Now that the festivities are all over, the decorations are down and the champagne corks have all been popped, it’s time to think about the year ahead. Maybe you’ve made some personal new year’s resolutions already but now it’s time to think about your business. The beginning of the year is a great time to plan your social media for 2015.

A great place to start is to review your use of social media over the last year. Think about the social platforms you have been using and how you have been using them; which proved the most useful and which don’t get you the leads you’d like. If you’re not sure then a good way to measure this is through analytics; the majority of social media sites give you access to analytics for free so you can see how much engagement your updates receive, how many people are viewing your profile, what times are the best for you to be active, and much more. If you understand more about the demographics of your audience on each social media then it will be easier for you to plan an effective social media strategy.

If any platforms take up too much of your time for little return then it’s worth reassessing your use of them, whether it is a relevant platform for your business type and how you can improve your usage of it. Also think about the platforms you’re not using if there are any you think might be fruitful for your business. It’s important to do some research too – ask your customers what platforms they use, and what makes them choose you. The answers may surprise you!

Once you know which platforms you are going to be using you can further plan your activity on them. Try drawing up a content calendar in which you can plan what you will be posting on each social media for an entire month, quarter, or even the whole year. You could establish certain topics you want to talk about at certain times of the year and post content around that topic for a certain amount of time. Also, don’t forget seasonal events and holidays as they’ll be hot topics on social media as they are happening.

From planning your content in advance this way you can have an idea of what you need to do beforehand which will save you time thinking of ideas throughout the year. You can also schedule your content using platforms such as Hootsuite and Buffer, saving you even more time throughout the year giving you more time to concentrate on other aspects of your business. However, don’t forget to still log in regularly to keep up to date with current events online and engage with your followers/friends as they post content.

Checklist:

• Decide which social networks work best for you by looking back at your analytics from 2014, speaking to your customers and tracking your leads.

• Concentrate your efforts on the ones that work and ditch the ones that don’t!

• Think seriously about introducing a blog if you haven’t already. Hosting a blog on your own website gives people a reason to return to your site time and again, and is at the heart of most successful social media strategies.

• Think ahead. How do you want your social media presence to look at the end of 2015? Do you need more followers? More content? More engagement? Work out what your priorities are.

• Get a calendar and plan out the next three months. What events are you attending? What national holidays are happening? Any major sporting or cultural events happening? What about events that are significant for your industry?

• You don’t have to write every post in advance, but plan out your topics – what will you be talking about each week? Plan every day if you can!

• Get writing! The more you have prepared in advance, the easier your life will be. By planning your content in advance, you’ll be free on a day to day basis to actually engage with your customers online, talk about the stuff that’s happening RIGHT NOW, and build your community.

• Finally – tweet us! Let us know your Twitter username. We’d love to follow you and see how you’re doing. Have fun!

So get ahead of the game this year and plan your social media so that you know you are getting the most out of it all year round.

If you would like any help in planning your social media strategy or creating your content calendar then get in touch. We help businesses all over the UK get the results they’ve been looking for with effective strategies and expert planning. We can help you too.

By Kate Tyler & Madeleine Helme