Creating and executing a social media campaign that is effective, timely and targeted for your brand and audience can seem daunting and a little overwhelming at times. But don’t fret! There are a couple things to keep in mind when developing a strong social media campaign.

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1. Understand what a social media campaign is.

A social media campaign is a coordinated marketing effort to reinforce or assist with a business goal using one or more social media campaigns. Campaigns differ from ongoing, everyday social media efforts because of their increased focus, targeting and measurability.

2. Learn how social media campaigns can help in the execution of specific marketing goals.

Well, it depends on the goal that your company is trying to achieve.

• Do you have a big product announcement coming up in Q4 that you’re trying to build excitement around? Then, maybe a fun Instagram campaign teasing the product launch, followed with some exciting, visual shots of the product in action once it’s unveiled.
• Or what if you want to build brand awareness? Perhaps a campaign utilizing sweepstakes – asking people to play a creative guessing game on Facebook and Twitter is the way to go.
• Is your goal to increase customer engagement? Try asking customers to share user-generated content across your different social media platforms for your company to share, engage and interact with.

Whatever the social media campaign is, make sure it has a clear, quantifiable goal to monitor and track.

Learn more about integrated marketing and PR, read: ‘Why PR is a Critical Piece to Your Inbound Marketing Strategy’.

3. Don’t be afraid to get creative.

Once you’ve set a clear, attainable goal for what you want out of your campaign, now you can get creative! Creating a campaign that is timely, targeted and relevant can seem like a difficult task to accomplish, but there are a couple ways that can make the process a lot easier.

• When thinking of a fun campaign, it’s important to know what your audience would be most interested in and engaged with, or at least have a good idea. Look at past posts to see what receives the most shares and likes. It might surprise you to uncover which posts are actually resonating with your audience.
• Use a lot of photos and create original content. Generally, posts that include photos receive higher engagement and social media posts that include original content receive even higher engagement. Tweets with images actually receive 150 percent more retweets than tweets without images. Your followers will be interested in seeing the fun places and behind-the-scene looks, so don’t be afraid to get creative and keep it colorful.

4. Stay focused and plan ahead BEFORE executing social media campaigns. 

Another big factor that comes into play when creating a targeted and timely social media campaign is to plan ahead! If your company knows that Q4 is the busiest time of year with a lot of exciting news to share, plan to share that awesomeness on social media! It’s never too early to begin thinking of creative ways to leverage your company’s exciting news. In the business world, we’re always thinking about the year ahead anyway, right? Use it to your advantage by putting in that extra thought to create a great social media campaign to accompany that product announcement you have planned.

5. Monitor and measure your social media campaigns.

In the end, one of the most important things to keep in mind when creating a campaign is to always monitor the campaign as it’s running. There may be small things, like sharing posts at a different time of day, that may make all the difference in the output of your campaign. Ensuring that someone is checking daily and monitoring your goals throughout the campaign is the best way to optimize and make the most of it.  If something doesn’t appear to be working or you’re not seeing the engagement levels that you were hoping for, adjust.

When creating a social media campaign that is timely, relevant and targeted, always remember to be creative, plan ahead and monitor. Although not every campaign is a winner, you have a much better chance of reaching your goals when it’s executed well!