Social Media Game Plan Execution

Ready, Set, Hike! American Football is one of those sports that relies heavily on strategic game plans. One of the most fascinating things about football is seeing whose plan—and whose execution—is better. The best-prepared team wins. As in football, social media marketing benefits from strategic planning. If you want to be successful in your social media marketing, a strong plan and faithful execution are essential.

It starts with one little step. That first step is the hardest! For the sake of your business, take that one step. You will thank me later. 

There are a few things you need to know about social media plans. 

1. You cannot follow a template that belongs to someone else.
   Why? It’s important you make your plan according to what you need in your business for your marketing success. The plan should be in your unique voice!
2. This marketing plan is written not to get money from the banks.
   That’s a business plan. And if you haven’t got a social media marketing plan, I really doubt you have a business plan.
3. You need to know what you’re getting into with a social media marketing plan.
   Basically, you are making a commitment—a commitment to your fans and connections to provide regular, high-quality content!

I’m not writing this to make you panic. These are just some easy ways to move forward in your social marketing plan making. It’s a common-sense approach.

I use a planner and my iCalendar. You need to choose the method that’s right for you. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Why should I market my business with social media?
2. How often should I market with social media?
3. What am I hoping to accomplish?
4. What do I want my end result to be?

At some point, you may want to organize it more. You don’t have to, though. The point is, this should be relatively painless and very easily understood by you.

Do your social media marketing plan any way you would like. It can be words or pictures or bullets or stories. You need to do whatever comes naturally for you to accomplish great results. Again, I’d like to recommend monthly themes. For me, my focus is on social media. So one month I will concentrate on LinkedIn, then the next month I might spend some time talking about Facebook. That way my monthly message is consistent no matter how a viewer comes to me.

Then comes the hard part of a game plan—execution. Execution of your game plan is the part that will move you forward.

An example of executing a game plan could be as simple as going onto LinkedIn three times a day, perhaps right after breakfast, lunch, and dinner so you don’t forget and always act at roughly the same time. The next part of the example would be the specifics. After breakfast, answer all LinkedIn emails. After lunch, look into two or three groups and participate. After dinner, accept connection requests with a personal note.

Doing what you love in your business takes up a lot of your time. That’s why you have to have fun while you do it. Writing social media marketing plans somehow does not feel like fun. Social media plans can be overwhelming and stressful. But think about the end result—a plan made specifically for your business. 

If you really don’t want to make the plan or cannot find the time, maybe you just need to delegate the task. What have you done lately to delegate?