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Note: Slides with a light blue background, like this one, are instructions to help you customize the template. Before you share your strategy with stakeholders, remember to remove them from the presentation.

Instructions for using this template

Once you’ve followed the advice in our social media strategy guide, you’re ready to use this template.

To fill it out, you need to make your own copy. To do that, click the File tab in the upper left hand corner of your browser. Then select Make a copy…

Now you have your own version.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is a synopsis of your social media marketing plan. It should not exceed one page.

The summary should contain the following information:

Identify the problem or need for a social media strategy or proposed campaign
Explain the anticipated result(s)
Lay out the budget, time, and resources required to execute
Include any additional information worth noting

Writing an effective executive summary

Executive Summary

Executive Summary
[ PROBLEM / What problems are we facing as a business that social media can help address? (i.e., brand awareness, customer service, reputation, etc.] [ RESULTS / What could we potentially achieve by implementing this strategy?] [ BUDGET/ RESOURCES / What will be required in terms of time and money to implement this strategy?] [ TIMELINE / When will we implement it? ]

Social Media Goals

Setting smart goals

Set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely

Make sure they are aligned to business objectives to accurately measure return on investment

Track the right metrics to stay focused on what matters

The objective, goals, and metrics you’ll see further down in this template are examples. Update with what works for your business.

How your social goals align to your business goals

Our business goals	Our goals on social	Our metrics
Help potential customers find us	Awareness�(these metrics illuminate your current �and potential audience)	Reach, impressions, follower growth, shares, etc.
Convince people to choose us	Engagement �(these metrics show how audiences are interacting with you)	Comments, likes, @mentions, etc.
Sell the product!	Conversions �(these metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of your social engagement)	Website clicks, email signups, sales, etc.
Keep customers happy and earn their loyalty	Consumer Sentiment �(these metrics reflect how active customers think and feel about your brand)	Testimonials, social media sentiment, average response time (for social customer service/support) etc.

By [date], we will:

1	[Insert S.M.A.R.T goal here — eg. “We will grow our Instagram audience by 50 new followers per week.”]
2	[S.M.A.R.T goal]
3	[S.M.A.R.T goal]
4	[S.M.A.R.T goal]

Social Media Goals

Target Audience

Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see is key to creating content that they will like, comment on, and share. It’s also critical for planning how to turn followers into customers.

Use the next slide to clearly and succinctly define who your target audience/customer/buyer persona(s) is.

Related resource: Download FREE Buyer Persona Template (Includes additional FREE Ideal Customer Avatar Workbook!))

Defining your audience

	[Persona name #1]	[Persona name #2]	[Persona name #3]
Example job title(s)	[What sort of job titles does this person have?]
Demographics	[i.e., Country, age range, relationship or family life stage, etc.]
Prefered social network(s)	[What social media platform does this person use most often, i.e. where is the best place to connect with them?]
Brand Affinities	[Which brands do they already interact with or admire on social media?]
Budget (for your product/service)	[What do we know about how much they are willing or able to spend in our category?]
Goals/aspirations	[What do they aim for in life, and how do we product support them?]
Pain Point(s)	[What is their biggest challenge or struggle?]
How we help	[How does our product solve their challenge?]

Competitive Analysis

Analyze the competition’s social media presence. This will help inform your own social strategy. If you know what your competitors are doing well—and not so well—you’ll discover where you might have a competitive edge.

Or, if you’re asking your boss to invest more in social media, showing your leaders where your peers and competitors are succeeding can help with that too.

Use the next slide to create a high-level overview of your competitors’ plan. Then conduct a SWOT analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats) for your own brand using slide no. 16

Conducting a competitive analysis

	Networks active	Number of followers	Strengths	Weaknesses	Content that resonates
[Competitor # 1]	[eg., Facebook, TikTok, etc.]	[eg., 15,000]	[What do people like about their presence? What do you wish you had thought of first?]	[Which features do they use or not use? What are their engagement rates like? What do you think of their tone and quality?]	[Which posts have seen unusual success?]
[Competitor # 2]
[Competitor # 3]

	Positive	Negative
Internal	Strengths� What are your strengths? Eg. “Video production and expertise” etc.	Weaknesses� What are your brand’s weakness on social media? Eg. “Low Twitter engagement” etc.
External	Opportunities� What/where are the opportunities for your business on social media? Eg. “Competitors aren’t using Instagram Stories” etc.	Threats� What are your brand’s threats? Eg. “Competitor Y has 2x our social share of voice” etc.

SWOT Analysis

Social Media Audit

If you’re already using social media, take a step back and look at:

What’s working and what’s not
Who is engaging with you
Which networks your target audience is most active on
How your strategy compares to the competition and/or your peers

Auditing your social media presence

Social media benchmarks

As of: [date]

[Network #1]	[Network #2]
What’s working:	What’s working:
What’s not working:	What’s not working:
Audience:	Audience:
Lessons / hypotheses:	Lessons / hypotheses:

Social media audit

Action Items

To Do	When
[eg., Deprecate Twitter account, or Request budget for freelance video editor]	[end of June]

Content Strategy

Determine your content mix and posting cadence on the next two slides.

You can start by using the social media content rule of thirds:

⅓ of content promotes business and converts audience
⅓ of content shares / curates ideas and stories from other accounts
⅓ is original content

Crafting your content strategy

Content pillars

[Content Pillar #1 eg., Entertaining/Informative]	[Content Pillar #2 eg., Branded/Promo/Sales]	[Content Pillar #3 eg., Company Culture/Values]
-offers education or entertainment -doesn’t ask for anything back -can be curated or shared from other accounts	-specific to our offering -benefits and features -promotions and sales	-who are we, and what do we stand for? -connect with customers on a deeper emotional level
Post ideas	Post ideas	Post ideas
[eg., Instagram Story featuring existing customers (a.k.a. user-generated content or UGC)]	[eg., Black Friday sale]	[eg., volunteer stories from fun run]
Frequency	Frequency	Frequency

Editorial calendar:
[Add Link -- this maps out content release schedule for blog posts, campaigns, product launches—anything that will impact what we post on social]
Social media content calendar:
[Add Link — this maps out actual individual posts for each social network, along with visuals, links, copy, etc.]
Content library:
[Add Link — this is where we store all videos, photos, templates, infographics, brand assets, style and voice guidelines, including the content we’ve already used and the content we might want to use in the future]

Resources

Use analytics tools to measure how you’re performing against the goals, business objectives, and metrics you set earlier.

Once you compiled data, create slides highlighting key learnings and next steps.

Measuring your progress

Progress Update

Date range:

[Social network]	[Social network]
What’s working:	What’s working:
Why is it working:	Why is it working:
Action items:	Action items:

What should we continue doing?

What should we stop doing?

[Social network]	[Social network]
What’s not working? Why isn’t it working?	What’s not working? Why isn’t it working?
Action items:	Action items:

What should we start doing?

[Social network]	[Social network]
Action Item: Why should we start?	Action Item: Why should we start?
When will do this?:	When will do this?:

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Do more with social media in less time

Number of followers

# of Posts

Average engagement Rate

Click-through rate