How to Start a Social Media Campaign

How to Start a Social Media Campaign with 8 simple steps. Every year, we see many new social media campaigns pop up. For example, ranging from Save the Turtles to Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappuccino. So many more can be found just through a simple Google search. Although the provided examples above may not have similar goals in mind, they both managed to take the world by storm. You can say it is a social media society!

To launch a successful Social Media Campaign, there are a few important steps needed. Before you start, however, you need to make sure you have the time to dedicate to your social media campaign. In fact, these things don’t just happen overnight and a mere push of a button, but a great deal of effort is needed to get such campaigns noticed. Although it may seem daunting at first, I’m going to show you how you can start your own little social media takeover.

Step 1 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Establish a Goal.

No matter what you wish to achieve with your social media campaign, you need to establish a goal with the most popular social media platforms. Whether its to drive traffic through social media or just brand awareness, you need solid goals before starting any campaign, For example, the Unicorn Frappuccino, the end goal was to get people to visit their local Starbucks and spend money! Not only was this campaign wildly successful, but it left everybody wanting more. This gives Starbucks the opportunity to bring this drink back again to an even greater sense of excitement. The interesting thing about this campaign was that it got online creators and marketers interested, which gave the company and its new product insane amounts of free publicity. Did I say free publicity? Yes, that’s what you should be aiming for!

The goal for the “Saving the Turtles” campaign was to raise awareness towards the horrible, and sometimes gruesome realities that come with plastic usage and littering in the ocean and beaches. The slogan “Save the Turtles” has become so widely known that you can hear it in everyday conversations, sometimes not even about the movement! Maybe you are trying to gain followers on your Instagram account, or maybe you are trying to popularize a dance that you created. Whatever it may be, make sure you are aware of your intentions for starting a social media campaign.

Of course, once the goals are set you will need to ensure everything else is aligned with the social media campaign. For instance, having a website, and ensure the digital marketing aspect such as SEO is also included.

Step 2 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Figure out Where you Stand.

When starting a new social media campaign, it’s important to figure out where you stand and how to build a campaign from scratch. Also, will you be focusing on a brand or something else on your targeted platforms? Some important questions to ask are:

• Which platforms are you posting to i.e. FaceBook, LinkedIn, Instagram?
• The frequency you expect to post?
• Do you have any followers, how will you get more followers?
• What’s the engagement you’d expect on each post?
• How much of your follower base is “dead?”
• All of these are necessary questions to ask yourself when starting a social media campaign.

In order to maximize the potential for your campaign to take off, we need to post to as many platforms as possible. You need to establish a crowd of fans that can rely on content from you, but who’s feeds aren’t inundated with your posts. Also, you need to push out unique content, not the same old stuff that your fan base may get bored and stop following you. Doing this will help you to succeed in getting maximum engagement and follower interaction, also a higher chance of your campaign being spread like wildfire!

Step 3 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Determine Your Target Audience.

Now that you know what you wish to accomplish, as well as where you stand in terms of social media prowess, you need to figure out whom you want to appeal to. In other words: who would be the most likely to share your campaign with other like-minded individuals? Your target audience is one of the most crucial things to focus on when starting a new social media campaign. We can use social listening apps to determine what appeals to your audience, and then change our posting behavior to better match what the people want. This will not only allow you to better appeal to your audience but also to better understand what kind of audience you are looking for.

Step 4 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Create a Brand.

Now that you understand what your goal is, how can we best market that to people? Creating a catchy slogan, an easily-recognizable logo, or even just a cute video are all ways to establish yourself as an entity in the eyes of the public. Many companies have taken to creating minimalist logos for themselves by using icons with few colors. Icons are not only more recognizable, but you are reminded of the brand every time you see something that reminds you of that icon!

A good example of an effective logo would be found within Tinder’s rebrand. Their logo used to be just their name, with a little fire icon used as the dot in the “i.”Now, their logo is just a simplistic image of fire. Not only does this help them when trying to spread their name around, but it is also much easier to market to people. It takes more space on a page to write out “Tinder,” when you could just be using a fire icon. However, smart branding and logo design is not the only important factor when creating a social media takeover.

Step 5 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Create Content Worth Viewing.

Although it may seem daunting, if you have followed the steps up until now, we already know what our audience wants from us. Using our Save the Turtles example from before, if our audience is looking for emotionally charged media showing off the dangers of plastic in the ocean, then that is the kind of content you need to give them. The momentum this content gave the Save the Turtles movement also allowed for other types of branding, like clothing and apparel to be marketed to that same audience. Not only did their message get out to the world, but they got paid for it, and that money was in turn used to fund more content and more advertising. Quality content marketing and advertising truly is the gift that keeps on giving. Hence, enticing words should be well thought of when creating social media content.

Step 6 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Create a Schedule.

Now that we have our content ready to be released into the wild, we need to make sure it is coming out at the right times. Scheduling posts to make sure we aren’t inundating our audience with spam, but aren’t hanging them dry is important. Creating a calendar can be useful for this. In order to understand how often we need to post, let’s take a look at the Save the Turtles campaign’s Instagram page. They post once every 2-3 days, which keeps a healthy balance of interest and awareness about their campaign. Each post averages around about 1,350 likes, which tells us that approximately 7.9% of their fan base likes each post. This is quite an impressive number, as most other accounts of this same nature average around 5-6%. Good job Save the Turtles!

Step 7 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Interact with Your Fan base.

Although all might be going smoothly with your campaign, we can’t leave it alone for too long! In between posts, make sure you are interacting with your fans. Reply to their comments, answer emails, respond to feedback, don’t just leave them hanging. A social media campaign with a personality is much more likely to take off than one that just feels like a robot. Even certain companies are taking this mentality into consideration when posting. For example, Slim Jim, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Arby’s, Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, and so many more big-name brands are treating social media as more of an opportunity to seem less like a business, and more like a friend. Bands, CEOs, and others are copying this as well, and it seems to be working. Just remember: don’t spam your audience! Give them just enough to keep them wanting more.

Step 8 – How to Start a Social Media Campaign – Follow up.

At this point, your campaign should be nearly over. All things must come to an end, and your social media takeover has run its course. In a last-ditch effort to squeeze as much out of your efforts as possible, follow up with photos/statistics showing off your success! What did your campaign achieve? How did your campaign change the world? Most importantly, thank your fan base! After all, you couldn’t have done it without them! Make sure they know this, and you will have put yourself in an excellent place to start your next social media campaign in the near future. Once you have decided to put your movement to rest, make a final goodbye post for everyone to see. We want to leave a good taste in everyone’s mouth, and giving them closure is a great way to do this.

Take Away on How to Start a Social Media Campaign

Well, now you’ve just managed a social media campaign from start to finish! Although it may seem like an impossible task at first, it’s all about the hard work and determination that you put into it. Making sure you have a goal, a target audience, content people care about, and the time to show those people you care are all you need in order to take over the platform of your choice. One of the most important things to remember when creating your campaign is that not everyone will appreciate what you are doing, and not every campaign is created equal. Some people have more luck than others, and some people just have better ideas than others. Although harsh, it is important that you remember this when creating your campaign.

Also keep in mind that this journey will not be easy, and it will take time. Sometimes your effort on a particular platform may end abruptly when the platform is closed. For example, Google Plus was at one time a potential social media platform but was later shut down. At one time numerous social marketers were debating on Facebook vs. Google Plus!

Sometimes it takes 2 days, sometimes it takes 2 weeks, sometimes it takes 2 months, and sometimes it takes 2 years. Don’t let this discourage you though, because, in the end, it will be worth it. Remember the importance of social media coupled with a website, social media tools, SEO tools, and other digital marketing strategies that will get you exposure in the end. No matter if you own a restaurant or are a database developer working on logistical applications, social media is a necessity in today’s market!