Think Before You Engage: 100 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign

89. What Sections Do I Include?

A social media strategy should, at minimum, contain enough information to fully address the expected goals and return on investment in social media efforts. Include the following sections:

• Executive Summary—This section includes a summary of the decisions made that led to the brand's use of social media. Content included in this summary could be a listing of the key team members, budget, and reasons for wanting to be on social media networks.
• Benchmarks and Metrics—Before deciding what networks to be a part of, it is important to first determine what success looks like for your brand. In this section, figure out what numbers you want to track, when you want to reach those numbers by, and what other factors may either affect or be affected by social media participation.
• Communication Platforms—The social media platforms you intend on participating in will be included in this section. Be sure to include not just the name of the platform, but also a description of what the platform is and how to use it. By doing so, you ensure that everyone participating understands the same intent and that if anybody new joins the effort, they'll be able to be easily brought up to speed. Also, individual platform benchmarks and metrics for each platform should be itemized since each network has varying availability for statistics and may be measured differently.