bad experiences, and 65% switched to a different brand.
• 43% are more likely to buy from a brand after a good customer service experience.
• 83% feel more loyal to brands that resolve their complaints.
• 73% of brands expect more inbound channels, and 53% anticipate more outbound channels in the next one to two years.
• Pro tip: Apart from clearly stating working hours, let customers know the expected response time and inform them about quicker alternative resources if available.

7. Develop a recipe card to guide you.

Social media isn’t an exact science. It doesn't work the same for every business or industry.

To see results for your business, create a recipe card. A recipe card is a posting and engagement schedule that keeps your team on track and helps you post content consistently.

HubSpot has a list of social media tools and templates that you can use to plan your content and create a posting schedule and content calendar.

One of the best ways to manage an SM content calendar is the method Bazile shared with me.

Here’s how she categorizes it:

• Evergreen engagement content.
• Evergreen promotional content.
• Specific campaign content.
• Recurring communications content.

“Breaking down content into these buckets allows social teams to maintain regular presences online while also separating content data into easily trackable pieces,” she says.

Develop a reasonable recipe card and well-organized calendar. Stick to it and get your team to follow. Set goals for your posting and engagement frequency, and hold yourself accountable for following your recipe.

Pro tip: Choose platforms that allow easy editing and content management within your team. This ensures smooth collaboration and calendar updates.

8. Talk WITH, not AT, your followers.

In our latest Consumer Trends research, 41% of consumers pointed to relatability as the most memorable aspect of posts from brands or companies on social or the web. 

Friendly brands win more followers (and hearts). So, skip the self-promotion overload. Instead, get into conversations and respond to comments authentically.

People love it when you chat with them, not just throw information their way. It makes them feel special, creating a genuine affection for your brand.

You don't have to sound super professional. Casual talk works even better on social media. Just take a cue from McDonald’s:

And here’s something interesting to remember — very few people, less than one percent , interact with the brands’ posts. 

Here are the platform breakdowns:

• Facebook: 0.09%.
• Instagram: 1.22%.

So, once you get a comment, find the right way to interact and show that you care.

Don't just ghost and ignore. These comments boost your post higher in algorithms and make it more visible. 

Pro tip: Never delete negative comments unless they’re super offensive or totally inappropriate. Instead, use them as an opportunity for constructive engagement and improvement.

9. Measure your results.

“Without goals, a product roadmap, or even a full brand strategy, social media managers will struggle to know what to prioritize in the social space, what metrics to measure to convey progress, and what sort of content or social presence is ideal for the brand,” Bazile says. 

There are countless things to track on your social media channels. Start by looking at how much traffic your social accounts drive to your website or blog.

Social media platforms offer tools to help businesses track analytics.

For example, you can use Facebook’s Page Insights , Instagram’s Account Insights , and LinkedIn’s Visitor Analytics to see what people are responding to and look for trends related to topics or keywords that generate the most interest.

Once you get an idea of your average traffic and post-performance, set goals for key metrics and keep a scorecard to measure your progress.

Be sure to choose metrics that are easy to gather because if it’s too time-consuming to track, you won’t be motivated to do it.

Examples of simple metrics include the total number of interactions, traffic to your website, and sales or revenue that can be attributed to social.

“One of the most valuable indicators, in my opinion, is impressions,” Nash says, “Impressions measure the number of times a piece of content is displayed on users' screens and help to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy in terms of exposure and brand awareness.”

Pro tip: Don’t only focus on platform numbers. Track the social sentiment as well. See if people express positive or negative feelings about you in online conversations. It takes a bit of manual work, but it's worth it. Check regularly for better insights.

10. Adjust your tactics as needed.

Social media won't start working overnight.

Establishing a following, stabilizing your brand, and seeing the results of your efforts take time. So, experiment to find the right combination of channels, content, and messaging that works for your audience.

We can pick up some cool tricks from Victoria's Secret in this regard.

They’ve shifted from using only professional photos and videos to incorporating more casual content. Now, VS’s Insta feed also includes UGC and interviews with random people on the street and in their stores.

Victoria's Secret proves that even as a high-end brand, you don't lose anything by including everyday people. 

Actually, you gain. 

More followers, more engagement, more exposure.

Keep track of changes in your post views, audience demographics, and post interactions, and make changes as needed.

Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your recipe card, content, and personas based on the information you’re gathering, which will help you fine-tune your strategy and generate more consistent results.

Trying new stuff might seem a bit daring, but sometimes, it's just necessary to “survive.”

For instance, try to use funny content whenever possible.

In our 2023 survey of over a thousand global social media marketers, 66% said funny content works best, followed by relatable (63%) and trendy (59%) content. While 45% talk only about their brand values, the key is to use humor for the most impact. 

Don't believe that humor can pay the bills? One-third, or 34% of Consumer Trends respondents also told us funny content is most memorable to them. 

I asked Hodge to tell me about a time when changing tactics improved social media results. She recalls that at the start of 2023, Girl Power Marketing stopped growing on social media and started losing engagement. 

“It wasn’t until I sat down and reassessed my strategy that I was missing something, and that was humanization,” Hodge recounts. “Why should people trust my thoughts, opinions, and guidance if they have no clue who was behind GPM or the mission behind it?”

Hodge shares that she started showing up more intentionally. She created content that showed more of herself, her personality, and GPM’s mission. 

“And a year later, GPM has grown to a community of 180k+ people - all because I switched up my tactics that no longer worked,” says Hodge.

Pro tip: Tailor your content to match seasonal trends and holidays. This helps keep your brand messaging timely and relatable. And most importantly — people love it.

Keeping Up With Social Media Strategies

While these tips will help you optimize your strategy for ROI in the present day, it's important to get your footing and keep up with the big shifts that are inevitable as new tools, channels, and trends arise.

To keep up with low stress, keep following research like our State of Social Media Report and check out our blog and resources for the coverage of social trends and tactics you actually need to keep on your radar.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Free Social Media Strategy Template

Create a comprehensive plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook, including sections for:

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How to Create a Social Media Plan: The Complete Guide + Templates

Written by: Raja Mandal

If you've been wondering how to create a social media plan and have been searching high and low on the internet, your search ends here.

Social media is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. According to a recent study by HubSpot, 77% of marketers say social media marketing has been somewhat to very effective for their company in 2022.

But including social media in your marketing plan can also be overwhelming. How do you know what type of content to post, who to engage with and when? A social media plan helps you organize your strategy so that it's easy to implement and measure.

This guide will walk through the steps for creating a successful social media plan.

Table of Contents

What is a social media plan, what to include in a social media plan, how to create a successful social media plan.

A social media plan is a document that defines the goals, strategies and action items for your social media marketing efforts. It provides a framework for making decisions about how and when to use each network, which can be helpful if you're just starting with social media or your company wants to revamp its strategy.

Social media plans help businesses understand what they're trying to achieve with their online presence, how they will do it and how they will measure their success. Without one, businesses can easily make mistakes that cost them time or money while not having enough information about their audience or potential customers.

Simply put, a good social media plan helps companies set goals, identify audiences and create content to improve their social media presence.

Before we dive into the specifics, it's important to remember that a social media plan is just that: a plan. It doesn't have to be set in stone; rather, it should be a flexible document outlining your business's social media strategy. The plan should include the following:

Executive Summary

The executive summary is a short overview of your plan and should be one-page maximum. It should include the following:

• Brief description of your business and its social media goals
• Timeline for implementation (if applicable)
• Detailed information on what you plan to do with each platform

Current Social Media Presence

Before you create or update your social media plan, it’s important to identify the current state of your business's social media presence. Do a social media audit and include the following:

• A list of all the platforms you're currently using and their purposes
• The number of followers/following for each platform (if applicable)
• An evaluation of whether or not your current strategy is working and what could be improved in the future

Competitor Benchmarks

This section outlines the competitive landscape of your industry and how it relates to social media. It should include the following:

• A list of your competitors with their current social media presence
• An analysis of how each platform is used by them, including strengths and weaknesses compared to your own strategy
• A list of any gaps in the market that you can take advantage of and any opportunities to collaborate with other companies within your industry

Target Audience

Include your target audience, how they use social media and each platform's demographics. Additionally, you can consider the following:

• A list of your audience's interests, age range and location
• An analysis of how these factors affect their behavior on each platform
• Examples of content that resonates with them and why this is so

Goals and Objectives

Your social media plan heavily relies on your social media goals and objectives. Consider the following to ensure a flawless social media plan:

• A list of goals for each platform, including specific metrics that will be used to measure success
• How these goals will help you achieve your business objectives and why they are essential
• The level of effort required to achieve these goals (both in terms of time, money and other resources)
• A list of resources available to assist with this process and any other factors that may impact it

Social Media Tactics

Once you have established your goals and objectives, it is time to create a list of social media tactics to help you achieve them. These should include the following:

• How often will each platform be updated (and by whom)?
• Which content types are appropriate for each platform?
• The tone, style and voice of the content.

Now that you've decided to craft a social media plan for your company, the next step is creating the actual plan. While there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creating your strategy, there are some best practices that you can follow.

Follow these simple yet effective steps to create a social media plan for your business.

1. Do a Social Media Audit

The first step in creating a social media plan is to do a social media audit of your existing channels. This will give you an idea about what's working, what isn't and how to improve the things that are falling flat.

What is a Social Media Audit?

A social media audit is an overview of all the activities and campaigns you have been running on various networks—including posts, comments and replies, ads, and any other interactions with followers (like likes/shares). It will also include information about each channel's demographics: who's following them, where they're located, etc.

2. Know Your Target Audience

You should know your target audience. If you don't, how can you expect to connect with them on social media? Several things need to be considered when deciding who your audience is:

Demographics: Age, gender, race, marital status and income are all critical in determining the makeup of an audience.

Psychographics: In addition to demographics, psychographics also help define an audience by focusing on interests and opinions rather than other factors such as age or gender. For example, a person may have specific political views that distinguish him from most other people his age (or vice versa).

Interests: Knowing what types of content interest your target audience allows you to create more appealing posts — it's easy to share something if it resonates with them!

According to a survey by ITSMA, 90% of companies that use buyer personas understand their customers better than their competitors. Therefore, it would be better to create a buyer persona to make this process easier.

Here are 20 customer persona templates from Visme that you can customize to create your own.

Watch this video below to learn more about creating a persona.

3. Set S.M.A.R.T Goals

Setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) is the most efficient way to reach your goals. For example: "I will increase Instagram followers by 100 within 30 days." This goal is specific because it names an exact number (100) and a timeframe (30 days). It's measurable because it assigns a metric (the number of followers) and benchmarks for improvement (increased by 100).

It's achievable because your company already has followers and increasing their numbers by 100 seems like an attainable goal for someone with your level of expertise. And finally, it's time-bound; if you don't hit that target by the next 30 days, then we're going home!

Read this article about creating S.M.A.R.T. goals and using the S.M.A.R.T. goal template below to create goals and never fail to achieve them again.

4. Identify KPIs to Monitor Your Progress

You've set some SMART goals for yourself or your team members' social media accounts or profiles. But what about key performance indicators? These metrics help measure how much progress has been made toward meeting those objectives regularly and can be applied across multiple platforms.

With so many social media metrics available, it takes time to know which ones are most important for your business.

The key is to choose KPIs that align with your objectives, goals, and what you want to measure. This will help you determine whether or not you are progressing toward those goals.

Here are some of the most common KPIs:

• Social media followers and reach
• Engagement rate (likes, comments and shares)
• Brand awareness and brand equity
• Sales and lead generation
• Customer service satisfaction
• Cost per lead and R.O.I.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

5. Choose the Right Social Media Channels

As of 2022, there are over 4.5 billion social media users worldwide, equivalent to 58% of the current world population. But this doesn't mean every social media platform will work for you.

Social media is all about engagement. So you must choose channels where your audience spends their time. For example, if your business caters to millennials, you must be on Facebook and Instagram. If your target market includes women over 35, Pinterest might be a good channel for you.

To choose the right social media platform for your business, you’ll have to find answers to these questions:

• Where does your audience hang out online?
• Do they prefer Facebook or Instagram, or Twitter?
• What type of content do they prefer the most?

Here is an infographic template that you can use to compare the different social media platforms and choose the perfect one for your business.

Define Your Brand Voice

Sharing information with your audience is one of the primary purposes of using social media. You must ensure that your posts are relevant and exciting if you want people to engage with them. This means you must define your brand voice before creating any content for your social channels.

You can start by defining what kind of content you want to share on social media. For instance, if you're a B2B company, you might want to focus on providing educational content or industry news relevant to your audience. If you sell products online, you can share some tutorials or product reviews to help customers make informed buying decisions.

Here is an infographic that will help you find your brand voice.

Create Engaging Content

Now that you know your target audience, goals, social media channels and brand voice, it's time to create content that attracts and engages your audience.

In the world of social media, there is a lot of noise. The average person is exposed to more than 4,000 ads each day on social media. For your brand to stand out in that crowd, you must ensure your social media content is on point.

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Here are some types of content that you can create for your social media:

Videos are a great way to engage your audience on social media. A study by HubSpot shows that 54% of consumers want to see more videos from a brand they follow on social media. They're fun, visual, and easy to share—which is why they're such a popular choice for consumers and online marketers.

You can make videos in a variety of ways:

Micro Videos: Micro videos are short, snappy videos that are usually no longer than 30 seconds. These videos are ideal for social media because they can be shared easily and quickly. If you want to create micro videos, Visme can help you create explainer videos , product videos , promo videos , YouTube video ads and many others.

Check out Visme's broad collection of video templates and edit them using the free online video maker to fit your needs.

YouTube Shorts: Similar to micro videos, shorts have more room to tell a story or explain something complex. They can also be longer than 30 seconds—but they should still be short enough that people won't get bored watching them!

Here is an example of a YouTube short from Visme that explains top design tips to improve your social media graphics.

TikTok: This platform lets you create and share short video clips in real-time with friends like Snapchat did before it was sold to Facebook. The app is viral among teens and young adults, so if you want to reach that audience, TikTok might be worth checking out!

@vismeapp This e-book hack is going to change your life! Adding a flipbook makes your documents :sparkles:POP:sparkles: and makes you stand out from the crowd. :computer: #ebooks #flipbook #presentationtips #leadmagnetideas ♬ original sound - 🙂

YouTube Videos: With over 2 billion active users , YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform worldwide. YouTube lets you upload video content, including product reviews, tutorials on how to use specific products/services offered by your business, customer interviews, behind-the-scenes footage from events hosted by your team members/employees, and many others.

Watch this video to learn more about creating social media videos.

Infographics can be a fantastic way to combine text and images to convey your message. They're easily shareable and engaging and help people understand complex concepts in an easily digestible way. An infographic could be the perfect solution if you have a difficult concept to explain to your audience.

Visme offers thousands of infographic templates in various categories such as statistical, informational, comparison and more that you can use. Choose your favorite infographic template from the vast library and customize it using Visme's free online infographic maker to share with your audience.

Here is how you can create an infographic in minutes using Visme.

Images are what people see first before they read your content. So use engaging and eye-catching images that relate to your content. A picture of a popular travel destination would be relevant and exciting if you're posting about how to save money while traveling.

Visme has a rich library of social media graphics to level up your social media strategy. Simply pick your preferred template, tweak a few elements and boom your graphics is ready to go live.

The best part? With just a few clicks, you can publish your content directly to your social media channels from Visme's editor.

Social Media Templates

Trick or Treat Facebook Post

Spooky Halloween - Facebook Post

Happy Halloween - Facebook Post

Spooky Halloween Day - Facebook Post

Halloween Party - Facebook Post

Thanksgiving Thank You Facebook Post

Create your social media graphic View more templates

Read our detailed guide about the 10 types of social media content you can use to improve your social media game. Watch the video below to learn more about it.

Visme offers a wide range of social media graphic templates you can easily customize. With these templates, you can create your own Facebook Ads , Facebook Posts , LinkedIn Headers , YouTubeThumbnails , Instagram Stories and almost every type of content you need to run your social media campaigns effectively.

Watch the video below to learn how it works.

8. Create a Social Media Content Calendar

A content calendar helps you stay organized and on track to avoid posting at the wrong time or forgetting to post altogether. It keeps all your posts in one place so you don't have to search for them when it's time to post. Also, it lets you see what types of posts are popular with your audience, which helps you create more engaging content for them.

But how do you create a social media content calendar?

There are many different ways to create a social media content calendar. Some people prefer using spreadsheets or Google Docs, while others like using advanced apps such as Visme's Social Media Scheduler . The key is finding a system that works best for you and then sticking with it!

With Visme, you can create your social media content and use the social media scheduler to automate your posts. Here is a detailed guide to creating a social media calendar in Visme.

9. Create an Engagement Strategy

You need to start engaging with your audience to build a loyal audience and increase your brand awareness . The key to engaging with your customers on social media is to listen to what they have to say, respond in a timely fashion and be helpful.

Here are some tips for creating a social media engagement strategy:

Engage with Your Audience in Comments

If you have an active community on social media, then you're probably already doing this. But if not, then it's time to get started! Make sure whenever someone posts something on your Facebook page or Twitter feed, they get a response from the company itself.

This can be as simple as thanking them for their comment or sharing their story. If one person starts a conversation, others will join in — and soon, you'll have a lively discussion going on about your brand!

Provide Excellent Customer Support

If people are talking about your brand online, there's no better way to encourage them than by providing customer support through social media channels. Users have a place to ask questions directly about products or services without waiting for an email response from customer service reps.

The more you can do to connect with your audience and provide a way for them to get in touch with you, the better. This will keep them engaged with your brand and help you build strong brand loyalty .

10. Track Performance and Make Adjustments

We've already discussed the KPIs you should track to monitor your social media performance. Once you have tracked your performance, it's time to make adjustments based on what worked and didn't. If there are specific posts that drive more traffic than others, then you need to continue posting those types of content.

If a particular post receives a lot of negative feedback from followers, you should avoid posting that type of content in the future. Consider changing platforms or deleting one if it isn't performing well for you.

With Visme's collaboration features , your team can create and publish content on social media directly from the Visme app. So, collaborate with your team to make changes in your social media plan, adjust the calendar and even work on a design project together.

Watch the video below to learn more about this amazing feature.

Create Your Next Social Media Plan with Visme

Social media is a powerful tool. The key to using it effectively is creating an effective social media plan. You can use this guide as a template to get started on your plan.

But remember that there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to social media. The best thing you can do is experiment with different formats and see what works best for your brand!

Now you know that Visme can be a great help in every step of the process of creating your social media plan. Sign up for Visme's all-in-one design tool and social media scheduler to get started with your social media plan.

Create an effective social media plan with Visme

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About the Author

Raja Antony Mandal is a Content Writer at Visme. He can quickly adapt to different writing styles, possess strong research skills, and know SEO fundamentals. Raja wants to share valuable information with his audience by telling captivating stories in his articles. He wants to travel and party a lot on the weekends, but his guitar, drum set, and volleyball court don’t let him.

5 Business Models for Social Media Startups

1 min. read

Updated October 29, 2023

Are you looking at social media startup opportunities? How are you going to make money?

There’s a good practical list of Five Common Business Models for Social Media Startups by Jun Loayza on Mashable . A good reminder that business models–how you get paid–are part of the game. All five will seem familiar: There’s freemium (give a standard version free, charge for more users or more features), affiliate, subscription, virtual goods (add-ons to free games, like swords and shields and such), and the old standard, advertising.

Facebook, for example, uses advertising to get revenue, and gets relatively little per user. There are a lot of freemium sites, and fewer examples of affiliates and subscriptions.

One of the business plans I reviewed recently had an interesting explanation of why freemium wouldn’t work, and it went subscription only. I worry about that, because there are so many freemium sites.

There’s another common model that this list doesn’t include: Raise investment money, get traffic but no money, raise more money, increasing valuation, get more traffic, raise more money . . . all in the hope that there’s money at the end, when some bigger venture acquires all the stock. Actually, I think we need a tricky word for that business model . . . kite-up? Musical shares? I like that one, because, so often, whoever gets caught with the shares at the end loses.

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Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

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Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Social Media Marketing Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Social Media Marketing business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Social Media Marketing businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Social Media Marketing business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

The Blizzard Social Media Marketing business is a startup social media marketing company located in Stamford, Connecticut. The company is founded by Trace Parker, who has a history of a decade within the social media marketing industry Now, with the expertise of knowledge and business acumen, Trace has determined he can confidently start and effectively grow a successful social media marketing company. Trace believes his experience of strategic growth, marketing skills, financial capabilities, and wide and deep knowledge of social media marketing practices will provide everything needed for long-term growth and profitability.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide a comprehensive array of services for a wide variety of clients. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be the premier social media marketing company, providing unique services to each client while supporting the strategic goals of the company. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be the ultimate choice in social media marketing for clients by ensuring that every need of the customer is fully and completely met.

Product Offering

The following are the services that Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide:

• Creative social media marketing strategies, customized for each client
• Content management and on-going management
• Social media community engagement with daily/weekly management options
• Paid social advertising opportunities
• Performance reports and analytics: weekly reports to clients
• Unique, digitally-designed program that scans 24-hours daily, monitoring positive and negative customer feedback.

Customer Focus

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will primarily target the small to medium-sized social media marketing companies in Stamford. The company will secondarily target the large-sized social media companies in the greater region around Stamford, including the outer areas of New York City. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will target marketing companies that are emerging into the social media category, as well.

Management Team

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be owned and operated by Trace Parker, who graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He has been working at a local social media marketing company for over a decade as an account executive. As he considered starting his own company, Trace began successfully securing former clients who will follow him to Blizzard Social Media Marketing when the company fully launches. Trace believes his experience of strategic growth, marketing skills, financial capabilities, and wide and deep knowledge of social media marketing practices will provide everything needed for long-term growth and profitability.

Trace Parker recruited Angela Turner, a former business associate, to be the Administrative Manager in the new company. In this role, Angela Turner will oversee and direct staff members in the execution of the company vision, as well as run the operational portion of the technical department.

Trace Parker also recruited Anthony Collins to be the Financial Manager, overseeing the bookkeeping and accounting duties on a regular basis. Anthony Collins formerly served as the accountant for their former employer and was exemplary in handling complicated portions of this role.

Maryann Critcher has been recruited to manage the office clerks and serve as the Personnel Manager, overseeing all personnel with human resource responsibilities and management included in her role.

Success Factors

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly-qualified team of Blizzard Social Media Marketing
• Comprehensive menu of services and an accurate and complete social media management report offered to the client every month.
• Short and long-term growth forecasts via various social media programs best suited to the clients
• Experienced understanding of client-positioning within social media markets
• Unique, digitally-designed program that scans 24-hours daily, monitoring positive and negative client feedback.
• Blizzard Social Media Marketing offers the best pricing in town. Their pricing structure is the most cost effective compared to the competition.

Financial Highlights

Blizzard Social Media Marketing is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its Blizzard Social Media Marketing. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for Blizzard Social Media Marketing.

Company Overview

Who is blizzard social media marketing.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing is a newly established, full-service social media marketing company in Stamford, Connecticut. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be the most reliable, cost-effective, and efficient choice for social media clients in the city and the surrounding communities. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide a comprehensive menu of services backed by extensive experience for any client to fully utilize. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive coverage package of social media advertising, platform management and new vision development.

  Trace Parker will be able to manage each of his team members, who are highly qualified and experienced in the most important aspects of social media marketing. Blizzard Social Media Marketing removes all headaches and issues of building a long-term growth perspective for social media companies and ensures all issues are taken care of expeditiously while delivering the best customer service.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing History

Blizzard Social Media Marketing is owned and operated by Trace Parker. As a former social media marketing executive for several years, he developed a unique capability to design and implement social media marketing successes that clearly reflect his skills and abilities. He has managed over one hundred successful projects for fifty nine clients and has now determined he is ready to take his professional skills and knowledge to venture out on his own by starting his own company. Trace Parker has gained the trust and commitment of several clients in advance of opening his business and will sign contracts with each when the company launches.

Since incorporation, Blizzard Social Media Marketing has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered Blizzard Social Media Marketing, LLC to transact business in the state of Connecticut.
• Has a contract in place for a 10,000 square foot office at one of the midtown buildings
• Reached out to numerous contacts to include Blizzard Social Media Marketing in upcoming advertising and marketing programs.
• Began recruiting a staff of five and six office personnel to work at Blizzard Social Media Marketing

Blizzard Social Media Marketing Services

The following will be the services Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide:

• Unique, digitally-designed program that scans 24-hours daily, monitoring positive and negative customer feedback
• Superior day to day client management

Industry Analysis

The social media marketing industry is expected to grow over the next five years to over $14 billion.

The growth of the social marketing industry will be driven by very robust activity in acquisition and growth of companies that focus solely on social media marketing. As companies are formed in today’s marketplace, the demand has moved more and more toward the need for social media marketing versus traditional marketing forms, such as print advertising and radio spots. This increase in the use of social media marketing demands companies that specialize in formulating the brand identity and customer approach that brings the performance desired by the client base.

Costs will likely be reduced as more social media marketing companies enter the field of the profession. The positive result will be seen in a greater use of social media, indicating a continual evolution of how social media is utilized in marketing. It will also require new digital techniques, new methods of social media delivery and other yet-to-be-determined equipment to stay on top of the social media marketing curve.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will target companies that currently utilize social media marketing and those that have a need for social media marketing in Stamford, Connecticut and, in the greater region, New York City. They will target small-to-medium sized companies who have not yet acquired social media marketing and they will target large corporations without an effective social media marketing vision or presence.

Customer Segmentation

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Companies that currently use social media marketing
• Companies that have a need for social media marketing in Stamford, Connecticut
• Potential clients in the greater region of New York City
• Small-to-medium sized companies who have not yet acquired social media marketing
• Large corporations without an effective social media marketing presence

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Cutting Edge Social Media

The Cutting Edge Social Media Company was founded by Tina Lockland in 2020. Tina holds a master’s degree in social media design from the Parsons School of Design in New York City and has five years of experience as a social media manager. Cutting Edge Social Media concentrates on paid social advertising, with the creation and management of advertising campaigns. Clients include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The singular purpose of marketing paid social media advertising indicates that Cutting Edge Social Media has backburnered other forms of social media marketing, such as social media promotions and other advertising methods. The company currently has four management staff and five employees. Contract self-employed individuals are also hired to create content.

Marketing Bites

The Marketing Bites business was formed by Alicia Dunstreet in 2022 and currently has three employees. The concept of Marketing Bites is a simple one: social media marketing messages that are extremely brief are developed and sold to a variety of clients. Clients may include those who want a 30-second clip, a 1-minute promotion, or a cartoon caricature as a marketing message. The emphasis of Marketing Bites is on short-fire marketing that captures attention and builds customer loyalty. This is accomplished by humor, shock-and-awe value, or a clip that makes a definitive statement. The company has secured three major clients in the food and beverage industry, with more development in that sector promised in the future.

Executive Marketing, Inc.

Executive Marketing, Inc. has been in business since 1988 and was established by Floyd Wilson and his wife, Sherry Wilson. In its inception, it was a traditional marketing firm that focused on high-profile individuals who represented major manufacturers. The marketing tools used were print advertising, radio spots, news articles related to the clients, select marketing offers, and other personality-related marketing efforts.

As the decades have created the demand for new forms of sales and marketing, the Executive Marketing business has evolved under the leadership of Nan Wilson, the daughter of the founders. She took the company from traditional marketing to marketing that focused on the high-profile clients and the glamorous lives they led, which induced positional purchases by customers in response. In 2019, the granddaughter of the original owners, Mae Townsend, brought the company into social media marketing, where the emphasis remains on individual profiles and the marketing incentives those individuals represent to buyers.

Competitive Advantage

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will offer a unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees who are able to provide a comprehensive social media marketing program that brings revenue and long-term profitability to their clients
• Unbeatable pricing for its clients; they will offer the lowest pricing in the city.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Blizzard Social Media Marketing is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

The executive team at Blizzard Social Media Marketing have built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to their clients. The contacts and clients will follow them to their new company and help spread the word of Blizzard Social Media Marketing.

Professional Associations and Networking

Industry associations and local networking will become a top priority for the team at Blizzard Social Media Marketing. In addition to potentially becoming gold standard clients, the contacts and networking prospects invite the attention of those at Blizzard. Active leadership roles will be attained and the increase in industry contacts will help strengthen the marketing sector overall.

Social Media Marketing

Blizzard will focus primarily on marketing their services and relationship opportunities via social media efforts. There will be a concentrated effort on showcasing the skills, capabilities and creative force in the management team at Blizzard. Further, there will be a demonstrable survey of former and current clients indicating the superior results obtained by using Blizzard social media marketing techniques.

Website/SEO Marketing

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will fully utilize their website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the services that Blizzard Social Media Marketing provides. The website will also list their contact information. The website will engage in SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “social media marketing company” or “social media marketing company near me,” Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Blizzard Social Media Marketing. Operation Functions:

• Trace Parker will be the owner and President of the company. He will manage client relations. Trace Parker has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Angela Turner will be the Administrative Manager, who will oversee and direct staff members in the execution of the company vision, as well as run the operational portion of the technical department.
• Anthony Collins will be the Financial Manager, overseeing the bookkeeping and accounting duties on a regular basis.
• Maryann Critcher has been recruited to manage the office clerks and serve as the Personnel Manager, handling human resource responsibilities and management in her role.

Milestones:

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for Blizzard Social Media Marketing
• 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for Blizzard Social Media Marketing clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into Blizzard Social Media Marketing office
• 7/1/202X – Blizzard Social Media Marketing opens its doors for business

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Blizzard Social Media Marketing are the fees they will charge to clients for their services.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff Blizzard Social Media Marketing. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of clients Per Month: 20
• Average revenue per Month: $200,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement.

Balance Sheet

Cash Flow Statement

Social Media Marketing Business Plan FAQs

What is a social media marketing business plan.

A social media marketing business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your social media marketing business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections. You can easily complete your Social Media Marketing business plan using our Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Social Media Marketing Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of social media marketing businesses, some examples include: Paid Ads, Content, and Strategy.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Social Media Marketing Business Plan?

Social Media Marketing businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Social Media Marketing Business?

Starting a social media marketing business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster. 1. Develop A Social Media Marketing Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed social media marketing business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your social media marketing business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your social media marketing business is in compliance with local laws. 3. Register Your Social Media Marketing Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your social media marketing business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your social media marketing business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 7. Acquire Necessary Social Media Marketing Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your social media marketing business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your social media marketing business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

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The Beginner's Guide to Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch

When I went rock climbing for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. My friends and I were complete newbies about ropes and rappelling and every other bit of jargon and technique that goes with climbing. We saw others doing it spectacularly well. We were thrilled at the thought of reaching the top of the climbing wall; we had no idea how to get there.

I’d imagine that a social media marketing strategy could feel the same way.

If you’re starting from square one, it might feel equally parts thrilling and overwhelming. You know what you want to do and why. You can see that others have climbed the social media mountain, but you have few ideas for getting there yourself.

It’d help to have a plan.

We’ve shared different parts of a social media strategy— the data, research , and personal experience behind what works on social media .

Now we’re pleased to put it all into a cohesive, step-by-step blueprint that you can use to get started. If you need a social media marketing plan, start here.

Step 1: Determine which social media sites you will use

Social media is as homogenous from network to network as soda pop is from brand to brand. Sure, it’s all social media, but Instagram and Twitter might as well be Mountain Dew and Pepsi. Each network is unique, with its own best practices, own style, and own audience.

You should choose the social networks that best fit your strategy and the goals you want to achieve on social media.

You don’t have to be on them all—just the ones that matter to you and your audience.

Some factors to consider when choosing which social networks to try and how many to try.

• Audience – Where do your potential customers hang out ? Which social network has the right demographics?
• Time – How much time can you devote to a social network? Plan on at least an hour per day per social network to start. (Pro Tip: Once you get going, scheduling content ahead of time with tools like Buffer can help you save time.)
• Resources – What personnel and skills do you have to work with? Networks like TikTok emphasize consistent and relevant content. Visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest require images and videos. Do you have the resources to create what's needed?

For the first part of this decision, you can reference the audience research and demographics from surveys like those conducted by Pew Research. For instance, Pew has complete data collected in 2021 on the demographics of social media users in the U.S. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the major social media platforms’ user demographics.

Credit: Pew Research Center

Step 2: Fill out your profiles completely

One of our monthly checks here at Buffer is to visit our social media profiles and ensure that our profile photos, cover photos , bio , and profile info are up-to-date and complete. It’s a crucial part of our social media audit . A completed profile shows professionalism, cohesive branding, and a signal to visitors that you’re serious about engaging.

Profiles will require two parts: visuals and text .

For visuals, we aim for consistency and familiarity with the visuals we use on social media . Our profile photo on Instagram matches our profile photo on Facebook. Our cover photo on Twitter is similar to our cover on LinkedIn.

To create these images, you can consult a social media image size chart showing you the exact breakdown of dimensions for each photo on each network. For an even easier time of it, you can use a tool like Pablo or Canva , which comes with prebuilt templates that set the proper sizes for you.

For text, your primary area to customize is the bio/info section. Creating a professional social media bio can be broken down into six simple rules:

• Show, don’t tell – “What have I done” often works better than “Who I am”
• Tailor your keywords to your audience
• Keep language fresh; avoid buzzwords
• Answer the question of your potential followers: “What’s in it for me?”
• Be personal and personable
• Revisit often

Step 3: Find your marketing voice and tone

The temptation at this point might be to jump right in and start sharing. Just one more step before you do. Your foray into social media will be more focused and more on point if you come up with a voice and tone for your content right off the bat.

To do so, you could spend time developing marketing personas and debating the finer points of your mission statement and customer base. These are all well and good. But for a social media marketing plan just getting off the ground, you can make this process a bit easier.

Start with questions like these:

• If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?
• If your brand was a person, what’s their relationship to the consumer? (a coach, friend, teacher, dad, etc)
• Describe in adjectives what your company’s personality is not.
• Are there any companies that have a similar personality to yours? Why are they similar?
• How do you want your customers to think about your company?

At the end of this exercise, you should end up with a handful of adjectives describing the voice and tone of your marketing. Consider this to keep you on track:

Voice is the mission statement; tone is the implementation of that mission.

Here are a few places to take inspiration for developing your brand's voice and tone:

• Sprout Social

Cultivate a voice that delights your customers, then your customers will be thrilled to spread the love about you.

Step 4: Pick your posting strategy

What’s the ideal amount to post per day ? How often should you post ? When should you post ? What should you post ? The solid gold, ironclad answer for questions like these is:

It depends.

So much of the social media experience is about your individual audience and niche. What works for you might not work for me, and you never know until you try (we’ll get to trying in step five).

That being said, there is some pretty good data and insight about where to start. Here’s what we’ve found to be good jumping-off points.

What should you be posting?

Videos are ideal for engagement.

The push toward video content has plenty of anecdotal evidence — the success of TikTok and constant updates to Instagram – and you’re likely to see videos all over. There’s data to back up this trend : Videos posts get more views, shares, and Likes than any other type of post. And it’s not even close.

On Facebook, video posts get higher average engagement than link posts or image posts, according to BuzzSumo who analyzed 68 million Facebook posts .

On Twitter, videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than photos and three times more likely to be retweeted than GIFs , according to Twitter .

If you want to start creating social videos, here’s our video marketing guide on creating epic content on Facebook, Twitter, and more .

The 4:1 Strategy

Now that you know what works, you can place these different types of updates into a consistent strategy. One of my favorite systems is the one used by Buffer’s co-founder Joel Gascoigne . It works like this:

• Start with the basic six types of updates we all post: Links, videos, images, quotes, reshares, plain-text updates
• Choose a “staple” update , a single type that will make up the majority of your shares
• Create a 4:1 ratio of sharing : for every four “staple” updates, publish one different type for variety

This way your followers know what to expect from you, and you can hone your sharing to a specific type, making it easier to perfect and experiment.

(Note: You might not want to post the exact same updates across each of your social networks. Adopt a cross-posting strategy that considers each platform's uniqueness and its audience.)

How often should you be posting?

There’s been a lot of interesting data out there about how often to post to social media . Some of the factors that might impact your specific sharing frequency may include your industry, your reach, your resources, and the quality of your updates. The social network you’re using will also have its best practices.

If people love your updates, you can typically always get away with posting more.

For a specific number, here are some guidelines we’ve put together based on some really helpful research into how often to post on social media .

• Twitter – Three to fifteen times per day
• TikTok – Three times a day
• Instagram – Once or twice per day
• Instagram Stories – Eight to 16 Stories, twice per week
• LinkedIn – Once a day
• Pinterest – Three to ten times per day
• Facebook – Thrice a week

When should you be posting?

Here’s an overview of what they found regarding timing (all times are Eastern Time).

• Twitter –Mondays and Thursdays at 8am
• Facebook – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 9am to 1pm
• LinkedIn – Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am
• Instagram – Tuesday between 11am to 2pm is the most ideal time
• Pinterest – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 1-2pm
• TikTok – Any day between 2 am to 12 pm is ideal

I would recommend experimenting with these times (in your local time) and a few randomly-picked times as you’re starting out.

Once you have been posting for a while, you can use your own data and tools like Instagram Insights and Followerwonk to find your brand’s best time to post and refine your posting strategy.

Step 5: Analyze, test, and iterate

Remember how we talked about social media sharing being a very individual, specific endeavor? Your stats will likely start to bear this out.

The more you post, the more you’ll discover which content, timing, and frequency is right for you.

How will you know? It’s best to get a social media analytics tool . Most major social networks will have basic analytics built into the site; it’s just a little easier to seek and find this information from an all-encompassing dashboard.

These tools (I’ll use Buffer’s analytics as an example) can show you a breakdown of how each post performed in the critical areas of views, clicks, shares, Likes, and comments.

Which social media stats are best? We’ve gained some insight from looking at each of these main statistics and the composite engagement statistic on a per-post basis. The resulting stat gives us a great look, over time, of how our social media content tends to perform, and we can then test and iterate from there.

Here’s one way to analyze your performance .

• Set a benchmark . After two weeks or a month of sharing, you can go back through your stats and find the average engagement rate per post . This'll be your benchmark going forward. Remember to revisit and update this number as your following and influence grow.
• Test something new . Avoid getting stuck in your ways – social media is dynamic and you should be too. We're open to testing just about anything at Buffer and find ourselves trying new things and adapting our strategy based on the success of our experiments.
• Did it work? Check the stats from your test versus the stats of your benchmark. if your test performed well, then you can implement the changes into your refular strategy. And once your test is over, repeat!

Step 6: Automate, engage, and listen

The final piece of a social media marketing plan involves having a system you can follow to help you stay on top of updates and engage with your community .

To start with, automate the posting of your social media content.

Tools like Buffer allow you to create all the content you want to, all at once, and then place everything into a queue to be sent out according to your schedule. Automation is the secret weapon for consistently excellent sharing day after day.

Your plan doesn’t end with automation, though. Social media requires engagement, too.

When people talk to you, talk back. Set aside time during your day to follow up with conversations that are happening on social media. These are conversations with potential customers, references, friends, and colleagues. They’re too important to ignore.

One way to stay up on all the conversations that are happening around you and your company is to create a system for listening and engaging. Tools like Buffer and Mention will collect all social media mentions and comments on your posts in a single place, where you can quickly reply to your followers.

What would you share with someone new to social media?

Creating a social media marketing plan is an excellent step toward diving into social. If social media looks thrilling and overwhelming all at once, start with a plan. Once you see the blueprint in front of you, it’s a little easier to see what lies ahead.

• Pick your networks
• Fill out your info
• Find your voice
• Choose your strategy
• Analyze and test
• Automate and engage

How did you develop your social media strategy? I’d love to keep the conversation going on Twitter @buffer !

Did you find this article helpful? You might also like our all-you-need social media toolkit.

The all-you-need social media toolkit

Publish Flawlessly. Analyze Effortlessly. Engage Authentically.

Buffer is the all-you-need social media toolkit that lets you focus on doing what you love for your business.

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Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template & Guidebook

Social media has become an integral part of how businesses market themselves in the 21st century. From creating a strong online presence to generating leads and sales, social media can create amazing opportunities for businesses of all sizes—but only when it’s done right. That’s why it’s essential for businesses to have a comprehensive social media marketing plan in place. The #1 Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template & Guidebook provides a comprehensive, easy-to-follow template and guidebook combination to create a powerful social media marketing plan that helps businesses succeed.

Get worry-free services and support to launch your business starting at $0 plus state fees.

• How to Start a Profitable Social Media Marketing Business [11 Steps]
• 10+ Best & Profitable Social Media Marketing Business Ideas [2023]

How to Write a Social Media Marketing Business Plan in 7 Steps:

1. describe the purpose of your social media marketing business..

The first step to writing your business plan is to describe the purpose of your social media marketing business. This includes describing why you are starting this type of business, and what problems it will solve for customers. This is a quick way to get your mind thinking about the customers’ problems. It also helps you identify what makes your business different from others in its industry.

It also helps to include a vision statement so that readers can understand what type of company you want to build.

Here is an example of a purpose mission statement for a social media marketing business:

Our purpose at Social Media Marketing is to serve our clients and partners in the development, implementation and optimization of social media campaigns that are effective, cost-efficient and respectful of the customers we are targeting. We strive to open up new channels of communication, build brand awareness, engage customers, and grow our client's businesses.

2. Products & Services Offered by Your Social Media Marketing Business.

The next step is to outline your products and services for your social media marketing business. 

When you think about the products and services that you offer, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my business?
• What are the products and/or services that I offer?
• Why am I offering these particular products and/or services?
• How do I differentiate myself from competitors with similar offerings?
• How will I market my products and services?

You may want to do a comparison of your business plan against those of other competitors in the area, or even with online reviews. This way, you can find out what people like about them and what they don’t like, so that you can either improve upon their offerings or avoid doing so altogether.

3. Build a Creative Marketing Stratgey.

If you don't have a marketing plan for your social media marketing business, it's time to write one. Your marketing plan should be part of your business plan and be a roadmap to your goals. 

A good marketing plan for your social media marketing business includes the following elements:

Target market

• Who is your target market?
• What do these customers have in common?
• How many of them are there?
• How can you best reach them with your message or product?

Customer base 

• Who are your current customers? 
• Where did they come from (i.e., referrals)?
• How can their experience with your social media marketing business help make them repeat customers, consumers, visitors, subscribers, or advocates for other people in their network or industry who might also benefit from using this service, product, or brand?

Product or service description

• How does it work, what features does it have, and what are its benefits?
• Can anyone use this product or service regardless of age or gender?
• Can anyone visually see themselves using this product or service?
• How will they feel when they do so? If so, how long will the feeling last after purchasing (or trying) the product/service for the first time?

Competitive analysis

• Which companies are competing with yours today (and why)? 
• Which ones may enter into competition with yours tomorrow if they find out about it now through word-of-mouth advertising; social media networks; friends' recommendations; etc.)
• What specific advantages does each competitor offer over yours currently?

Marketing channels

• Which marketing channel do you intend to leverage to attract new customers?
• What is your estimated marketing budget needed?
• What is the projected cost to acquire a new customer?
• How many of your customers do you instead will return?

Form an LLC in your state!

4. Write Your Operational Plan.

Next, you'll need to build your operational plan. This section describes the type of business you'll be running, and includes the steps involved in your operations. 

In it, you should list:

• The equipment and facilities needed
• Who will be involved in the business (employees, contractors)
• Financial requirements for each step
• Milestones & KPIs
• Location of your business
• Zoning & permits required for the business

What equipment, supplies, or permits are needed to run a social media marketing business?

• Internet connection
• Social media accounts or access to create accounts
• Knowledge of social media trends, platforms, and content creation
• Advertising budget, if applicable
• Graphic design tools (e.g. Adobe Photoshop)
• Content management system (e.g. WordPress)
• Analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics)
• Permit for soliciting services in certain states or countries

5. Management & Organization of Your Social Media Marketing Business.

The second part of your social media marketing business plan is to develop a management and organization section.

This section will cover all of the following:

• How many employees you need in order to run your social media marketing business. This should include the roles they will play (for example, one person may be responsible for managing administrative duties while another might be in charge of customer service).
• The structure of your management team. The higher-ups like yourself should be able to delegate tasks through lower-level managers who are directly responsible for their given department (inventory and sales, etc.).
• How you’re going to make sure that everyone on board is doing their job well. You’ll want check-ins with employees regularly so they have time to ask questions or voice concerns if needed; this also gives you time to offer support where necessary while staying informed on how things are going within individual departments too!

6. Social Media Marketing Business Startup Expenses & Captial Needed.

This section should be broken down by month and year. If you are still in the planning stage of your business, it may be helpful to estimate how much money will be needed each month until you reach profitability.

Typically, expenses for your business can be broken into a few basic categories:

Startup Costs

Startup costs are typically the first expenses you will incur when beginning an enterprise. These include legal fees, accounting expenses, and other costs associated with getting your business off the ground. The amount of money needed to start a social media marketing business varies based on many different variables, but below are a few different types of startup costs for a social media marketing business.

Running & Operating Costs

Running costs refer to ongoing expenses related directly with operating your business over time like electricity bills or salaries paid out each month. These types of expenses will vary greatly depending on multiple variables such as location, team size, utility costs, etc.

Marketing & Sales Expenses

You should include any costs associated with marketing and sales, such as advertising and promotions, website design or maintenance. Also, consider any additional expenses that may be incurred if you decide to launch a new product or service line. For example, if your social media marketing business has an existing website that needs an upgrade in order to sell more products or services, then this should be listed here.

7. Financial Plan & Projections

A financial plan is an important part of any business plan, as it outlines how the business will generate revenue and profit, and how it will use that profit to grow and sustain itself. To devise a financial plan for your social media marketing business, you will need to consider a number of factors, including your start-up costs, operating costs, projected revenue, and expenses. 

Here are some steps you can follow to devise a financial plan for your social media marketing business plan:

• Determine your start-up costs: This will include the cost of purchasing or leasing the space where you will operate your business, as well as the cost of buying or leasing any equipment or supplies that you need to start the business.
• Estimate your operating costs: Operating costs will include utilities, such as electricity, gas, and water, as well as labor costs for employees, if any, and the cost of purchasing any materials or supplies that you will need to run your business.
• Project your revenue: To project your revenue, you will need to consider the number of customers you expect to have and the average amount they will spend on each visit. You can use this information to estimate how much money you will make from selling your products or services.
• Estimate your expenses: In addition to your operating costs, you will need to consider other expenses, such as insurance, marketing, and maintenance. You will also need to set aside money for taxes and other fees.
• Create a budget: Once you have estimated your start-up costs, operating costs, revenue, and expenses, you can use this information to create a budget for your business. This will help you to see how much money you will need to start the business, and how much profit you can expect to make.
• Develop a plan for using your profit: Finally, you will need to decide how you will use your profit to grow and sustain your business. This might include investing in new equipment, expanding the business, or saving for a rainy day.

Frequently Asked Questions About Social Media Marketing Business Plans:

Why do you need a business plan for a social media marketing business.

A business plan for a social media marketing business is essential in order to organize thoughts and ideas, set goals, create strategies, and define roles and tasks. It also serves as a starting point for forecasting the financial needs of the business, and allows you to map out the steps necessary to achieve success. By clearly outlining objectives, the business plan can provide a roadmap on how to best use resources to grow and sustain your business.

Who should you ask for help with your social media marketing business plan?

You should ask a professional business consultant or social media marketing expert for help with your social media marketing business plan. They will have the knowledge and expertise necessary to help you create a comprehensive and effective plan.

Can you write a social media marketing business plan yourself?

Yes, it is possible to write a social media marketing business plan yourself. A business plan is an essential part of any successful business, and a social media marketing business plan should include details on your target market, the services you will offer, the goals you want to achieve, how you will measure success and how you will finance your venture.

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Through meticulous research and firsthand experience, I uncover the essential steps, software, tools, and costs associated with launching and maintaining a successful business. By demystifying the complexities of entrepreneurship, I provide the guidance and support needed for others to embark on their journey with confidence.

From assessing market viability and formulating business plans to selecting the right technology and navigating the financial landscape, I am dedicated to helping fellow entrepreneurs overcome challenges and unlock their full potential. As a steadfast advocate for small business success, my mission is to pave the way for a new generation of innovative and driven entrepreneurs who are ready to make their mark on the world.

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Social Media Marketing For Startups: A Beginner’s Guide

People ideate a thousand things, and a handful of them evolve in the form of startups. But unlike an already established business, startups demand laser-focused attention.

Out of all the crucial aspects of building a startup, marketing plays the most dynamic role in its success . And in today’s digital world, social media marketing company is the go-to for brands to start their marketing.

And that’s obvious! If people are not aware of your existence, then how will your startup grow? How will you get a client and proceed any further?

Marketing is the essential kick-starter in bringing out your business in front of the world. As per stats, 56.9% of the startups have dedicated marketing teams. At the same time, many take the help of a social media marketing company.

These numbers are enough to prove that marketing, especially social media marketing, can take your startup to new heights if executed correctly. Moreover, various new trends have emerged to make your SMM campaign a lead booster.

In the succeeding sections, we shall discuss how to market your startup using the latest trends. So, let’s just dive in!

Why is social media marketing important?

Without any additional jibber-jabber, here are some points that are worth noticing:

• There are 4.48 billion people on social media websites.
• Facebook, YouTube, Instagram are the top social media platforms to be used daily.
• Around 73% of marketers say that SMM has been effective for their business.

So, why are we discussing these random stats out of nowhere? Well, they paint a clear picture that social media marketing for startups can guarantee to get your sales and revenue sky high. And social media marketing companies are great for assisting new brands to do so.

1. Brand awareness

Brand awareness is the number one factor that governs the importance of social media marketing for startups. Many global brands rely solely on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram to market their business proactively.

For example, Clinique leverages Facebook ad campaigns to launch a new line of products in 20 international markets with a 13-point lift average in ad recall and a 36-point lift average in add to cart.

Other than this, 44% of local businesses rely on social media for brand awareness . So, to put it plainly, social media channels are accessed every day by billions of users across the globe. Thus, making them a hotspot for marketing your business.

2. Direct communication

Communication is the key to every relationship, and it works best in the case of consumers and suppliers. With the help of social media, one can let go of the middle man. Thus, brands can interact directly with their customers.

These days Google comes after social networks for product search and service hunt. 90% of customers have used social media channels to communicate with the brand. Moreover, 63% of users expect that brands should provide customer service via social networks.

Hence, along with building brand value, you must harness social media to, ask customers for reviews  and resolve their issues.

3. High traffic at a low price

It’s common for startups to have a resource crunch. Hence, it becomes quite critical to spend your penny wisely while planning your marketing strategy. While most media can cost you an arm and a leg, social media marketing fits the bill in tactful promotions.

It is highly cost-effective. However, social media channels like Facebook and Instagram charge for the marketing campaign. The good thing is that one can decide his or her budget. Moreover, other than paid campaigns, it will still show you decent results if you take an organic approach.

If you plan and produce your content correctly, marketing on social media can bring you a higher return on investments. It will attract the audience that is most likely to convert into customers. Make sure that you create and include striking visual content , as it is most likely to get the user’s attention.

All these reasons sum up the importance of social media marketing for startups. And if you are unsure, go ahead and employ a social media marketing company to help you.

What to do before you start social media marketing?

Well, SMM is not just creating an ad on Facebook and BOOM! You are on the top. Wish it was that easy!

There are multiple attributes that you need to analyze carefully before going for the marketing streak. Here are some of those factors you ought to consider.

1. ICP (Ideal customer profile)

When you go on a social network, there are many types of users on it. Just like their distribution category, there are also different content preferences. All of them will not be interested in your startup with just one type of content.

Hence, it is necessary to check various attributes. After you have an insight into the customer’s behaviour, you can get a better understanding of:

• The type of content that needs to be developed
• The segment of the audience to target
• The specific location

And others, then only you will be able to formulate a strategy for social media marketing .

Moreover, you need to list the customers and firms based on your ICP, research the common links between the customers, and filter out key people you need to target.

2. Core values

The second in line aspect that you need to be sure about before you begin social media marketing is the core values of the campaign. This should include everything that you need from your SMM campaign.

Some firms create online pages on Facebook to gather feedback for their products. This helps them understand the demand and market of the product clearly , thus helps them visualize their goal. Based on this, they set future goals that they need to achieve.

After all, if you will be clear about your expectations, whether it is boosting app installs, raising user awareness, generating leads, etc. You will be able to plan your SMM campaign easily.

3. Think through customer preferences on groups and communities

Well, as teased above in the ICP part of social media strategy for startups, this factor will benefit you a lot, provided you have done your homework. While recognizing the ICP for your SMM campaign, it is necessary to research individual users, local and foreign communities, and groups most likely to convert into customers.

You can easily find these tribes on Facebook groups, LinkedIn communities, and websites like Growth Hackers, Indie hacker, Hackernoon, Slack, and many others. It is necessary to discover these social media groups to grow your brand as they are the primary hotspots for your business success.

One crucial thing that you need to make sure of is the activity level of the communities. There will be no benefit in targeting groups that have sluggish engagement and little response.

Launching a social media marketing campaign

Now that you are well-versed with the concept of finding groups and communities on social networks, it is time to check what channels you need to leverage for the outreach.

1. Decide the channels

There are various social media channels that you can leverage for your business. The point that will help you decide is the niche of your startup. For example, if you have an educational startup, you can go for LinkedIn ads or Facebook ads.

As per Statista, 29.4% of Facebook users are between 13-24 years of age . So, Facebook can be one of the prime channels for marketing your startup.

If you are a recruitment startup, choosing LinkedIn will be like hitting the bull’s eye for you. LinkedIn is a professional platform with over 756 million users and will serve you great for getting quality leads.

Facebook, with monthly active users of over 2.70 billion , is ideal for almost all sorts of businesses. Here are some of the best examples of it:

• Under Armour, an American sportswear maker, had a 35% increase in conversion rate and a 2X increase in return on investment via its Facebook ad campaign.
• Invstr, an investing app, received a 2.8X boost in registrations and a 2.5X boost in app installs.

Apart from this, you will find umpteen classic examples that prove the dominance of social media in marketing.

To make your marketing campaign more attractive and interactive, you can leverage the latest trends like:

• AR (Augmented reality) in Facebook stories, Instagram, and Snapchat stories.
• Run direct shoppable ads.
• Hire an influencer who has a high following on social networks.
• Let users interact with chatbots for their issues and concerns. This will help handle user complaints after regular working hours.
• Utilize lead magnets like free webinars, free whitepapers, free PowerPoint templates, and other useful sorts of content for branding.

2. Focus on organic growth of the brand

Now, SMM is not just about running high-quality ads on social media. You need to do a lot more to make people aware of your startup. For example, you must have noticed that many brands interact with their audience via Facebook posts. People tell their problems in the comments, and the concerned person responds.

As 80% of people use social media to communicate with the brand , it becomes necessary for you to use them. Moreover, once you are aware of the customer’s issues via social media you can create an organic social media strategy . Content like a blog post or a video highlighting their issues and their respective solutions can be shared with the targeted groups, pages, and communities.

This method of interacting with your target audience will help in the organic growth of your startup . Plus, it will also help in attracting quality traffic to your business website.

For example, let’s say you promote a new platform for marketers. Then, you need to research Facebook communities using keywords like digital marketing, SEO marketing, social media marketing, B2B marketing, and so on.

Then, you need to check if this group is alive: how often there are publications, how many likes and comments they collect, and so on.

Create a relevant post you wanted to write about. Ensure to check the reaction of the community. Important note: you need to answer each commentary.

It saves you from being moderated, boosts engagement, and drives traffic for free.

3. Toolkits for social media marketing for startups

As your business grows with time, it will become necessary for you to keep your social media channel updated after regular working hours. And working out of your time zone can affect your body as well as your mind.

So, here arises the need to identify the best time to post on social media and utilize tools to automate the timely sharing of content.

There are various tools on the web that you can use:

• SocialPilot: This is an awesome tool that can be used to schedule posts on multiple social media platforms, and analyze results for multiple accounts. With this tool, you can also reply to comments and messages on Facebook. One can also collaborate with their team using SocialPilot .
• Hubspot: Hubspot is a Customer Relationship Management software useful in maintaining coordinated communication with the customers. The tool features aspects like customer interactions, a track record of sales, and collaboration with your team. Hubspot is the best for B2B communication and management.
• Lempod: As per the general definition, Lempod is a chrome extension that helps in enhancing LinkedIn engagement. With Lempod, you can find groups and communities on LinkedIn that will support your curated content. You can filter those groups by using a location filter or based on the industry. The tool will help you foster likes and comments on your post. It will also enhance the visibility of the campaign.

Techniques that strengthen social media marketing

Now, as you know the what and how of social media marketing, you will be able to design and run a highly productive SMM campaign. But, if you want to strengthen it further, you can club with other marketing techniques. Here are some of the activities that you can undertake along with SMM to power up your marketing process:

• Retargeting: This is the phase that comes after you have attracted enough traffic to your website via your regular ads. Statistics suggest that the average click-through rate (CTR) of retargeting ads is 10 times more than the regular ads. Hence, make sure you focus on this too.
• Email marketing: The process of pitching potential clients with your products and services via email is known as email marketing. You can implement this besides your campaign as the market is expected to go up to $9 billion by 2027.
• SEO: As mentioned above in the reasons to choose SMM, SEO plays an important role while creating content for your marketing campaign. Embedding the right keywords and phrases in your content helps in boosting your site’s rank in Google search results, thus, making your site easy to find.

Final advice

Social media marketing for startups can be tricky on multiple levels. The reach might pose an issue, targeting can be a challenge, and setting budgets with dismal results might beat you down.

But with apt experimentation and continual efforts, you can achieve the needed results. Another thing to bear in mind is that social media is rewarding to those who are consistent. And the is always a perfect social media marketing company out there to help if you are a new brand looking to establish yourself.

That’s where SocialPilot comes in. It is one of the best social media management tools to create an everlasting presence on the social media forefront. Take its free trial for a blazing performance!

Frequently Asked Questions

🌟 How can social media help startups?

Social media can help startups connect with the target audience, find leads, collect feedback, launch new products and services, and run ad campaigns. They can additionally use social media for competitive analysis to watch out for their competitors.

🌟 What do startups post on social media?

Startups can share a plethora of posts on social media. Some of them are:

• Tutorial videos
• Promo videos
• Infographics
• Case studies

🌟 Do startups need social media?

Yes, startups need social media to spread the word about their existence. Unlike established brands, startups struggle to be recognized at their nascent stage. However, if they use social media actively, they can quickly become popular among their target audience.

🌟 What’s the best social media platform for business?

Different businesses perform differently on social media platforms because of the niche audience demographics. However, the most popular social media platforms that go down well for most businesses are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

🌟 How do startups do social media marketing?

Social media marketing for startups needs more effort towards content creation as they are yet to figure out what engages their audience the most. Startups can have a dedicated team to create content calendars and synchronize the development of the content piece with its visual elements. Once this is done, they can use a scheduling tool to share these posts and use analytics to measure their social media performance.

🌟 Which is the best social media scheduling tool for startups?

SocialPilot is one of the best social media scheduling tools for startups and agencies. It is pretty affordable, with truckloads of features that are required to manage multiple social media accounts. It also has team collaboration capabilities for a seamless workflow.

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Maksym Babych

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The complete guide to social media for businesses

Written by by Brent Barnhart

Published on  May 25, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

Hot take: mastering social media is what sets businesses today apart.

Competition is fierce among brands and attention is scarce. Establishing an identity and sense of community via social is key to standing out.

Not to mention attracting valuable new customers.

Done right, a goal-driven social strategy means positive results for your business. Countless brands have been built from the ground up via Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Wrangling your social media strategy can be daunting with so many moving pieces. This is especially true if you’re totally new to the space. We get it.

That’s why we put together this post breaking down the basics of social media for business.

Table of contents

Benefits of social media for business

Setting social media goals for your business, follow these 5 social media tips for business.

• Use social media marketing tools for business

Uncover social analytics and reporting for business

Involve your c-suite and employees to amplify your business, work on a corporate communication plan.

• Go beyond the basics of social media for business

“Okay, so why is social media important for business?”

Good question! A decade ago, the upsides of social media for business were tougher to quantify.

Thankfully, times have changed and ROI is no longer a question mark. Let’s be crystal clear:

Social media is valuable for businesses of any size or industry. Finding customers on social media has a direct impact on sales and your bottom line.

Building awareness. Nurturing leads and driving sales. Community-building.

The list goes on given that the benefits of social media aren’t one-size-fits-all. That said, here are five upsides that brands can see from a smart social presence.

Like it or not, social media has become a go-to research channel for consumers at large.

Think about your own experience looking up businesses.

Chances are you’ve visited a restaurant’s Facebook to confirm their hours. Maybe you’ve combed a company’s IG content and comments to see if their products live up to the hype. This highlights how social media builds awareness for brands in a way that your website can’t.

Your business’ social presence is a powerful touchpoint with new customers. That’s because social media serves as an authentic reflection of what a company is all about.

Comments and shout-outs from satisfied customers speak volumes about your business. If someone’s first impression of your business is a glowing social review, that’s a huge plus.

Create a meaningful connection with your customers

It’s no exaggeration to say that social media serves as a Swiss Army Knife for customer support .

For reference, many brands use their social presence to…

• Answer questions from potential customers
• Handle concerns from existing customers
• Celebrate and welcome new customers
• Gather feedback from your target audience

Show off your products (and what makes them compelling)

From testimonials to tutorials and beyond, social media is a prime place to show off products.

As noted in the Sprout Social Index™ , the most popular types of posts teach people how products work.  For example, an IG Reel or TikTok can educate a potential customer in a matter of seconds. Contrast this with static photos and traditional product descriptions.

Formats such as short-form video empower brands to bring their products to life. Bonus points if you can feature real people and satisfied customers in your content.

Increase your brand’s visibility and reach

Recent demographics show us that people are spending hours per day on social media, not just a few minutes here and there.

This highlights the value of businesses having an established social presence. Many potential customers will see your brand’s Facebook or IG before they see your website.

Look no further than the rise of social search as evidence of this. Trends and research say that young consumers treat social media like a search engine .

The more word of mouth your business earns, the easier it is for your audience to find you. This applies to social searchers and potential customers alike.

Gather real-time insights to make data-driven business decisions

Social media marketing for business is about so much more than promotion.

Consider how you can use analytics to research the following in real-time:

• Audience pain points
• Competitor messaging and content
• Sentiment analysis (and how people feel about your brand)
• The most popular types of products and content among your follow
• The latest trends in your industry

And that only scratches the surface!

From your audience to competitors, there’s no better place to conduct market research . That’s because social media is a treasure trove of data points that are all out in the open.

The benefits of using social media for business speak for themselves.

That said, achieving them doesn’t happen by accident. That’s why goal-setting is so important.

Keep in mind that social media goals > are unique as they’re totally dependent on your business. Also, you can set multiple goals that actually overlap and influence each other. Goals affect everything from your content strategy to the social platforms you use.

Setting social media goals for business

There’s no “right” way to set goals but the process can be a lot. A few tips to get you started:

• Start with the big picture before getting granular. Why does your business need a social presence? What resources do you need to make those results a reality?
• Look at your target audience and customer personas . For example, how are your customers using social media? Is your audience glued to TikTok or Instagram? What types of content do they want to see? Brainstorm how using social media for business can help you reach your audience.
• Think about your business’ holistic marketing strategy and how social media fits in.
• Tie your social media goals to actual metrics and KPIs . This is a big one in an era where marketers are under pressure to prove ROI. From engagement to traffic and beyond, there’s plenty to track.

Sample B2B social media goals and KPIs

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Lead generation (marketing qualified leads)
• Competitor analysis (share of voice) and market share
• Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc.)
• Drive customer loyalty (+ CX) and reduce churn
• Customer service efficiencies (engagement speed and rates)
• Reputation management
• Customer satisfaction
• Positive reviews
• Customer sentiment online

Sample B2C social media goals and KPIs

• Find new sales opportunities (conversations to join)
• Uncover brand expansion opportunities
• Reputation management (engaging with inbound messages)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Inspire customer loyalty
• Product launch analysis
• Competitive analysis

Create a social media strategy for business

Let’s say you have your goals squared away.

Remember: effectively using social media for business means having a plan. Posting at random won’t do you any favors. Without a strategy, your social presence can quickly become a time-sink.

No pressure, right? Mapping your social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to be daunting. To keep your focus and avoid getting overwhelmed, here’s what we suggest you focus on:

• Ensure social goals solve challenges
• Extend social marketing efforts throughout your organization
• Focus on networks that add value
• Create engaging content
• Identify business opportunities through social
• Engage instead of ignore
• Track, improve and market your effort

If you focus on these points, you’ll already be way ahead of the curve.

There’s no shortage of social media tips out there to help you fine-tune your strategy.

Some best practices related to social media for business are relative. Below are five universal tips that are fair game for companies of all shapes and sizes.

1. Build a human, people-first social presence

This might seem like a no-brainer.

That said, busy businesses tend to get stuck in a “copy-and-paste” approach to social. Comments and social captions should feel like they were written by a real person, not a robot.

Injecting personality into your posts is a low-hanging way to relate to your audience. Beyond that, personalizing your replies to people shows that you’re there to help them. This is an example of how to use social media for business to build connections.

2. Look at your social presence as a resource ( not just a promotional channel)

Don’t make the mistake of treating your social presence as a dumping ground for offers. Building an audience means being genuinely helpful, not salesy.

Many of the best practices across social media treat their accounts as resources. That means:

• Creating actionable, educational content (think: how-tos, tutorial videos)
• Answering questions and sharing advice with your audience
• Sharing company updates and keeping customers in the loop (see below)

Imagine that your social accounts are your first touchpoint with a potential customer. Sharing resources makes a better first impression than screaming “BUY NOW!”

3. Show up consistently

This applies to both publishing content and engaging with customers.

Conventional wisdom says that social media algorithms reward consistency. Sprout’s own research on the best times to post on social media confirms this.  If nothing else, letting your social feeds gather cobwebs isn’t a good look.

Neither is leaving your followers hanging. Making a conscious effort to reply to questions and comments is crucial. This is why you need to keep a close eye on your @tags and social notifications.

4. Be prepared to experiment with different types of content

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the types of content they can post.

Below are two examples of brands with diverse social feeds in terms of content.

From short-form videos to Stories and slideshows, you have plenty of options. Different industries and types of brands thrive on different types of content.

That said, don’t make assumptions when it comes to what performs best.

Just because a competitor posts a bunch of memes doesn’t mean you should follow suit. Let your own analytics and engagement guide your content strategy.

5. Don’t treat your social presence like an island

Social media shouldn’t be a siloed channel separate from the rest of your marketing efforts.

From announcements to offers and company initiatives, social can be in the middle of it all. For example, a feature rollout isn’t something a SaaS brand should restrict to its email list. These sorts of updates should be front and center on social, too.

A more holistic approach to social media marketing for business is ideal. In turn, you maximize your marketing assets elsewhere and see a greater ROI for your efforts.

Use social media marketing tools for businesses

Good news: you’re not expected to do everything totally DIY when building your presence.

There’s no shortage of social media marketing tools out there to help with the heavy lifting. Depending on your needs, you might consider investing in a combo of the following:

• Scheduling tools that allow you to queue up content across multiple platforms
• Analytics tools that measure content performance and engagement (see Sprout Social below)
• Listening and monitoring tools that make it easier to track audience conversations

Remember: the purpose of these tools should be to make you more productive. A big challenge in building any sort of marketing stack is redundancies. It’s easy to invest in tools that overlap. This results in brands burning through their budgets and needlessly bouncing between platforms.

The more opportunities to consolidate your tools, the better. Working with fewer tools means squeezing the most out of what you have. Also, you save a ton of time onboarding.

The less bouncing between tools, the better. This speaks to the value of an all-in-one social media management platform like Sprout.

With Sprout, brands access a comprehensive suite of social tools and analytics. For example, the platform makes it a cinch to map out your content calendar across platforms. This is a shining example of how to save time and avoid bouncing between tools.

Sprout’s analytics and dashboards encourage a goal-driven approach to social media for business. Advanced analytics means fewer question marks and a better understanding of your presence. This includes your top-performing content and social channels.

In short, you have a constant pulse on what’s working, what’s not and what you should do next.

As noted earlier, social media shouldn’t be treated as an island.

This applies to your own team as well. The sooner you’re able to get approval and buy-in from your C-Suite, the better. Brand-building through employee advocacy is another way to use social media for business.

Employee advocacy is the promotion of a brand by its employees on social media.  Instead of solely promoting products, advocates promote a company at large. This means:

• Sharing behind-the-scenes experiences about work life
• Celebrating team members and workplace accomplishments
• Amplify company messages and promotions

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of employee advocacy in action on LinkedIn.

Again, the crowded nature of social media means anything you can do to stand out is a plus. Advocacy is an opportunity to boost your company’s profile and exposure via social.

One last pointer for anyone on the enterprise level.

The power of social media as a communication channel shouldn’t be taken lightly. Brands have the opportunity to reach massive audiences at a moment’s notice. This applies to customers, industry leaders and competitors alike.

The stakes are high for large companies with significant audiences and stakeholders. That’s why having a corporate communication plan is crucial. In short, you need to establish rules for:

• Internal communication , including employee engagement and internal marketing
• External communication , including PR and how you speak to the public
• Executive communication (ex: how the C-level discusses your company on social media)
• Crisis communication to deal with controversies and damage control situations

Having all of the above squared away empowers brands to have consistent messaging. Likewise, you can avoid miscommunication and countless public headaches in the process.

Going beyond the basics of social media for business

An active social presence is an expectation, not an exception for companies today.

The tips and best practices above serve as a solid foundation. With the right goals and mentality, social media can have a positive impact on your business.

Building a results-driven social media presence is so much easier with a platform like Sprout.  From content to trend analysis and beyond, Sprout empowers brands to build their presence with confidence. If you haven’t already, test-drive a free trial of Sprout Social to see the full suite in action for yourself!

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Social Media Management Buyer’s Guide

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Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

Social Media Business Plan

A comprehensive business plan contains strategies, tactics, and action plans for marketing and business promotions. It is essential for you to come up with activities that will allow your business to boost its brand’s visibility and widen its market share. One of the most used platforms for marketing nowadays is social media. Most businesses even have a separate  social media marketing proposal  to ensure the relevance of the social media action plans that will be used within a given time duration. If you want to benefit from using social media as a marketing platform, we suggest you come up with a detailed social media business plan.

• 10+ Business Marketing Plan Examples
• 10+ Social Media Marketing Plan Examples

Social Media Business Plan Template

• Google Docs

Size: US, A4

Social Media Plan Template

Social Media Sales Plan Template

We came up with a listing of downloadable social media business plan examples in PDF that are all available for you to browse through in this post. Try to download any of the examples and use them as your guides and references when formatting the content of your own social media business plan .

Social Media Plan for Small Businesses

Size: 617 KB

Social Media Tactical Plan for Your Business

Size: 668 KB

Business Planning with Social Media Strategies

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What Is a Social Media Business Plan?

Creating a social media business plan is more than the development of  social media brochure designs and examples . There are more items and elements involved in the making of this document as it is important for work processes and call-to-actions to be planned accordingly so that the business can get the maximum benefits from its social media efforts.

Knowing how a social media business plan can help your business can make you more eager to create the specified document. Hence, you have to be knowledgeable of the nature of the document’s usage as well as the ways on how you can incorporate your resources and deliverable in the plan that you will be making. Understanding what a social media business plan truly is can help you focus on the minute details of your planning processes. Here are some of the ways on how a social media business plan can be defined:

1. A social media business plan serves as a guide when it comes to the implementation of particular call-to-actions. With the help of this document, you can make sure that the workforce will have a reference whenever their deliverable are already needed for your social media business action plans to become a success. You may also see  importance of business plans .

2. A social media business plan is one of the most recent documents that is used by businesses across different industries. With the rampant growth and development of digital processes and electronic transactions, it is only imperative for your business to also benefit from any technological advances. Using a social media business plan as a marketing document can help you plot all the requirements and specifications of your social media marketing activities. You may also see business plan guidelines examples .

3. A social media business plan contains all the marketing, advertising, and promotional activities that you will realize with the help of any social media platform. This document is used to outline and present the ways on how you can maximize the online pages and accounts of your business to boost sales and improve your market reach. You may also like business operational plan examples .

Business Development Social Media Planning

Digital Marketing Plan with Social Media Strategic

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Social Media Strategic Plan Example

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How to Make a Social Media Business Plan

A  social media marketing plan  can be very beneficial to your business as it can yield results without too much financial allocation and physical marketing efforts. This is one of the reasons why most businesses resort to the usage of social media as a marketing tool rather than sticking with traditional marketing practices. A step-by-step process that you can follow if you want to begin the development of your own social media business plan include the following:

1. Know the purpose or the reason of the social media business plan’s creation so that you can identify all the goals that you will set for the plan and its execution. Make sure that the action plans and goals that you will come up with are aligned with the vision and objectives of the organization. You may also check out hotel business plan examples .

2. Your audience should be a vital part in your thought process once the development of the business plan is already on the works. You have to know your audience as well as their social media activities. This can be done through the usage of surveys and questionnaires. Ask relevant questions like the social media platform where your audience is mostly at or the kind of social media activities that they usually engage in. You might be interested in market analysis business plan examples .

3. If possible, try to evaluate the current practices and social media efforts of your competition. This can help you identify the things that have worked when it comes to the line of your business and the kinds of social media activities that you plan to have. More so, doing this can give you an idea of the social media trends that get the most views and audience participation that you can use to the advantage of your business. You may also like business plan outline with examples .

4. Once you are already aware of who your audience is and the activities of your competition that get the most engagement from clients and customers, the next thing to do is to plot your own social media action plans. Make sure that your action plans are based on the goals and objectives that you have thought of as well as that of the business’s. The proper alignment of your action plans with the things that the business would like to achieve can make it easier for you to execute your social media activities smoothly and accordingly. You may also check out implementation plan examples .

5. Set up actual social media accounts as this will be the start of your social media efforts as well as your evaluation on whether your social media business plan worked or not. It is recommended for you to come up with a content timeline and calendar that will present the things that you need to post, the kind of engagement that you would like to have, and the time frames in which particular marketing materials are expected to be uploaded in your social media accounts. You may also see advertising and marketing business plan examples .

6. Evaluate the document and review the content of your social media business plan once again. Continue the activities that worked for your business and make sure to have backup plans whenever some of your social media actions fail to gather the kind of response that you expect. You may also like company plan examples .

7. Update your social media business plan from time to time so that you can use it as a reference whenever you already need to make a new social media business plan for your next operational year. You may also check out advertising plan examples .

Social Media Marketing Planning Guide for Your Organization

Social Media Strategy Template for Business Planning Example

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Is Your Social Media Business Plan Effective and Efficient Enough?

A  social media marketing business plan  is a critical document that contains particular information about your marketing action plans and social media business strategies. This document is very important as it can dictate the direction in which your social media and marketing team must go so you can improve the online presence of your business. Listed below are some of the ways on how you can measure the effectiveness and efficiency of your social media business plan.

1. You have to identify the key metrics and baselines that can contribute with the objective evaluation of your social media business planning and marketing successes. Know the improvement of your market reach, the sentiments and insights of your audience, the realization of your social media mission, and the continuous engagement of your audience with particular kinds of social media activities. You might be interested in annual plan examples .

2. It will be great if you can use social media business tools that can track your visitors and the people who have participated in your marketing activities. This will enable you to document the specific customers that are engaged in your social media efforts which can result to the creation of social media action plans that can persuade these people to purchase your products or acquire your services. You may also like quality plan examples .

3. Your content must be aligned with the brand of your business. More so, it is important for you to come up with content that can engage your target audience in the best way possible. Optimize the usage of your marketing efforts in social media so that you can ensure that it can be an added value to your business plan.

4. Make sure that your planning processes will include the auditing of your current social media practices, activities, and efforts. You have to know the current condition of your business with regards this matter so that you can identify ways on how you can better your social media presence or visibility. You may also see  coffee catering business plan

 Social Media Strategy Workbook for Business, Operational

Social Media Action Plan as a Part of Your Business Strategic Plan Example

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Social Media Business Plan Preparations

There are different kinds of  social media marketing examples  that can sometimes distract you when selecting the social media activities that you will incorporate in your business plan. Through the usage of a social media business plan, you can be more organized when choosing call-to-actions that are truly suitable with the marketing needs of your business. There are a few things that you always have to remember if you want to start preparing the content of your social media business plan. Some of the useful tips that you can follow when developing your own social media business plan include the following:

1. It is suggested for your social media business plan to be as specific as possible. This is for the reason that a more precise listing of your action plans can actually result to a more focused and directed execution. If you can develop a concise and precise social media business plan, you can ensure that there will be more organization when it comes to implementing your desired actions.

2. Ensure that you are aware of the purpose of your social media account. Keep in mind that all your digital footprints can be seen by your target audience. It will be best if you can develop specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound goals so you can be well-guided when following the direction of your social media business plan’s execution. You might be interested in daily plan examples .

3. Keep in mind that a social media account that is owned by your business is considered as a touch point where you can connect and communicate with your target audience. Hence, you have to be careful when it comes to replying with your clients, liking photos or any other information, and commenting on issues especially those that involve your business. You may also check out sales plan examples .

4. Review the entirety of the social media business plan before submitting it to the decision-makers of the business. You have to make sure that you have presented the necessity of the document’s usage so that the organization will be more than willing to provide the requirements of your social media marketing action plans. You may also see  consulting business plan.

With the examples that you can download from this post and the useful discussions that we have added in our list, we hope that you already have enough references to use if you want to create a social media business plan for your organization. Make sure to not copy everything in our examples and only use these items as your formatting and content development guides. Create a social media business plan now and evaluate how its implementation can help add up to the value of the business as well as your ability to realize the corporate vision of your company. You may also see strategic plan examples .

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Create a study plan for final exams in high school

Develop a project timeline for a middle school science fair.

How to Start a Social Media Management Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Dreaming of turning your social media savvy into a thriving business? You’re not alone. With the digital world spinning at a breakneck pace, there’s never been a better time to dive into social media management. It’s an exciting journey, filled with opportunities to connect, engage, and grow brands in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago.

But where do you start? Launching a social media management business might seem daunting, but it’s absolutely achievable with the right approach. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a social media enthusiast looking to professionalize your passion, this guide is your first step towards building your empire. Let’s get the ball rolling and turn your dreams into reality.

Researching the Market

Before you dive headfirst into the world of social media management, it’s critical to understand the landscape you’re about to enter. Researching the market isn’t just a preliminary step; it’s your roadmap to carving out a successful niche for your business.

Identify Your Target Audience

The first step is to pinpoint who you’re aiming to serve. Different industries have varying needs, and your services must align with those demands. Whether it’s small local businesses, mid-sized tech firms, or large e-commerce platforms, understanding your target audience’s pain points will shape your offerings.

• Small local businesses might need more engagement and community building.
• Tech firms may prioritize brand awareness and lead generation.
• E-commerce platforms could focus on conversions and sales-driven campaigns.

Analyze Your Competition

You’re not the only one eyeing the social media management space. There’s a good chance you’ll find competition, but that’s not necessarily bad news. Analyzing your competitors can reveal gaps in the market you can exploit. Look at their service offerings, pricing structures, and client reviews. Identify what they’re doing well and areas where you could offer something different or better.

Stay Abreast of Social Media Trends

Social media is an ever-evolving platform. What worked yesterday might not work today. Stay updated with the latest trends, algorithms, and features across different platforms. This not only helps you in crafting effective strategies but also positions you as a forward-thinking business.

• Platforms like Twitter and Instagram often update their algorithms and features.
• New social media platforms can emerge, offering fresh avenues for marketing.

Understand the Legal and Financial Aspects

Running a social media management business isn’t just about creativity and strategy. You need to be well-versed in the legal requirements, including contracts, copyright laws, and privacy policies. Additionally, understanding the financial side, like setting up your pricing structure and managing invoices, is key to maintaining a healthy business.

Defining Your Niche

When diving into the social media management realm, pinpointing your niche is like discovering your secret sauce. It’s not just about choosing a field you’re passionate about; it’s about leveraging your unique skills and expertise to stand out in a crowded market. Remember, when you try to appeal to everyone, you often connect with no one. That’s why honing in on a specific niche can help you become the go-to expert for a particular audience or industry.

First off, let’s break down how you can identify your niche. Think about the intersection of your interests, skills, and market demand. Are you a wizard at creating engaging content for health and wellness brands? Or perhaps you have a knack for boosting the online presence of local restaurants. Whatever it might be, your niche should capitalize on your strengths and interests .

Here’s a simple exercise to get you started:

• List down your passions and areas of expertise
• Research industries or sectors that resonate with your interests
• Identify the common challenges or needs of these sectors in terms of social media marketing

This process might take some time, but it’s a crucial step in establishing a solid foundation for your business. Once you’ve identified your niche, you’ll find it easier to create targeted strategies that resonate with your audience. It also simplifies the process of marketing your services, since you’ll know exactly who you’re talking to and what problems you’re solving for them.

Moreover, specializing in a niche allows you to stay updated more effectively . Social media trends evolve at breakneck speed, and having a focused niche means you can keep your finger on the pulse of the trends and changes that matter most to your target audience. This level of insight positions you as a thought leader and gives your business a competitive edge.

Embracing a niche does not limit your business—it empowers it. It enables you to create more personalized, impactful social media strategies that truly resonate with your clients. This focus not only enhances your service quality but also builds your brand’s reputation as a specialized, knowledgeable entity in the social media landscape.

Creating a Business Plan

Starting a social media management business without a robust business plan is like navigating a dense forest without a map. You’ll want to outline your mission, understand your financials, and have a clear strategy for acquiring clients.

First off, define your mission statement . This should encapsulate why you’re starting this business and what you hope to achieve. It doesn’t have to be long, but it should be compelling enough to motivate you and resonate with your potential clients.

Next, dive into the market analysis . Here, you’re assessing the demand for social media management in your target niche. Use the insights gained from researching your market and analyzing your competition to refine your value proposition. Knowing who needs your services and why they can’t do without them is crucial.

One of the most critical components of your business plan will be the financial projections . Even if numbers aren’t your forte, it’s essential to get a handle on this. Estimate your startup costs, pricing strategy, and forecast your revenue for at least the first year. Consider using tools or software to help if you’re not confident in your accounting skills. Here’s a basic breakdown:

Finally, outline your marketing and sales strategy . How will you attract your first clients? Maybe you’ll leverage your social media expertise to create a compelling online presence or network at local business events. Whatever your approach, ensure it aligns with your strengths and the preferences of your target market.

Remember, a well-thought-out business plan is your roadmap to success. It’ll help you stay focused, make informed decisions, and, most importantly, turn your passion for social media into a thriving business.

Building Your Brand

When you dive into the realm of a social media management business, you’re not just offering a service; you’re crafting a brand that resonates with your target audience. Your brand is essentially your business’s personality, and it’s what sets you apart in a saturated market. It’s the story you tell and how you tell it.

Your journey into branding begins with defining your brand identity . This involves pinpointing what your business stands for, its core values, and the unique voice you’ll use to communicate with your audience. You’re creating an identity that your customers can relate to and trust. Ask yourself what emotions you want your brand to evoke, and let that guide your narrative.

Next step: Visual Branding . This is where the fun really starts. Your logo, color scheme, and design elements need to reflect your brand’s personality. These visuals become your uniform ; they’re what people will recognize and associate with your brand wherever they see it. Whether it’s bold and energetic or soft and soothing, ensure your visual branding tells your story at a glance.

Consistency is key . Once you’ve established your brand identity and visuals, it’s crucial to maintain consistency across all platforms. This consistency helps in building familiarity and trust with your audience. Whether it’s your website, social media profiles, or marketing materials, your brand’s essence should be unmistakable.

Engagement is the next frontier. Building a brand is more than just broadcasting messages; it’s about creating conversations and building relationships with your audience. Show genuine interest in their needs and preferences. Feedback is golden—it’s not just information; it’s a signal that your audience cares enough to share their thoughts.

Lastly, tell your story. Every brand has a story, and sharing yours creates a powerful connection with your audience. It’s your journey, your struggles, and your victories. Letting your audience in on your story not only humanizes your brand but also inspires loyalty and trust.

Remember, building a brand doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey of continuous refinement and engagement. As you evolve, so will your brand, but the core of your brand—its identity and values—should remain steadfast, guiding you towards creating a lasting impact in the world of social media management.

Setting Up Your Infrastructure

After you’ve carved out your niche and fleshed out a killer business plan, it’s time to get down to the brass tacks of setting up your infrastructure. This is where the rubber meets the road in launching your social media management business. Getting your infrastructure right sets you up for efficiency, scalability, and ultimately, success.

First things first, you’ll need reliable tech tools. Your arsenal should include a powerful laptop, reliable internet connection, and subscriptions to essential social media management tools. Consider platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer for scheduling posts, and analytics tools like Google Analytics to track your campaigns’ performance. Remember, the right tools can significantly streamline your workflow, allowing you to manage multiple clients effectively.

Next, build your digital presence starting with a professional website. Your website is often the first point of contact for potential clients, so make sure it reflects your brand’s personality and showcases your services clearly. Implement SEO best practices to ensure you’re easily found by those looking for your expertise. Also, don’t forget about setting up professional social media profiles. They’re not just platforms for your clients’ campaigns but also potent tools for marketing your business.

Lastly, consider the backend of your operation. Establishing a legal structure for your business, like an LLC or sole proprietorship, safeguards your personal assets and lends credibility to your venture. Additionally, setting up a separate business banking account streamlines finances, making it easier to manage cash flow and prepare for tax season.

Remember, while these steps might seem daunting at first, they’re crucial for laying a solid foundation for your social media management business. By investing the time and resources upfront to get your infrastructure in place, you’re positioning yourself for smoother operations and greater focus on what you do best: driving social media success for your clients.

Creating Service Packages

After you’ve laid down the foundation of your social media management business by identifying your niche, building your brand, and setting up your infrastructure, it’s time to think about the services you’ll offer. Crafting well-defined service packages is crucial . Not only do they make your life easier, but they also help your clients understand exactly what they’re getting for their investment.

Start by listing all the services you’re capable of and willing to provide. This could range from creating and scheduling posts, managing ad campaigns, analyzing performance metrics, to providing strategic consultations. Remember, diversity in your offerings can help appeal to a broader audience.

Next, group these services into packages that make sense together and cater to different needs and budgets. Typically, businesses benefit from offering three tiers – basic , standard , and premium . The basic package could cover the essentials of social media management, the standard package could include additional services like engagement strategies or influencer partnerships, and the premium package could offer comprehensive management plus detailed analytics reports and strategic planning sessions.

Let’s talk pricing . It’s a delicate balance between valuing your time and expertise and remaining competitive within the market. Research what others in your niche are charging but also consider the unique value you bring to the table. It’s often helpful to base your prices on a combination of your experience, the demand for your services, and the outcomes you deliver.

Here’s a simple example of how you might structure your packages:

Remember, these packages aren’t set in stone. You should regularly review and adjust your offerings based on feedback, market trends, and your own capacity. This way, you’ll continue to meet the evolving needs of your clients and stay ahead of the competition.

Pricing and Billing Structure

Deciding on your pricing and billing structure is like laying down the financial foundation of your social media management business. It’s not just about what you earn; it’s about setting a value for your expertise, time, and the results you deliver. Let’s dive in, shall we?

First off, it’s crucial to break down your services into Hourly, Project-Based, and Retainer models. This structure allows flexibility and caters to a wide range of client needs and budgets. Here’s a quick outline:

• Hourly : Ideal for smaller tasks or consultations. You’ll charge based on the time you spend working on a client’s project.
• Project-Based : Best for one-off projects with a clear start and end date. Think campaign launches or setting up social media profiles.
• Retainer : Perfect for long-term relationships where clients need ongoing social media management. This guarantees you a steady income.

Next, let’s talk numbers. Setting your rates isn’t a one-size-fits-all; it’s a balancing act between what you need to earn and what the market will bear.

Remember, these rates are ballpark figures to get you started. Dive into your specific niche and adjust accordingly. Knowing your unique value proposition and understanding your target audience’s budget constraints will guide you to a sweet spot in pricing.

Finally, don’t shy away from being upfront about your billing practices. Whether you choose net-30 payment terms or require a 50% upfront payment for projects, clear communication is key. Consider offering multiple payment methods to accommodate your clients, including credit cards, PayPal, or bank transfers. This flexibility can enhance client satisfaction and streamline your cash flow.

Incorporating these strategies into your pricing and billing structure not only sets the stage for your financial success but also builds trust and transparency with your clients. Keep in mind, as your business grows and evolves, so should your pricing strategies. Stay attuned to market changes, client feedback, and your own business growth to ensure your pricing remains competitive and fair.

Marketing and Promoting Your Business

Once you’ve got your social media management business up and running, it’s crucial to get the word out. Don’t underestimate the power of marketing and promoting your venture. This stage is as critical as setting up your infrastructure or crafting your service packages.

Firstly, leverage social media . It might sound obvious, but your business needs to be as active and engaged on social media as the services you’re offering to clients. Showcase your expertise by sharing insights, tips, and success stories. It’s your playground and portfolio all in one.

Networking is key. Attend industry conferences, webinars, and local business events. Connecting with other professionals can lead to referrals, partnerships, and valuable insights into what’s trending in the social media realm. Remember, every person you meet is a potential client or a link to one.

Content marketing is another powerful tool. Start a blog, create videos, or even a podcast to discuss trends, offer advice, and share your success stories in social media management. This not only helps in establishing you as a thought leader but also improves your SEO, making it easier for potential clients to find you online.

Don’t shy away from paid advertising . Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram offer targeted advertising options that can significantly increase your visibility to the exact clientele you’re trying to reach. A well-crafted ad campaign can bring you right in front of decision-makers looking for social media management services.

Email marketing can’t be overlooked. Collect emails from your website through free offerings like ebooks, checklists, or webinars, and nurture these contacts with regular updates about your services, success stories, and special offers. Personalized, valuable email content can turn a casual visitor into a paying client.

Remember, marketing is not a one-off task but a continuous effort. Keep experimenting, measuring your results, and tweaking your strategies. Your business needs to evolve as rapidly as the social media landscape does, and so should your marketing efforts.

Finding and Onboarding Clients

After you’ve nailed down your marketing strategy, it’s time to focus on finding and onboarding clients, a critical step to kickstart your social media management business. Remember, every successful entrepreneur was once at this step, figuring out how to translate their passion for social media into a thriving business.

First off, networking is your golden ticket. Start with your immediate circles. Let your friends, family, and acquaintances know about your new venture. You’d be surprised how word-of-mouth can work its magic. Attend industry meetups, conferences, and webinars. Not only do these events offer knowledge, but they’re also ripe with potential clients and collaborators.

Next, social proof plays a crucial role. Build a robust portfolio showcasing your personal success stories or any projects you’ve worked on. If you’re just starting out, consider offering your services at a discounted rate to local businesses or non-profits to get those initial testimonials.

When it comes to onboarding clients , clarity and organization are key. Ensure you have a straightforward process in place. Here’s a simplified breakdown:

• Initial Consultation: Offer a free consultation to discuss your client’s needs, goals, and assess how your services can align with their expectations.
• Proposal: Following the consultation, send a customized proposal outlining your services, strategy, and pricing.
• Agreement: Once the proposal is accepted, move forward with a clear contract that outlines the scope of work, timelines, and payment terms.

Remember, communication is paramount throughout this process. Keep your clients informed and involved, making them feel valued and part of the journey.

In this digital age, tools and software can significantly streamline your onboarding process. From CRM platforms to project management tools, leveraging technology not only saves time but also enhances your professional image.

By focusing on these key aspects of finding and onboarding clients, you’re setting the foundation for not just acquiring clients but building long-term relationships.

Managing Client Relationships

After setting up your social media management business, finding clients, and onboarding them, it’s crucial to focus on managing client relationships effectively. Strong relationships are the backbone of any service-based business. They determine client retention rates and open doors to referrals that can grow your business exponentially. Here are key strategies to ensure you’re building and maintaining these vital connections.

First, consistent communication is key. You need to establish clear lines of communication from the get-go. Decide how often you’ll update clients on the progress of their social media campaigns, whether it be weekly emails, bi-monthly reports, or monthly calls. Stick to this schedule religiously. By doing so, you reassure your clients that their business is in good hands.

Transparency is another critical element. Always be honest about what’s working and what isn’t. If a particular strategy isn’t yielding the expected results, let your client know, and suggest alternatives. This honesty builds trust and demonstrates your commitment to their success.

Remember, feedback is a two-way street. Encourage your clients to share their thoughts on your services regularly. This can be done through simple feedback forms or during your update calls. Listening to your clients’ concerns and suggestions not only helps you tailor your services to their needs but also shows that you value their input.

Lastly, personalization goes a long way. Treat each client as if they’re your only client. Customize your services to fit their unique needs and goals. Recognize important dates like the anniversary of your working relationship or their business milestones. Small gestures like these can make a client feel valued and foster a deeper, long-term partnership.

By focusing on these aspects of client relationship management, you’re not just working for your clients; you’re working with them. This collaboration is what will set your social media management business apart from the competition and fuel its growth.

Scaling and Growing Your Business

Once you’ve laid the groundwork for your social media management business, it’s time to think about scaling and growth. You’ve mastered client acquisition, honed your services, and built a brand people trust. Now, let’s turbocharge that momentum.

Automation and Outsourcing are your best friends for scaling. Automating repetitive tasks frees up your time for strategy and business development. Consider social media scheduling tools, analytics reporting, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. For tasks that require a human touch but not necessarily your expertise, outsourcing to freelancers or virtual assistants is a game-changer. This can include content creation, graphic design, or even administrative tasks.

Expanding your Service Offerings can attract a broader audience and encourage existing clients to invest more in your services. Stay abreast of the latest social media trends and tools. Could you offer training or consulting? What about diving into emerging platforms or specializing in video content? The digital landscape is your playground.

Networking is essential for growth. Attend industry conferences, join professional groups, and connect with peers and potential clients online. Each interaction is an opportunity to learn and share knowledge, but also to Build Strategic Partnerships . These partnerships could be with complementary businesses, such as web design agencies or marketing firms, where you can refer clients to each other.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of your Existing Client Base . Offering impeccable service can turn clients into advocates for your business. Encourage referrals by creating an incentive program. Happy clients are often your best salespeople.

As you scale, remember to maintain the personal touch and high service quality that got you here. Growth is exciting, but your reputation is everything. Keep evaluating your processes, seek feedback, and always look for ways to improve. The journey of scaling your business is continuous, filled with learning and adaptation. Keep pushing forward, armed with your passion and the strategies you’ve developed along the way.

Embarking on your journey to start a social media management business might seem daunting at first. But with the right steps, it’s entirely achievable. Remember, the key is not just understanding social media but also the intricacies of running a business. Stay true to your niche, keep abreast of the latest trends, and don’t shy away from leveraging technology to streamline your operations. As you grow, remember the importance of maintaining that personal touch—it’s what will set you apart in a sea of competitors. Here’s to your success in turning your social media savvy into a thriving business. Cheers to your future achievements and the exciting journey ahead!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the first steps to turning social media savvy into a business.

The initial steps include researching the market, understanding your target audience’s needs, and analyzing competition. It’s also crucial to stay updated with social media trends and comprehend the legal and financial frameworks of running a business in this field.

How important is it to define your niche in the social media business?

Defining your niche is vital as it guides your marketing strategies, helps you understand your audience better, and sets you apart from the competition. It lays the foundation for building a focused and successful brand.

What role does creating a business plan play in starting a social media management business?

Creating a business plan is essential in mapping out the specifics of your business, including your value proposition, marketing strategies, financial projections, and operational plans. It acts as a roadmap for your business’s growth and helps attract potential investors or partners.

How can one effectively market and promote their social media management business?

Effective marketing and promotion can be achieved through leveraging social media platforms, engaging in content marketing to showcase your expertise, networking, and employing digital advertising strategies. It’s crucial to create a consistent and compelling brand message across all channels.

What strategies are important for scaling and growing a social media management business?

For scaling your business, consider automating repetitive tasks, outsourcing to specialists, expanding your service offerings, and building strategic partnerships. Networking and increasing customer retention by leveraging your existing client base can also fuel growth.

How can businesses maintain a personal touch while scaling?

Maintaining a personal touch involves continuing to engage with clients on a personal level, customizing services to meet individual client needs, and ensuring customer service remains a top priority. It’s about balancing growth with maintaining the quality of service that made your business successful.

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Ryan Kingsley

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How to Build a Social Media Strategy for Your Startup

Do you own a startup? Do you want to make it successful?

“Running A Business Is Easy.” -- Nobody ever said this.

You have created a great product or service, but that's not the hard part. The hard part is to convince people why should they care about your business and tell them what it can do for them.  According to this report , “Generating relevant traffic and leads are the top marketing challenges for a business.”

• Social Media

Social media can be your secret weapon to increase brand awareness and lead generation for your startup. The best part? It’s cost-effective mean of marketing. It’s not a channel that you SHOULD use, it has become a channel that you MUST use. It’s the most popular and effective medium to connect with your target audience and get your brand in front of them.

“Almost all the businesses and startups have social media profiles, then why do most of them fail?” I hear you ask.

You’re right, startups have social media pages, but the most common mistake they make is: NOT having a social media strategy. Only a correct plan and strategy can help you to improve brand awareness, customer acquisition, and lead generation.

71 percent of customers  who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others. Don’t worry! In this article, you’ll find five proven ways to build a social media strategy for your startup.

1. Build (or improve) Social Media Profiles

As I mentioned, social media has immense power to attract people, generate new leads and increase revenue. But it only works when you do it right, otherwise you’ll struggle to get desired results. What to do then?

Before creating a social media strategy establish your mission, objectives and goals that you need to achieve. Now check which social media platforms meet your objectives. You don’t have to be on every social network because each platform has its own audience and USP. Build yourself a strong social media page with each platform your enter. Make your social media page with complete business information and proper image sizes. Here’s a  guide for social media image sizes .

It’s Time To Improve And Update Them.

Do you have existing social media accounts? It’s time to improve and update them. Take a look at your social media statistics and demographics to understand your audience’s behavior and how it’s working. Choose the platform that meets your needs.

Julia C. Campbell as a voice for social media updates and improvements put it best  here :

“Pick one network and do it well first. Choose one that you like to use personally and are comfortable using. Master it.”

Facebook’s Audience Insights tool  allows you to check comprehensive demographics information.

Image via my personal Facebook account

2. Create a Content Strategy

You must create a content strategy and distribution plan before starting posts on your company’s social media accounts. Without a definite direction, you’ll be distracted. A clear definition of your desired state is going to allow you to use gap analysis to create  a laser-focused action plan  that is going to take you to your destination.

Here are some questions to get started:

Who’s your target audience for a particular content?

What types of content do you need to publish on social media?

What’s the frequency of your content?

What’s your plan to promote it?

First, answer these questions. Build a strategy and share the content your audience will enjoy. “I don’t know what to post on social media,” I hear you say.

A Few Ideas

If you have a startup for a marketing tool, start sharing content about marketing in form of blog content, videos, infographics, podcasts, presentations, etc. You can also share “Motivational Monday” images. Share inside photos of your office culture, this will give your followers insight into your company.

I recommend you to share relevant content from other sources regularly.

Always be consistent with your content. Follow the most popular 80-20 rule. 80 percent of your content should be informative and the other 20 percent can be promotional.

Piktochart regularly shares graphics on their  Twitter page .

3. Engage with your audience

Social media is for conversations. Engaging your audience on this channel can help you to build a community of fans for your brand. It can also help create fruitful relationships with your customers.

First, you need to post interesting content that encourages people to take an action. It could be a Twitter poll, a funny graphic, a video, or a product photo that encourages your audience to tag their friends.

How do you feel when people engage with your posts and comments? It feels awesome, right?

It gives you an opportunity to make a conversation and understand your audience. Here are some ways that you can consider:

Respond to these interactions appropriate and answer their queries.

Take the conversation further by asking a question.

There’s a negative comment. Don’t rush, respond positively and try to resolve the issue.

Run contests, ask people to take a specific action, and offer incentives.

When you respond to customers, they’ll more likely to purchase from you and will share a positive experience with more people.

Check out this Facebook Post of Modcloth. They did a great job here:

4. Go Live!

It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re, startups always look for a cost-effective social media marketing strategy. We live in the fast food world where people need everything instant. Facebook live is a great medium to produce instant content. You MUST include live video in your content plan.

It’s a fresh and unique way to provide appealing content to your audience. Popular brands already suing Facebook Live across the globe.  Livestream  discovered 80 percent consumers would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog and 82 percent prefer live video from a brand to social posts.

Use Live videos to ask questions, company culture, event, or product launch. It drives real-time engagement. Encourage your audience to comment and respond to their questions. Don’t forget to calling out their names. It makes people feel special to hear their names in your live video.

Here’s an example: Embed Code

<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftarget%2Fvideos%2F10154487189168120%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

5. Use Email to Support your Social Media

Do you think email and social media as a competing channels? You’re making a BIG mistake. Smart businessmen take these two channels as a team player to fulfil their purpose. Be a smart marketer and use the power of email to support your social media marketing.

Jay Baer put it best at  MarketingSherpa Email Summit :

“Email and social media have an important part to play in the conversation between company and consumer. They are strategically, operationally and tactically aligned — or if they aren't, they should be.”

Don’t forget to place social media follow button in your email campaigns and make it shareable. This act will help you to generate more reach and fans. Where you need to place the buttons in email: Above the fold OR below the fold?

I recommend you to Run an A/B test - Place the buttons above the fold in email A and below the fold in email B. And see the results.

In one study , marketers were asked: “Which marketing channels does your organization integrate with your email program?”

You can also send a dedicated email campaign to your subscribers and ask them to follow you. See how crocs does a great job:

I hope these five social media strategies will help you to grow your startup. Do you want to share something? Please drop your views here.

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About the Author

Megha Parikh is an experienced digital marketing specialist handles many aspects of marketing such as identifying a target market, helping to create a brand image, creating marketing campaigns and tracking marketing effectiveness.

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Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle

Launching on Social Media: A Timeline for Business Owners

Are you starting from scratch with social media? Got a new product or new business?

In this article, you’ll discover a six-step plan for launching your new social media presence. Plus you’ll learn about some key things to avoid in your planning process.

#1: 12 Weeks Before Launch: Choose Your Social Platforms

A few months before launch, choose which social platforms you'll use to launch your business. It's important to decide (or find out) how seriously you're going to take social media in the next 1-2 years. It's better not to launch on a platform at all than to create an account, post four times, and then forget it.

This is also when the social media manager (or team) should be coordinating with the marketing team or other marketing agencies (depending on the size of the company) to make sure your social media plan is integrated into a big-picture marketing approach.

You'll want to do a competitive analysis to get a feel for your market. This makes it easier to decide how you want to differentiate your business from your competitors. For example, you'll want to research what your competitors are doing on LinkedIn if you're thinking about creating a presence there.

Also determine your overall goals for converting social media followers into customers  and spend some time thinking about which platforms best support those goals.

#2: 8 Weeks Before Launch: Write Social Media Guidelines

The next step is to create character sketches and a brand handbook outlining your dos and don'ts for social media posts.

This step is vital if your social media presence is, or will be, managed by multiple people. Spend some time thinking of your brand as a character. You may even want to write up who they are. What are their extracurricular interests? What would their online dating profile say?

Here are a few more questions to get you started:

• Does your brand refer to itself as “we” or “I”?
• Are any words off-limits?
• Does your brand have a political leaning? How comfortable is your company with offending followers of a different political leaning?
• Will you respond to comments and how often? Even negative ones? What tone will you use to address negative comments? (There will be haters. It's a public forum after all.)
• If your social media account were a person, what would they do for fun? How would they talk? What TV shows or books would be of interest to them?

The answers to these questions may be different from the interests of the brand manager or CEO, as they should be. Unless you're creating a personal brand (in which case the answers to many of these questions will fall in line with you or the person you're representing), your brand's personality should be a reflection of the personas you want to attract.

Once your team has a good grasp of your “who,”  create a handbook to document rules and behaviors for your business on social media . As with all rules, some will be broken but having these guidelines in place will help establish your business during launch.

Pro Tip : Write the handbook as if you were explaining things to a new employee who doesn't know anything about your business. Who are you? What are you selling? How are you using social media to enhance the user experience with your business?

#3: 1-4 Weeks Before Launch: Create a Social Media Calendar

Next,  create a social media calendar for the first month, even if you don't plan on sticking to it 100%.

Rigid social media calendars can be constrictive, especially if you plan to comment on current events or use memes while they're still cool. But it's good to have goals for how often you'll post and have some planned shares on hand, especially for busy days.

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Before launch day, make sure you have 10-15 sample posts for each platform. Pass these posts around to the marketing team and key decision-makers. Or, if you're a solo-entrepreneur, try them out on socially savvy friends. This will give everyone (including you) a taste for your brand voice. If you report to higher-ups, everyone will be on the same page before planning has gone too far.

Pro Tip : Some of these posts may work to seed your accounts with activity before you're officially live.

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This is also a good time to start thinking a few months to a year ahead. Speaking to product or production managers about where your business is headed in the next year can provide ideas for the types of social campaigns you'll want to launch in the coming months.

As with most tasks, launching a social media campaign typically takes more time and planning than it may seem from the outset. If you can start getting the details together a few months out, future mini-launches will go more smoothly.

If possible, ensure that at least two people (the content writer and a proofreader) sign off on every post before it goes on the calendar. Typos are inevitable, but they're easy to prevent. Read this article to learn how to set up a social media approval process for your business .

#4: Launch Eve: Double-Check Details

On the day before launch, make a detailed to-do list and mark off every item before you leave the office.

Launch eves are often email-full days. Check in with this person, verify details with that person, and put out a few fires. The best way to keep everything straight is to create a checklist and double-check every detail. Don't make assumptions. Re-verify everything with the people you're depending on for a successful launch day.

Here are a few details to double-check:

• Your social media bios and art are the final versions.
• All posts are proofed and ready to go live with photos.
• Photos have watermarks, hashtags, or other necessary branding.
• Key people know when and what to post on their personal accounts, and you've accounted for different time zones.
• All links are correct.
• The social team is ready with launch-day goals and key performance indicators, and it's clear how these metrics will be measured .
• Everything has been signed off on.

#5: Launch Day: Start Engaging

If you've planned well, launch day is about execution and observation. Watch your well-prepared copy go live, hit Refresh until you're on the verge of carpal tunnel, and enjoy watching the brand you created come to life.

Today is also when you start engaging. Respond to your new fans' questions and comments. This is a first chance to show off your brand's personality.

Higher-ups may be expecting a brand launch post-mortem, so make sure you (or your social marketing team) measure engagement and take screenshots of successes throughout the day.

#6: Post-Launch: You're a Social Manager Now

After the launch, stay active and passionate, interact with fans, and develop your brand's personality as the company grows and changes.

There are too many tasks to list for this phase because it may comprise the rest of a social manager's job. Instead, here are some brand strategy points to consider adding to your handbook now that you're interacting with the public:

• If you received press coverage on launch day, select pieces to share and interact with the journalists, too.
• Get to know your first few followers and frequent posters. Who are these folks? How do they compare to the people you anticipated interacting with your business? How might these differences (if they exist) affect your strategy?
• Don't forget to experiment. Original plans for converting fans into buyers may not be as effective as expected. Plan to try (and measure the effects of) new tactics. That will keep the brand fresh and its social manager in constant idea mode.

Bonus Tips: What to Watch Out For

Now that you know the “dos” for launching a business on social media, here are a few launch “don'ts” to avoid:

• Don't count on launching a viral piece of content that will make or break your social success . Even if you get lucky, you'll need more than 15 seconds of fame to build a brand.
• Don't launch on a platform just for the sake of launching on that platform . Building a brand means generating unique and interesting content.
• Don't wait until 1-2 weeks before launch to begin social brainstorming . Make sure someone on the team is focused on social media content throughout development, whatever form “development” may take for your business.

When you're starting a new social media presence, it can be a strange sensation to post into a void, “Hello! We're here! Come buy our widget!” But, if you follow the tips and timeline above, you're sure to start with your best social foot forward.

Get More Advice on Social Media Marketing

• Establish a social strategy that will guide you closer to your marketing goals .
• Create buyer personas to use in your social media marketing .
• Develop a pipeline of content ideas that never ends .

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7 Strategies to Master Your Social Media Launch Plan

Launching a new product or service on social media can be overwhelming. With countless platforms and ever-changing algorithms, it’s easy to feel lost. That’s where a well-crafted social media launch plan comes in. It’s your roadmap to success.

Following the right strategies can capture attention, build excitement, and drive conversions. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting, this guide will equip you with the tools and knowledge to create a launch that leaves a lasting impression.

Let’s discover how to make your next social media launch successful.

1. Define Clear Goals and Objectives

A well-defined social media launch plan starts with setting clear, measurable goals. Without specific objectives, your efforts can lack direction and purpose. Clear goals provide a roadmap to success and help you track your progress.

Types of Goals to Consider

When defining goals, consider what you want to achieve with your social media launch. Here are some common objectives:

• Brand Awareness: Increase the visibility of your new product or service.
• Lead Generation: Collect potential customer information for future marketing.
• Sales: Drive direct sales through your social media channels.
• Engagement: Foster interaction with your audience through likes, comments, and shares.

How to Set Effective Goals

To set effective goals, use the SMART criteria. This approach ensures your goals are clear and attainable within a specified timeframe.

For example, instead of setting a vague goal like “increase followers,” set a SMART goal: “Increase Instagram followers by 20% in three months.”

Align Goals with Overall Business Objectives

Ensure your social media goals align with your overall business objectives. This alignment helps maintain consistency across all marketing efforts and maximizes the impact of your launch.

Utilizing SocialBu for Goal Tracking

SocialBu offers features to help you track and measure your progress toward these goals. You can monitor key metrics, schedule posts, and analyze performance, making it easier to stay on track and adjust your strategy as needed.

Define clear goals and objectives to set the foundation for a successful social media launch. These goals will guide your strategy, provide measurable benchmarks, and ensure your efforts align with your broader business objectives.

2. Research and Understand Your Target Audience

A successful social media launch plan hinges on deeply understanding your target audience . Knowing who your audience is, what they like, and how they behave on social media enables you to tailor your content and strategies effectively.

Identifying Your Target Audience

Start by defining your ideal customer’s demographics. Consider factors such as age, gender, location, income level, and education. Psychographic details, including interests, values, and lifestyle choices, are equally important.

Tools for Audience Research

Leverage tools to gather insights about your audience. Platforms like Google Analytics and social media insights can provide valuable data on your current followers and website visitors. SocialBu’s analytics feature can help you dive deeper into these insights, providing detailed reports on audience demographics and behaviour.

Creating Audience Personas

Once you have gathered enough data, create detailed audience personas. These personas represent your ideal customers and help you visualize and understand their needs and preferences.

For example, suppose you’re launching a new fitness app. In that case, your audience personas might include “Fitness Enthusiast Emma,” a 30-year-old woman who loves running and healthy eating, and “Busy Professional John,” a 40-year-old man looking for quick and effective workouts.

Tailoring Content to Your Audience

Understanding your audience allows you to create content that resonates with them. Use the insights from your research to tailor your messaging, tone, and visuals to match their preferences. For example, if your audience prefers video content, create engaging videos.

Knowing your audience and what they want allows you to create content that captures their attention and meets their needs, leading to a more successful launch.

3. Develop a Comprehensive Content Calendar

A well-organized content calendar is essential for a successful social media launch plan. It helps you plan and schedule your posts, ensuring consistency and timely delivery of your content.

Creating Your Content Calendar

The next step is to create an effective content calendar . Start by mapping out important dates and milestones related to your product launch. Include key dates such as the launch day, pre-launch teaser campaign, and special events or promotions.

Next, plan your content around these dates. Determine the types of content you will post and the platforms you will use. Include a mix of product updates, behind-the-scenes looks, user-generated content , and promotional posts.

Using a Social Media Launch Plan Template

Utilize a social media launch plan template to organize your content calendar. A template can help you outline your content strategy, set deadlines, and track progress.

Scheduling and Automating Posts

Scheduling your posts in advance ensures that your content is consistently published at optimal times. Tools like SocialBu allow you to schedule and automate your social media posts, saving you time and ensuring your content reaches your audience when they are most active.

Monitoring and Adjusting Your Calendar

Review and adjust your content calendar regularly based on performance metrics and feedback. Use analytics to identify which types of content perform best and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Developing a comprehensive content calendar is critical to your social media launch plan. It ensures that your content is well-organized, timely, and consistent, helping you maintain momentum and engagement throughout your launch.

4. Craft Engaging Pre-Launch Content

Creating a buzz on social media before your product launch is crucial for generating excitement and anticipation. Engaging pre-launch content builds awareness and interest, setting the stage for a successful launch.

Types of Pre-Launch Content

To maximize impact, diversify your pre-launch content. Here are some effective types:

• Teasers and Sneak Peeks: To intrigue your audience, share glimpses of your product. Social media teaser campaign examples can include short videos, images, or even a countdown.
• Behind-the-Scenes Content: Show the process of creating your product. This humanizes your brand and builds a connection with your audience.
• User-Generated Content: Encourage your audience to share their excitement. This can be incentivized through contests or giveaways.
• Announcements and Updates: Keep your audience informed about important milestones leading up to the launch.

Creating Pre-Launch Social Media Posts

When crafting pre-launch social media posts, focus on storytelling. Tell the story behind your product, its development, and the problem it solves. Use high-quality visuals and engaging captions to capture your audience’s attention.

Examples of Effective Pre-Launch Posts

• Teaser Video: Post a short video showing a key feature of your product with a caption like, “Can you guess what’s coming? Stay tuned!”
• Behind-the-Scenes Photo: Share a photo of your team working on the product with a caption like, “We’ve been working hard to bring you something amazing. Get ready for the big reveal!”
• U ser-Generated Content Contest: Announce a contest where followers can share their excitement for a chance to win early access to the product.

Crafting engaging pre-launch content is essential for creating a buzz on social media. By diversifying your content and using tools like SocialBu to schedule and automate posts, you can build excitement and anticipation for your product launch.

5. Leverage Influencers and Brand Advocates

Influencers and brand advocates can amplify your social media launch plan by reaching a wider audience and adding credibility to your product. Their endorsement can significantly boost your brand’s visibility and trustworthiness.

Identifying the Right Influencers

To leverage influencers effectively , identify those who align with your brand values and target audience. Look for influencers with an engaged following and a genuine interest in your industry.

Building Relationships with Influencers

Approach influencers with a personalized message highlighting why your product is a good fit for their audience. Offer them exclusive access to your product and involve them in the pre-launch phase to build a genuine connection.

Creating Collaborative Content

Work with influencers to create content that resonates with their followers. This can include product reviews, unboxing videos, or live Q&A sessions. Ensure the content is authentic and aligns with both your brand and the influencer’s style.

Encouraging Brand Advocacy

In addition to influencers, tap into your existing customer base for brand advocates. Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences and create user-generated content. This can be incentivized through referral programs or exclusive perks.

Examples of Influencer and Advocate Content

• Influencer Review: Partner with an influencer to create an in-depth review of your product, highlighting its key features and benefits.
• Live Q&A Session: Host a live session with an influencer, during which they will answer questions about your product and share their excitement for the launch.
• Customer Testimonials: Share testimonials from satisfied customers to build trust and credibility among your audience.

Leveraging influencers and brand advocates is a powerful strategy for your social media launch plan. Collaborating with the right influencers and encouraging brand advocacy can amplify your reach and create a buzz that drives your product launch’s success.

6. Utilize Paid Advertising Strategically

Paid advertising can supercharge your social media launch plan by quickly reaching a larger, targeted audience. It ensures your product gains visibility among potential customers who might not know your brand otherwise.

Choosing the Right Platforms

Select platforms where your target audience is most active. Common choices include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Each platform offers unique advantages and ad formats that can align with your campaign goals.

Setting Up Effective Ad Campaigns

Start by defining your campaign objectives. Are you aiming for brand awareness, website traffic, or conversions? Once your goals are clear, create compelling ad creatives highlighting your product’s key features and benefits.

Targeting Your Audience

Use the targeting options available on each platform to reach your ideal audience. You can target based on demographics, interests, behaviours, and even lookalike audiences. Detailed targeting ensures your ads are shown to users most likely interested in your product.

Budgeting and Bidding Strategies

Determine a realistic budget for your ad campaigns. Estimate your budget using your goals and the average costs per click or impression on your chosen platforms. Experiment with bidding strategies, such as cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM), to find the best for your campaign.

Monitoring and Optimizing Ad Performance

Monitor your ad performance regularly using the analytics tools the ad platforms provide. Track key metrics like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Use this data to optimize your campaigns by adjusting targeting, ad creatives, or bidding strategies.

Strategically utilizing paid advertising is essential for a successful social media launch plan. You can maximise your product’s visibility and impact by selecting the right platforms, effectively targeting your audience, and continuously optimizing your campaigns.

7. Monitor, Adjust, and Engage Post-Launch

The work doesn’t stop after your product launch. Monitoring, adjusting, and engaging with your audience post-launch is crucial for maintaining momentum and ensuring long-term success.

Monitoring Performance Metrics

Track the performance of your social media campaigns using analytics tools . Key metrics to monitor include engagement, website traffic, conversion, and sales. These insights help you understand what’s working and what needs improvement.

Adjusting Your Strategy

Based on the performance data, adjust your strategy as needed. If certain types of content are performing well, create more of them. If some ads are underperforming, tweak the targeting or creatives. Flexibility is key to maintaining an effective social media launch plan.

Engaging with Your Audience

Continue to engage with your audience even after the launch. Respond to comments, messages, and reviews promptly. Show appreciation for positive feedback and address concerns or issues your customers raise.

Encouraging User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) can keep the buzz alive post-launch. Encourage your customers to share their experiences with your product on social media and feature their posts on your channels to build community and trust.

Examples of Post-Launch Activities

• Follow-Up Campaigns: Run follow-up campaigns to remind your audience about your product and its benefits.
• Customer Testimonials: Share testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers to build credibility.
• Exclusive Offers: Offer exclusive discounts or promotions to keep the interest high and encourage repeat purchases.

Mastering your social media launch plan requires a strategic, well-rounded approach. You can ensure a successful product launch by setting clear goals, understanding your audience, developing a comprehensive content calendar, crafting engaging pre-launch content, leveraging influencers, utilizing paid advertising, and maintaining post-launch engagement.

Each strategy is vital in creating a cohesive and powerful launch plan that captures and retains your audience’s attention. Embrace these steps to navigate the complexities of social media marketing and achieve the impactful launch your product deserves.

Ready to take your social media launch to the next level? Try SocialB u for seamless scheduling, advanced analytics, and efficient management of your launch campaign. Start your free 7-day trial today and see the difference SocialBu makes!

1. How do you launch on social media?

To launch on social media, set clear goals, understand your target audience, create a content calendar with teasers and behind-the-scenes posts, leverage influencers, use paid ads for broader reach, and consistently engage with your audience.

2. How do I start a social media plan?

Start a social media plan by setting specific goals, researching your target audience, choosing the right platforms, developing a content strategy with a content calendar, using analytics tools to track performance, and engaging with your audience regularly.

3. How to launch a social media Page

Launch a social media page by choosing the right platform, creating a comprehensive profile, developing a content strategy, planning your posts with a content calendar, promoting your page through existing channels, and engaging with your audience.

4. How can I start on social media?

Start on social media by defining your goals, choosing the right platforms, creating professional profiles, developing a content strategy, planning your posts, engaging with your audience, and refining your strategy using analytics tools.

5. How do you announce on social media?

Announce on social media by crafting a clear and compelling message, using high-quality visuals, scheduling the announcement for peak times, promoting it through various channels, engaging with your audience, and tracking its performance with analytics tools.

Noor Fatima

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Simple Business Plan Template (2024)

Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm

Table of Contents

Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.

While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.

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Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.

Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.

Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.

Download free template as .docx

Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.

1. Your Mission or Vision

Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.

• What does your business do? Are you selling products, services, information or a combination?
• Where does this happen? Will you conduct business online, in-store, via mobile means or in a specific location or environment?
• Who does your business benefit? Who is your target market and ideal customer for your concept?
• Why would potential customers care? What would make your ideal customers take notice of your business?
• How do your products and/or services outshine the competition? What would make your ideal customers choose you over a competitor?

These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.

2. Offer and Value Proposition

This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.

As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.

For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.

3. Audience and Ideal Customer

Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.

There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.

Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.

However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.

4. Revenue Streams, Sales Channels and Marketing

Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.

Revenue Streams

Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.

For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:

• Product sales : Online, pop-up shops , wholesale and (future) in-store sales
• Affiliate income : Monetize blog and social media posts with affiliate links
• Advertising income : Reserve website space for advertising
• E-book sales : (future) Publish recipe e-books targeting gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Video income : (future) Monetize a YouTube channel featuring how-to videos for the gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Webinars and online classes : (future) Monetize coaching-style webinars and online classes covering specialty baking tips and techniques
• Members-only content : (future) Monetize a members-only section of the website for specialty content to complement webinars and online classes
• Franchise : (future) Monetize a specialty cottage bakery concept and sell to franchise entrepreneurs

Sales Channels

Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.

The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:

• Mobile point-of-sale (POS) : A mobile platform such as Shopify or Square POS for managing in-person sales at local farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals
• E-commerce platform : An online store such as Shopify, Square or WooCommerce for online retail sales and wholesale sales orders
• Social media channels : Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest shoppable posts and pins for online sales via social media channels
• Brick-and-mortar location : For in-store sales , once the business has grown to a point that it can support a physical location

Channels that support other income streams might include:

• Affiliate income : Blog section on the e-commerce website and affiliate partner accounts
• Advertising income : Reserved advertising spaces on the e-commerce website
• E-book sales : Amazon e-book sales via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
• Video income : YouTube channel with ad monetization
• Webinars and online classes : Online class and webinar platforms that support member accounts, recordings and playback
• Members-only content : Password-protected website content using membership apps such as MemberPress

Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.

However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.

5. Structure, Suppliers and Operations

This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.

Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:

• Business structure : Sole proprietorship with a “doing business as” (DBA) .
• Permits and certifications : County-issued food handling permit and state cottage food certification for home-based food production. Option, check into certified commercial kitchen rentals.
• Roles and responsibilities : Solopreneur, all roles and responsibilities with the owner.
• Supply chain : Bulk ingredients and food packaging via Sam’s Club, Costco, Amazon Prime with annual membership costs. Uline for shipping supplies; no membership needed.
• Day-to-day operations : Source ingredients and bake three days per week to fulfill local and online orders. Reserve time for specialty sales, wholesale partner orders and market events as needed. Ship online orders on alternating days. Update website and create marketing and affiliate blog posts on non-shipping days.

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6. Financial Forecasts

Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.

Cost Forecast

Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:

Gross Profit Projections

This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.

Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:

Bottom Line

Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.

Is there a template for a business plan?

You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.

What does a simple business plan include?

A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.

How can I create a free business plan template?

Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Krista Fabregas is a seasoned eCommerce and online content pro sharing more than 20 years of hands-on know-how with those looking to launch and grow tech-forward businesses. Her expertise includes eCommerce startups and growth, SMB operations and logistics, website platforms, payment systems, side-gig and affiliate income, and multichannel marketing. Krista holds a bachelor's degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and held senior positions at NASA, a Fortune 100 company, and several online startups.

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Social Media Tools and Tips for Startup

The annual report of the Global State of Digital 2021 predicted that 2021 has got 4.2 billion active social media users. Those users spent almost 2 hours and 25 minutes on different social media platforms every single day.

Isn’t this opportunity exciting you as an entrepreneur to grasp the attention of 4.2 billion active customers and advertise your services? Isn’t it the signal to use different social media tools and tips to grow your startups?

If your business is facing a difficult time, here is the time to use social media as a huge marketplace for your services. We are here with amazing social media tips and tools that can help you to advertise your business using trending social sites.

Let’s get started with 9 best social media tips for startups and small businesses in 2024:

9 Essential Social Media Tips for Startups

Tip 1: identify your company’s aims and priorities.

To create a good marketing campaign, you should specifically identify your company’s priorities. Therefore, among all the most important but still, of social media tips is to jot your priorities.

When developing targets for your social media marketing campaign, make sure they are realistic, concise, achievable, and observable.

If you are struggling with startups, do not panic. You can be adapting to business by seeking help from online learning platforms. Simply visit the website of Coursera , Udemy , or EdX register yourself, and pick the course of your interest as a beginner.

Tip 2: Choose a Specific Platform according to the target audience

To an entrepreneur, this is the best tip we can give in 2024. Select your target audience first and then target that social media platform that has the most of your audience.

For instance, if you’re marketing to younger generations, social media can be highly influential for your business. Advertise your services on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest because these are the most visited sites by our younger generations. Individuals over the age of 60 are Facebook’s biggest growth demographic. As a consequence, among YouTube , Instagram , Snapchat , Facebook , Tumblr , Twitter , and Pinterest , you can choose the best social media outlet for your target audience.

These applications can also give you the interest trends of each generation that help to choose the product or service you are going to launch in the market. Salesforce can be used to improve consumer management evaluation and interaction.

Tip 3: Find the Updates on your Competitor’s Research

You will get assistance with potential content planning by finding the updates of your best-perfect competitors. You can also learn about the types of information that your target audience enjoys. The following actions will help you find strategic analysis;

• Determine your competitor’s search terms.
• Search Online to see who is ranked with those phrases.
• Examine who comes up in web networks with certain keywords.
• Check out which products the target customer is interested in.
• Select up to six rivals to concentrate on.
• Consider all the possible risks. You can use several websites, such as Brand24-Competitive Analysis , SemRush , Espionage, and FollowerWonk for competitive analysis.

Tip 4: Optimization is the key

Rather than photographs, video clips can be used to optimize a Facebook business profile. Moreover, clips draw more buyers than still pictures and standard updates.

Podcasts as well as other speech services are generally on the decline, although the streaming video is thriving! Audio content is unlikely to return until the prevalence of Working At Home decreases and gyms resume normal operations. As a result, you must concentrate more on making mesmerizing and concise clips that amuse and teach.

Trying to keep track of impressions and Page visits, whether it’s by advertising content or viral advertisements, will give you a proper idea to decide your social media conversion rates. Begin by describing the social media function of your business.

The following must be the clear objectives for any brand’s social media campaigns:

• Signing up with a mailing list
• filling out a feedback form
• doing a demo, buying a product
• Downloading a factsheet or bookmark

Tip 5: Always schedule the content

You should incorporate this aspect into your strategy. A systematic social media schedule and release scheduled for the appropriate time of day will assist in keeping the fans engaging with you.

You may also use several tools like Hootsuite , Falcon , Eclincher , and Agropulse to intelligently assign each advertising asset to their assignments and boost coordination.

This enables you to devote a set amount of time every day or even each week to making posts. It is far more successful than allowing social media to divert your attention away from several other activities during the day.

Tip 6: Contemplate Statistics

The Facebook Analytic built-in tool equips you with detailed information so you can understand your consumers’ path through your accounts.

You can entice your followers with a variety of discounts and incentives to increase consumer interest in your social media profile. For example, you will provide them with the latest price coupons and exclusive discounts on specific items.

Tracking statistics is also essential through exchanging useful social experiences with peers and subordinates.

According to the Statistical methods, there is an increasing tendency for advertisers to communicate on performance and Profitability at a relatively high pace.

This will not only keeps you responsible for your actions but also emphasizes the importance and the specific pieces of information that your social campaign can provide.

Tip 7: Your website must be mobile-friendly

People nowadays use smartphones to complete the bulk of their activities. As a result, to excel in your internet persona, your site must be digital and mobile-friendly.

Optimize your websites so that they’ll be conveniently explored on mobile phones and devices. To attract users, keep the touch keys available at all times and maintain page startup times to a minimum.

Go and visit IMGFlip , HemingWayApp , Work2CleanHTML , and HostGator these platforms will assist you to get a mobile-friendly version of your website.

Tip 8: Boost your Output

If you’ve determined how well your plan is going, it’s appropriate to consider opportunities to strengthen it. Successful businesses always prefer to look for new opportunities. Their mere purpose is not to put their sales at higher and ignore the delivery of better products and services.

Try to increase productivity at work. You can use testing to make subtle improvements that will increase the performance across a period. Finteza can help you improve your analytics.

Tip 9: Never underestimate the power of feedback

As an entrepreneur, if you are using any social media platform for advertisement do not ignore the feedback of your audience. You must have a greater understanding of your audience and will be ready to go ahead with even smarter social media marketing strategies as a result.

Planning on sending an online survey to potential customers helps you to collect all of the information you need to have in a single easy step, allowing you to devote more resources to figuring out your customer’s agenda and much less duration of meeting with your customer.

Using the web applications Survey Monkey and Type Form , you will create your own brand survey questionnaires.

Top Social Media Tools You Need to Use in 2024

It is an amazing social media management solution that enables you to queue up a variety of content forms on several platforms and browsers even while on the go. Hence, you can use this tool for cross-platform publishing without having to individually schedule the content. It is a pricing plans tool, in which you can select the plans according to their available prices.

2. CrunchBase

It is believed that business owners who use measured figures in their marketing decks are admired by shareholders. As a result, in terms of achieving your objectives, you would need a monetary startup platform, such as CrunchBase.

It provides web-based links to every startup, sponsor, or fundraising info. It has specialized web access, customized outlines, personalized updates, and CSV industrial output.

3. MailChimp

The effective operation of a startup marketing campaign necessitates the use of resources for monitoring, analyzing, and evaluating any sales strategy. You require an exceptional email marketing resource for your company.

That’s how MailChimp steps into the market – a tech startup tool that needs no description. This platform enables virtual entrepreneurs to send emails instantly to every customer’s inbox by using a dependable form of system.

A CRM app, such as Hubspot, can be of tremendous assistance to your startup because it absolves up so many resources that you can invest efficiently in translating potential clues.

Personalize Viewpoints, Sale and Project Panel, Hubspot Advertising Integration, Pick and Fall Facilitator, Social Networking sites, Business Server, Mail Contacts, Companion Compatibility, CRM Info, Prototypes, Monitoring, and Planning are just a few of its highlights.

Slack changes the approach companies collaborate by putting individuals onboard to function as one cohesive unit.

It will substitute mail, messages, and instant communication with a single program. Sensitive material should not be sent to the recruits’ private email addresses. It transfers reports and documents in different formats, such as written, photograph, and recording, with any or all of your coworkers.

6. MockPlus

If you take a different initial move, life will get troublesome, and it will be impossible to reverse your decision. MockPlus is the perfect design and creation platform for startups in this sense.

This app not only covers architecture, but also group coordination, remote access, and administration within an integrated framework.

This roadmap illustrates that there are many driving parts of contemporary social activity. In short, getting yourself up wouldn’t be a chore.

If you establish provable objectives and complete each of the actions outlined herein, you will be well aware of competition once it relates to your social media marketing planning.

And, if you’re looking for further ideas and enforceable approaches to draw across your plans, be sure to check out these above Social Media Tools, which include techniques and tools.

You’ll enjoy experimenting with innovative technologies because they still have a fresh outlook on how to handle your core consumers. When you’re trapped, you can use a different option. When you’ve been stuck with marketing suggestions, you can switch to tools. Best wishes for your startup for 2024!

Essential social media tools for startups include scheduling and management platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer, analytics tools such as Google Analytics or Facebook Insights, design tools like Canva or Adobe Spark for creating visually appealing content, and social listening tools like Mention or Brand24 to monitor brand mentions and customer feedback.

Startups can leverage social media by defining their target audience, selecting relevant platforms, creating engaging content, utilizing hashtags, engaging with followers, collaborating with influencers or industry partners, running targeted ads, and analyzing performance metrics to refine their social media strategy.

Posting frequency on social media depends on the platform and audience. Generally, startups should aim for consistent and regular posting, focusing on quality rather than quantity. Posting 3-5 times per week on platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn and 5-7 times per week on Twitter or Instagram can be a good starting point, but it’s important to analyze engagement and adjust the posting frequency accordingly.

Startups should share a mix of content that aligns with their brand and engages their target audience. This can include informative blog posts, product or service updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, industry news or trends, videos or tutorials, and compelling visuals. Experimenting with different content formats can help identify what resonates best with the audience.

To build a strong social media presence, startups should consistently engage with their audience by responding to comments, messages, and mentions, participating in relevant industry conversations, and sharing valuable and shareable content. They can also collaborate with influencers or industry experts, run contests or giveaways, and actively seek customer feedback to foster a sense of community and authenticity.

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Read the pitch decks from these 36 creator-economy startups that helped them raise millions of dollars

• The creator economy is catching notable VCs' attention — and their wallets.
• Creator-focused startups are raising millions of dollars.
• Here are the pitch decks that 35 startups used in Series A, seed, and pre-seed rounds.

The creator economy has bred a new generation of startups — from influencer-marketing companies to new social-media experiences.

These startups have captured the attention and wallets of influential venture capitalists and angel investors over the last several years, giving rise to several unicorn valuations in the space, such as the link-in-bio service Linktree (valued at $1.3 billion in 2022) and the affiliate-marketing platform LTK (valued at $2 billion in late 2021).

Check out 14 VCs who are investing in innovative startups focused on the creator economy and influencers

Even as the economy has weathered changing tides and investments have cooled across industries, some startups in this sector are still raising money.

Several startups announced seven-figure seed rounds in 2023, including the Web3-inspired social network Seam Social's $2.5 million round in December. Last year also saw several later-stage funding rounds, such as one from Whop, an e-commerce marketplace for digital goods, which announced its $17 million Series A in July. Karat, a financial startup for creators, raised a $70 million Series B in June — though it proves that a big VC round doesn't ensure stability, as the company later conducted layoffs in October .

Related stories

Here are 16 creator-economy startups that raised the most money in 2023 .

So, how do creator-economy startups land those investments? Often, it starts with a pitch deck. 

Lumanu, a creator-focused financial startup, uses a simple pitch deck that's more of a "conversation guider," its cofounder and CEO, Tony Tran, told BI.

"My pitch is always why, what, how, and why now?" Tran said. ( Read the full pitch deck here. )

Skye , a career-coaching startup, had different pitch decks depending on the type of investor or fund they pitched to.

"I had two different versions, depending on the fund," Jessica Wolf, Skye's CEO and one of its cofounders, said. "If I knew a fund was more into pre-seed, all about the founder, I had one deck. But if I knew that they were a numbers person, I would use another one."

Every startup has a different approach.

Some, such as Throne, even ditch the pitch deck altogether and opt for an email or Notion document.

Read the email template creator-economy startup Throne used to secure its seed investment.

BI talked with founders who've pitched their startups to investors about their process. They broke down the pitch decks they used to secure millions of dollars in funding.

Read the pitch decks that helped 36 creator-focused startups fundraise millions of dollars:

Note: Pitch decks are sorted by investment stage and size of round.

• Restream, a livestreaming alternative to platforms like the Amazon-owned Twitch: $50 million Series A (14 pages)
• ShopMy, an affiliate platform that lets creators earn commissions through shoppable landing pages: $26.5 million Series A (23 pages)
• Posh, an IRL events startup: $22 million Series A (12 pages)
• Pearpop, a creator-marketing platform: $18 million Series A (18 pages)
• Spoon Radio, a social-audio startup: $17 million Series A (15 pages)
• Kyra, a content studio, talent-management firm, and influencer-marketing platform: $15 million Series A (20 pages )
• Allstar, a startup helping gamers become social-media creators: $12 million Series A (6 pages)
• Lumanu, a business-solutions platform for creators: $12 million Series A (8 pages)
• Hype, a platform for link-in-bio and other creator-monetization tools: $10 million Series A (13 pages)
• Catch+Release, a startup that helps creators and everyday social-media users license their content to brands: $8.8 million Series A (12 pages)
• Slip.stream, a music startup focused on gamers: $7.5 million Series A (13 pages)
• Brag House, an esports startup: $5 million Series A (24 pages)
• Scenario, a generative-AI startup to create gaming art and assets: $6 million seed (8 pages)
• Authoritive, an online course-development startup: $5 million seed (11 pages)
• Dstlry, a comic-book creator startup: $5 million seed (26 pages)
• Dharma, a travel startup for creators and brands: $4.7 million pre-Series A (17 pages)
• Glystn, an AI-powered community-management platform: $4 million seed (15 pages)
• Anima, an augmented-reality startup: $3 million (15 pages)
• Grandstand, a sports startup working with athlete creators: $2.75 million
• Seam Social, a new Web3 social-media platform: $2.5 million (10 pages)
• Spark, a digital-art platform from the YouTuber Moriah Elizabeth: $2.5 million seed (9 pages)
• Insense, a startup helping e-commerce brands get low-cost ads: $2.5 million pre-Series A (9 pages)
• Supercast, a podcast subscriptions startup: $2 million seed (20 pages)
• Chartmetric, a music-data and -measurement company: $2 million seed (46 pages)
• Ultimate Playlist, a music-marketing startup: $2 million round (9 pages)
• Magroove, a music-distribution and -discovery platform: $1.6 million seed (21 pages)
• Stagetime, a professional-networking startup for performing artists: $1.5 million seed (13 pages)
• Jubilee Media, a content studio looking to expand beyond YouTube and TikTok: $1.1 million seed-plus (12 pages)
• Storiaverse, a startup for animators and writers: $2.5 million pre-seed (16 pages)
• July, a "talent manager in your pocket" for creators: $2.3 million pre-seed (9 pages)
• Squads, a startup that helps creators mint and sell crypto coins: $1.8 million pre-seed (12 pages)
• Skye, a career-coaching platform: $1.6 million pre-seed (33 pages)
• Punchup Live, a comedy platform: $1 million pre-seed (19 pages)
• Spore, a content and community-building startup: $1 million pre-seed (17 pages)
• Hashtag Pay Me, a startup that helps creators price brand deals: $200,000 pre-seed (9 pages)
• Our Future, a short-form video-news brand that targets Gen Z: acquired (15 pages)

Watch: How Twitter panic took down Silicon Valley Bank

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No tax on tips: Why politicians love it, and economists don't

Luke Garrett

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, signs a check "no tax on tips!!" as he leaves $200 in cash for a gratuity at the Park Diner, in Waite Park, Minn., on July 28. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump don't agree on much — especially when it comes to economic policy. But they both want to get rid of taxes on tips.

At a campaign rally in Nevada, Harris joined Trump in supporting tax-free tips.

"It is my promise to everyone here, when I am president, we will continue to fight for working families, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers," Harris told a crowd at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Trump has been campaigning on the "no tax on tips" policy since June, after a Las Vegas server told him the government was taking too big of a cut from her tipped wages. Trump touted this policy in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.

But soon after Harris promised to do away with taxes on tips this weekend, Trump criticized the move as being done for "Political Purposes."

What is the new etiquette for tipping?

"This was a TRUMP idea - She has no ideas, she can only steal from me," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Remember, Kamala has proposed the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY - It won’t happen."

In response, a Harris campaign official told NPR that the vice president's policy proposal is distinct from Trump's — and she intends to deliver on it.

"As president, she would work with Congress to craft a proposal that comes with an income limit and with strict requirements to prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation in ways to try to take advantage of the policy," the official, who isn't authorized by the campaign to speak publicly, said. "Vice President Harris would push for the proposal alongside an increase in the minimum wage."

Regardless of its origin and ownership, the no tax on tips idea is gaining bipartisan political steam. On Capitol Hill, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced the No Tax on Tips Act in July with the support of Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, from Nevada , and the powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226. A companion bill — introduced by Florida Rep. Byron Donalds — is also making its way through the House.

But to senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Steve Rosenthal, this idea is a "bad" one.

"We're in a campaign season — silly season," Rosenthal, who has years of experience designing tax rules for Congress, quipped. "A race to the bottom would be a better way to describe tax policy here."

To tip or not to tip? 3 reasons why tipping has gotten so out of control

For Rosenthal, the idea fails on three counts: equity, efficiency and revenue.

A national ban on taxing tips would disproportionately benefit, for example, a South Carolina server who earns a reduced minimum wage and makes a large portion of their income through tips. While a server in California, where tips make up a smaller portion of their income, would benefit less.

"Why treat employees, who perform similar kinds of services, much different from a tax standpoint just because the first earn tips and the second don't?" the tax lawyer said.

Rosenthal went on to say that a no tax on tips law would be extremely difficult to efficiently administer, regulate and oversee.

"How are we going to tell who is receiving a tip, and when that tip crosses a line into wages?" Rosenthal said. "How will we prevent investment bankers, say, from getting tips? And if we impose income limits, well, wouldn't we expect low paid workers just to demand a tip rather than compensation?"

Ultimately, he said, it would distort the labor market. But the biggest barrier for Congress is the money they'd lose.

"The revenue on this proposal to exempt tips from taxation is something like a couple hundred billion over a 10-year period," he said. "That's a big number for Congress to swallow."

Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, largely agreed with Rosenthal.

"The underlying policy basis, I think, is weak at best," Watson said.

He also pointed to a recent study from The Budget Lab at Yale University, which found that only 2.5% of workers would benefit from a no tax on tips policy.

Despite this, Watson said he is eager to get more details from both campaigns on how they plan to implement this relatively new tax proposal.

"A lot of tax ideas that come up have had years or decades of ideas behind them," Watson said. "Here, not so much. So, I definitely think that there are versions of this that are more defensible than others in terms of the policy design."

While Vice President Harris voiced her support for the no tax on tips policy on Saturday, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee and her new policy position.

"As the largest organization of working women in Nevada, the chance to elect the first woman president of the USA is both energizing and historic and we are ready to make history together," the union said in a statement over the weekend. "Culinary Union has led the fight for over 30 years for fair taxation on tips and our union supports the ban on taxes on tips."

So far, neither campaign has released their full tax-free tips policy proposal.

Correction Aug. 12, 2024

In an earlier version of this story, the name of Florida Rep. Byron Donalds was misspelled as Bryon.

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Generative AI Has a 'Shoplifting' Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It

Bill Gross made his name in the tech world in the 1990s , when he came up with a novel way for search engines to make money on advertising. Under his pricing scheme, advertisers would pay when people clicked on their ads. Now, the “pay-per-click” guy has founded a startup called ProRata, which has an audacious, possibly pie-in-the-sky business model: “AI pay-per-use.”

Gross, who is CEO of the Pasadena, California, company, doesn’t mince words about the generative AI industry. “It’s stealing,” he says. “They’re shoplifting and laundering the world’s knowledge to their benefit.”

AI companies often argue that they need vast troves of data to create cutting-edge generative tools and that scraping data from the internet, whether it’s text from websites, video or captions from YouTube, or books pilfered from pirate libraries, is legally allowed. Gross doesn’t buy that argument. “I think it’s bullshit,” he says.

So do plenty of media executives, artists, writers, musicians, and other rights-holders who are pushing back—it’s hard to keep up with the constant flurry of copyright lawsuits filed against AI companies, alleging that the way they operate amounts to theft.

But Gross thinks ProRata offers a solution that beats legal battles. “To make it fair—that’s what I’m trying to do,” he says. “I don’t think this should be solved by lawsuits.”

His company aims to arrange revenue-sharing deals so publishers and individuals get paid when AI companies use their work. Gross explains it like this: “We can take the output of generative AI, whether it's text or an image or music or a movie, and break it down into the components, to figure out where they came from, and then give a percentage attribution to each copyright holder, and then pay them accordingly.” ProRata has filed patent applications for the algorithms it created to assign attribution and make the appropriate payments.

This week, the company, which has raised $25 million, launched with a number of big-name partners, including Universal Music Group, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, and media company Axel Springer. In addition, it has made deals with authors with large followings, including Tony Robbins, Neal Postman, and Scott Galloway. (It has also partnered with former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.)

Even journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, who believes scraping the web for AI training is fair use, has signed on. He tells WIRED that it’s smart for people in the news industry to band together to get AI companies access to “credible and current information” to include in their output. “I hope that ProRata might open discussion for what could turn into APIs [application programming interfaces] for various content,” he says.

Following the company’s initial announcement, Gross says he had a deluge of messages from other companies asking to sign up, including a text from Time CEO Jessica Sibley. ProRata secured a deal with Time, the publisher confirmed to WIRED. He plans to pursue agreements with high-profile YouTubers and other individual online stars.

The key word here is “plans.” The company is still in its very early days, and Gross is talking a big game. As a proof of concept, ProRata is launching its own subscription chatbot-style search engine in October. Unlike other AI search products , ProRata’s search tool will exclusively use licensed data. There’s nothing scraped using a web crawler. “Nothing from Reddit,” he says.

Ed Newton-Rex, a former Stability AI executive who now runs the ethical data licensing nonprofit Fairly Trained , is heartened by ProRata’s debut. “It’s great to see a generative AI company licensing training data before releasing their model, in contrast to many other companies’ approach,” he says. “The deals they have in place further demonstrate media companies’ openness to working with good actors.”

Gross wants the search engine to demonstrate that quality of data is more important than quantity and believes that limiting the model to trustworthy information sources will curb hallucinations. “I’m claiming that 70 million good documents is actually superior to 70 billion bad documents,” he says. “It’s going to lead to better answers.”

What’s more, Gross thinks he can get enough people to sign up for this all-licensed-data AI search engine to make as much money needed to pay its data providers their allotted share. “Every month the partners will get a statement from us saying, ‘Here’s what people search for, here's how your content was used, and here's your pro rata check,’” he says.

Other startups already are jostling for prominence in this new world of training-data licensing, like the marketplaces TollBit and Human Native AI . A nonprofit called the Dataset Providers Alliance was formed earlier this summer to push for more standards in licensing; founding members include services like the Global Copyright Exchange and Datarade .

ProRata’s business model hinges in part on its plan to license its attribution and payment technologies to other companies, including major AI players. Some of those companies have begun striking their own deals with publishers. (The Atlantic and Axel Springer, for instance, have agreements with OpenAI.) Gross hopes that AI companies will find licensing ProRata’s models more affordable than creating them in-house.

“I’ll license the system to anyone who wants to use it,” Gross says. “I want to make it so cheap that it’s like a Visa or Mastercard fee.”

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