Description
The professional social media checklist is ideal for marketing professionals and business owners looking to begin their social media marketing strategy.
In the article, Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for your Business, Allen Stafford discusses how to determine if one social media platform is better than another and select the right social media platform for your business and products. This social media checklist pdf is free to download and use to help you determine if the social media platform you are deciding on is right for your business.
The Social Media Checklist Questions
The social media checklist pdf document asks the following questions and provides you with a short explanation for each question.
Have you identified your ideal customer (persona)?
Identifying the ideal customer(s) helps you narrow your target customer down, improving your chances of attracting more, meaningful engagement and conversions.
How many active users does this platform have?
If the active users are low in quantity, it is not necessarily an inferior platform. Niché social media platforms have a lower number of members, but they are more active than larger social platforms.
Based on your ideal customer persona(s), are they active on this platform?
If your ideal customers are not very active on a social media platform, you waste valuable resources trying to attract them. It’s better to do some research about the platform before launching a social media campaign.
Does the platform provide access to analytics, allowing you to measure activity and results easily?
To improve your marketing performance and increase efficiencies and conversions, you want a platform that provides basic analytics that helps you better understand how your content performs.
Are the advertising costs within the range of your marketing budget?
Cost is essential, especially for firms with tight marketing budgets. If you have the opportunity to advertise for less on a niché platform over a more prominent, mainstream platform that costs more, it may be a better strategy to start small.
What types of content does the social media platform allow to post and share?
While most mainstream social platforms offer the opportunity to post video, images, and text, smaller niché sites may not provide the same opportunities. Determine the types of media you will post before selecting the platform.
Do you have the resources to maintain a consistent content schedule on this platform?
Posting on a regular schedule and the quality of your content is paramount to building your audience and engaging customers. Do you have the personnel, time, and funds to stay consistent on this platform?
Are your competitors active on this platform?
Larger social platforms like Facebook are a haven for businesses to advertise and engage customers. Niché platforms may offer fewer competitors. Neither opportunity is wrong. You need to decide how you will compete on these platforms.
Do you believe that you can achieve your marketing goals on this platform?
After establishing your marketing goals for the platform, do you believe that you can achieve these goals given the membership size and demographics of the platform?
Does the platform have a channel for communicating with customers or directly selling products?
Many customers use social media to communicate customer service needs. Does the platform allow for this type of communication? For Ecommerce businesses, does the platform offer direct selling of products?
How to Use the Checklist
Download the free social media pdf checklist. Select the social media platform you wish to make part of your organization’s social media strategy, like Facebook or Youtube. For each social media site, use a seperate checklist and answer the questions on the document.
The social media platform checklist serves as a start to selecting the right social media channel for your business or product. A “Yes” check does not necessarily mean you should try the platform, nor does a “No” check indicate that the platform is not the right communication channel for your business. You have to determine which platforms will serve your business best by first understanding who your customer is and your marketing goals for that channel.