By broadcasting your brand in the ever-changing and powerful social media world, you have the chance to reach out to a broad audience. If you want to gain awareness through visitors on your social channels, you must first have a plan in mind.

Social media is a dominant voice to get your brand out there, but remain aware that social campaigns must be ran correctly in order to be effective.  Both successes and failures come from implementing a social media campaign, and it’s up to your company to create an environment in which it can thrive.

Designate a person or team who can fully commit to implementing the campaign. Below are four things to consider before investing time and resources in a social media campaign:

1)   Who are your customers?

By customers, we mean “buyer personas.”  To what audience are you trying to sell?  What are their demographics?   What are their challenges?  Make sure that the correct social media channel is aligned with these customer demographics.  If your buyer persona is more likely to be on LinkedIn vs. Pinterest, focus on that specific channel. All messages don’t belong on all channels.

2)   What do your customers want?

Your content should be written expressly for them. Yes, you are trying to get your message across through social channels; however, your content should engage these distinct personas.  Develop meaningful content for each persona’s needs. Whether it’s a whitepaper, a blog post or a Twitter poll, your customers need to be engaged, responsive and interested enough to be a frequent flyer on your channels.

3)   What message are you trying to convey?

While reaching out to your followers, make sure you keep the correct, overarching message in mind.  Your content should be informative about one topic, not overcomplicated. Run a social media seminar for your senior management to collect insights on the one thing that sets you apart. What is your niche? To what can your customers relate? Why should they choose you?

4)   What does success look like to you?

Besides determining the initial details (budget, decision makers, writers, etc.), you must have a discussion about SUCCESS.  In your eyes, what will make this campaign successful? Is it a 15% increase in leads? Is it converting two leads into customers? Generating overall awareness? You need to know your organization’s definition of success, in order to map out how you and your team will get there.