6 Steps to Create a Winning Social Media Campaign

Lyric’s Marketing Tip #20: 6 steps to create a winning social media campaign

You have heard me say it again and again, you have to tell your story, repeatedly and consistently, over multiple platforms in order for your message to be heard.  This is the basis of a successful social media program, in any form.  But this week I want to walk you through how to create  a winning social media campaign, a program that is directed toward a specific goal.

A “campaign”, as I am using it here,  is a series of  messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication. The critical part in creating a social media campaign is in determining a theme that will set the tone for, and be the central message in all the marketing  communications. A campaign with a specific theme is usually developed with the intention of being used for a specific period of time and to achieve a specific goal.  So let’s get started!

6 steps to create a winning social media campaign

#1: Choose a Goal 

Start by choosing a manageable goal.  You may want to develop your fan base, increase awareness, drive traffic, create leads or registrations, or sell a product.  Whatever you choose, make sure it is clearly set forth as the driving factor for the campaign and that you can measure it and manage it.  

#2: Provide a Reason to Engage 

“If you build it they will come” doesn’t always work online.  In fact, you must provide a compelling incentive or exciting reason for your target audience to engage. You can achieve that with these common offerings:  time sensitive offerings, sales, discounts, coupons, contests, giveaways, “valued member” campaigns, and “sneak peeks”.

#3: Create a Viral Booster 

You can have the best incentive in the world but if no one reads it or shares it, no one knows!  To really spread the word, you need a viral booster.

Aside from just asking people to share your contest, threshold triggers are a great tool for boosting the virality of a post. For example, if you’re an online clothing store, you could set a threshold trigger of “If 50 people ‘like’ this post, winter coats will go on sale for 15% for a full week.”

#4: Schedule a Series of Posts 

You can’t just post your promotion once and expect it to get the attention you want it to. A successful promotion requires more than a single post on a single channel. Share your promotion across multiple social media channels. Then, schedule reminders regularly throughout the campaign. Successful social media campaigns feature repetition and urgency.  Remember, it takes the average person seeing your ad or message nine times before they even realize they have seen it!

#5: Manage Responses 

Whether it’s contest entries or questions, you must follow through on the engagement your campaign receives: deliver coupon codes, notify winners, answer questions, deal with complaints, track contacts and engagement history, actually put that item on sale!

In addition to that, you will also want to engage with people who have entered your promotion. By participating in conversations, you can also encourage sharing and engage new entrants.

#6: Find Out What Worked and What Didn’t

Congratulations! Your campaign is over.  Now you need to analyze the results of the entire campaign. You’re looking to see things like the number of entries, shares and likes of your posts, retweets, online traffic and even sales. By looking at this data, you can compare your results to previous campaigns and tweak future campaigns for increased success.

Key things to remember when creating a winning social media campaign:

Use the Right Tool 

Finding the right tool(s) that lets you handle steps 1-6 easily is a critical part of building repeatable social media campaign success. You do not want to end a campaign totally exhausted and confused, that will most definitely defeat your marketing efforts!

To ensure you have everything you need to manage end-to-end campaigns, be sure that your tool of choice includes:

Multi Post Scheduling Across Multiple Networks – We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again (repetition is a key to success). You cannot post something once on one social media platform and hope it will stick. It won’t.

For a campaign to gain traction, it must be “syndicated” across all social media, not just on Facebook or Twitter. And not only do you need to mention it on multiple networks, you need to schedule a series of posts that happen throughout that campaign (getting increasingly urgent as the campaign deadline approaches). 

Have fun and remember that Lyric Marketing & Design is here to help you create, implement, and manage your next marketing campaign!  Contact Lyric today to see how we can help you get started!