1. SET 3 S.M.A.R.T. GOALS

S.M.A.R.T. Coals are Specific, Measurable. Attainable. Relevant and Time-bound goals. For example: Gain 100 new customers via Social Media in 30 days. It is important to track meaningful metrics, and not vanity metrics.

2. LEARN YOUR AUDIENCE

Know who your audience is by gathering real-world data (not assumptions) then creating audience personas. You need to find out what kind of content they'll like, share, want, and need.

3. RESEARCH THE COMPETITION

Conduct a competitive analysis to understand who the competition is and spot opportunities. Replicate their strengths, and dominate their weakness.

4. CONDUCT A SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

If you're already on social media, evaluate your current efforts and ask yourself "What's working and what's not? "Who is engaging with me?. Which social media sites does my target market use?", "How does my social media presence compare to that of my competitors?

5. SET UP ACCOUNTS AND IMPROVE EXISTING PROFILES

Determine which platforms you're going to use and how you'll be using them (eg. Twitter for customer relationship) Set up (and optimize) your accounts. Fill out all profile fields using your keywords and use images that are correctly sized for each network.

6. FIND INSPIRATION

Draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social media. Take note on the type of content they publish and how they engage with their followers. You can even ask your followers what they will like to see!

7. CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT CALENDAR

Create a posting schedule that lists down the date and time at which you will publish those types of content on each channel.

8. TEST, EVALUATE, ADJUST

Track your data using tools like Hootsuite. With the data. re-evaluate your strategy and test it again. Repeat this process until you reach your goal.