Back from our long holiday vacations, we’ve finally said good-bye to 2015. With a new year comes a new marketing strategy to craft and new goals to reach – and hopefully surpass.

2015 was a year of groundbreaking marketing technologies that resulted in bigger, better data than ever before. Some of our favorite 2015 social moments are still fresh in our minds as we open up that blank Word document and begin brainstorming campaigns for the months ahead.

When tackling your social strategy for the year, these 3 things could help you create your best campaign yet:

  • Integrated Data

    Over the past two years we’ve been able to really get our arms around all of the marketing data offered to us. The issue has now become, what data do we pay attention to on a weekly basis, each month, or during that yearly strategy meeting?

    When you create your 2016 strategy take a look back at what worked really well and what didn’t work so well. This includes campaigns, partnerships, or even general content themes. Make notes of each.

    Don’t forget to consider products or services that fans loved (or didn’t love) and partnerships where you got the most bang for your buck. Once the dust settles, determine your focus for 2016. Based on your 2015 analysis, do you want to focus on influential partnerships or driving home the benefits of your new product line? From there, you can outline your data points, such as clicks, traffic, and engagement.

  • Customer Service

    Social media, first and foremost, is a customer service portal. Back in November, Sprout Social, a social media software company, reported that fans are failing to receive a prompt response from brands on social media 83% of the time. Those who do hear back from brands are being responded to about 12 hours later.

    Personally, when I ask a customer service related question to a brand on social, I’m doing so because I’m expecting that process to be faster than making a phone call. Would you only respond to 17% of your phone calls and let them ring for 12 hours? ‘Didn’t think so.

    Take a look back at how quickly you were able to respond to customers through your social channels and how many requests were resolved. Determine a process between your community manager and an appointed social media customer service specialist so that the communication is seamless from the user’s point of view.

  • Influencer Marketing

    If I had a dollar for every influencer network I was pitched, I wouldn’t have to worry about winning that massive $1.3 Billion Powerball Lottery!

    Influencer marketing grows stronger and stronger each year, yet it seems almost impossible to determine the right process or platform to utilize at a reasonable budget.

    First, spend time determining your brand’s current top influencers and better ways to partner with them in the future. Did someone create a video about your brand that resulted in a lot of traffic for your website? How can you work with them in the future to create materials that engage both of your audiences? Surprisingly, most of your influencers are right in front of you because they’re the brand loyalists who have been working with your products all along.

    If you’re breaking into a new market in 2016, research the top influencers there. That includes bloggers, vloggers, journalists, and Viners. Look at how they have mentioned brands in the past and see if they could be a fit for an upcoming campaign. Be clear about your desire to create authentic content that returns specific results, such as traffic to your website. After all, paid influencers are another form of sponsored content (also known as advertorials), so you need to have a mutual understanding of the end goal.

Once you address the three points above, you’ll be much more equip to flush out your creative social media strategy for 2016. Remember, a strategy is only as strong as it is well thought-out.

Do you have a method for creating your social media strategy? Share your process below!
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