Following last month’s article on keeping things simple for the beginning promoter, there are some “next level” (but still simple and easy) steps that can enhance a campaign’s effectiveness and improve your overall results in social media promotions. 

Here is the next level.

Plan a Content Calendar

• Create a content calendar to schedule when and what type of content will be posted. Write a list of headlines (or topics) that you will address.  Develop this content ahead of time, and keep to the posting schedule.  Consistency is key in maintaining audience engagement. Include a mix of promotional, educational, entertaining, and interactive content.
• This step is most crucial over the long run.  The game is not just about attracting likes and followers, but also moving ahead of your competitors.  They are already ahead of you (because you’re just starting out), but they have distractions in their lives as well.  If you are more consistent than they are, over time, YOU WILL WIN.

Add Hashtags

• Keep that content spreading.  Include relevant hashtags into your posts. This can help your content reach a wider audience and improve discoverability among a like-minded audience.

Engagement and Interaction

• Show a personal touch!  This step is relatively easy when your audience is small.  In fact, when your audience is small is the most effective time to get personal.  Therefore, you can set aside some time to respond to comments, messages, and mentions. Engage with your audience through conversations, polls, contests, and Q&A sessions. Building relationships is essential for a successful campaign.
• What if there is nobody to engage with?  Get out there and engage with other people on other platforms, and respond to other posts.  This activity will generate curiosity on the part of other people about what you’re doing.  If other people are following effective promotion practices (and many are), they will also want to engage with you.  Their engagement brings attention to your content.  The snowball begins to roll.

Visuals

• That’s just to say, keep things interesting.  Visual content tends to perform well on social media. Use eye-catching images, videos, and graphics that align with your brand and message.  Create your own, or you can subscribe to sites (some with a fee) from which you can use readily available images and videos.

Budget

• Is this a business or a hobby?  What business doesn’t have a marketing budget?  Determine how much you’re willing to spend on your campaign. This could include costs for content creation, advertising, influencer collaborations, and any other promotional activities.
• Depending on your budget, paid social media ads can effectively extend your campaign’s reach. Platforms often provide detailed targeting options to reach your desired audience.  This option can be effective after you have laid the groundwork with some existing content and a small audience already in hand.

Measure and Analyze

• Regularly monitor your campaign’s performance.  The easiest way is to count the views and the likes.  Comments that other people make, however, are probably the best indication of the level of engagement that you inspire.  To post a comment, someone has to think about what you’ve published and craft a response.  The brainpower they have engaged to do that indicates that you’ve touched them somehow (hopefully positively). 
• Ignore the trolls.  Even if you see the occasional troll – they can be mean and nasty – no need to get hung up on that.  Trolls don’t waste their time, they like to troll sites where they think others will see their comments.  A troll is an indication that someone sees you and your online presence as something worth trolling about.  You can see that as an amazing and satisfying milestone to have reached.  If you don’t get any trolls, you might worry and wonder why nobody is paying attention to you.
• Learn about your audience through analytics tools provided by the social media platforms or third-party tools. Track metrics such as engagement, reach, clicks, conversions, and more.

Adjust and Optimize

• Learn Learn Learn:  Based on the data collected, make necessary adjustments to your campaign strategy. This might involve tweaking content, targeting, or posting schedule to achieve better results.
• Always be learning!  At the end of your campaign, compare the results against your initial goals. Analyze what worked well and what could be improved, and apply these insights to future campaigns.

Even simple promotional efforts require some level of planning and attention to detail. Each step contributes to the overall success of your social media marketing efforts. 

If you think this plan of action is easy and simple enough, then wait, there’s more good news:  the more you do it, the easier it becomes.