Social Media Plan - 12 Templates and Examples for All Types of Businesses

Sushma Nagendran
Published
September 9, 2024

In a rush and need the TL/DR version?

Short Summary

With the fierce competition for people’s attention on social media, a lack of a solid plan spells disaster. You can’t just post content and hope your audience will love it. 

What you need is a detailed strategic playbook—a social media plan that covers every aspect, including target audience, content strategy, workflows, data analysis, and more.

If you’re unsure how to create a social media plan, we’ve got you covered. We’ve prepared templates and examples you can use to get your plan ready in no time.

What is a Social Media Plan?

A social media plan lays out all the essential information needed to successfully build and market your brand on social networks.

It’s your playbook or blueprint that specifies the strategies, processes, and steps to achieve your social media goals. It also sets the guidelines or metrics to measure and assess the success of your social media strategies.

A social media plan typically covers the following information:

  • Social media channels to be used (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram)
  • Goals and motivations (e.g., gain new followers, improve community engagement, increase website traffic)
  • Social media marketing tactics
  • Target audience profile
  • Content strategy and calendar
  • Delegation of duties and responsibilities
  • Social media policies and guidelines
  • Key performance indicators
  • Social performance audit

To prepare your plan, you might need multiple documents in which you write the information specified above. The documents don’t need to be fancy—what matters is that the information is detailed and well thought out.

12 Social Media Plan Templates for All Businesses

There’s no strict guideline on how a social media plan should be made. You decide what information to include and how to present it.

However, the plan must be well-structured to reflect your ideas and visions properly. If you want to share it with your teammates, they should easily understand your plan.

To give you an idea of what a strong social media plan looks like, refer to our social media plan templates below, which are perfect for any brand.

1. Business Visions and Tactics Social Media Plan Template

This plan bridges your business objectives to your social media goals. It includes your business visions for a particular period and then outlines how they translate into social media goals. Moreover, the plan details how to achieve and measure the success of these goals.

Business Visions Social Media Goals Metrics and Indicators Tactics
Brand Growth Enhance Brand Social Presence
  • Followers' count
  • Post likes, comments, and shares
  • Increased post reach
-Consistent content posting
-Leverage personalities and influencers
-Consider UGC
Boost leads and sales Increase social media conversions
  • Website traffic outbound from social media
  • Website/email sign-ups
  • Improve CTAs
  • Incorporate landing page links organically to posts.

In this example, the business aspires to grow. This can be achieved by enhancing the brand’s social presence (i.e., people’s awareness of the brand’s social media persona). Metrics such as followers’ count and post likes can be used to measure the brand's social presence. To achieve this goal, tactics include consistent content posting and influencer marketing.

2. Comprehensive Social Media Campaign Plan Template

This plan details a specific social media campaign, including significant dates, links to essential resources, and the brand’s call to action.

Campaign Objective Improve brand followers by 25% over the next 3 months
Social Media Platform(s) Twitter and LinkedIn
Start Date 09-01-2024
End Date 12-31-2024
Call-To-Action "Let your audience hear your voice; visit our website and try our services."
Link to Campaign Content Calendar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890abcdefgh/edit?usp=sharing
Link to Campaign Digital Assets https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1234567890abcdefgh?usp=sharing
Pre-Campaign Promotion Dates Tease campaign on social media: 2023-08-15 to 2024-08-28
Metrics Follower count

3. Social Media Customer Persona Plan Template

This plan requires in-depth research of your potential customers. Your goal here is to define your “ideal customers” on social media according to several attributes.

Here’s a sample customer persona profile for a handmade jewelry brand:

Age: 18 to 40 years old
Location: Urban areas in the United States and Canada
Job role / Occupation Students and young professionals
Primary social media platform(s) Facebook, Instagram
Device used Mobile phone, laptop, desktop
Engagement patterns Likes, comments, and shares

Your next marketing move must be tailored to your defined customer persona.

4. Social Media Content Plan Template

This is a comprehensive schedule of your future social media content posts. It’s usually a calendar that includes information about your upcoming content.

Think of it as a planner with a chronological timeline of your planned post. It contains all the pertinent information needed to successfully publish your content in the future.

April 2024 - Social Media Content Plan
Platform Date Time Post Copy Link to Visual Attachments
Twitter 04/01/2024 11:00 AM It's April Fool's, but our offers are no joke! https://tinyurl.com/abc123xy
LinkedIn 04/02/2024 11:00 AM #TuesdayTips To Keep You Winning https://tinyurl.com/yz987wxy
LinkedIn 04/03/2024 2:00 PM Check out our latest promos today https://tinyurl.com/bcd012bb
Twitter 04/04/2024 2:30 PM Join us in today's #ThrowbackThursday https://tinyurl.com/abc156zq
Twitter 04/05/2024 4:30 PM Yay! Tomorrow's a Weekend https://tinyurl.com/qbc456zz

Use HighPerformr’s social media calendar to stay on top of your posting schedule.

5. Product Launch Social Media Plan Template

Get your audience hyped for your next product launch. This plan provides a comprehensive guide to introducing your latest product to your target audience with a detailed timeline and analysis approach.

Objective
  • Launch the company's latest cloud-based CRM tool
  • Encourage product pre-orders and sign-ups
Key Platforms
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Milestone Dates
  • Pre-launch marketing: 07/25/2024-08/08/2024
  • Launch Date: 08/09/2024
  • Post-launch marketing: 08/10/2024 - 08/31/2024
Posting Cadence
  • 3 to 4 image/short video posts per week
  • 1 long-form video per 2 weeks
Content Strategy
  • Highlight product details, features, and benefits in a series of posts and videos.
  • Use influencer marketing for pre-launch
  • Host a product launch livestream
  • Limited pre-order discounts
Main KPIs
  • Conversion Rate
  • Post engagements (likes, comments, shares)

6. Social Media Budget Plan Template

It’s crucial to check your budget to ensure the smooth execution of your social media plan. This plan lets you estimate the overall budget necessary for your social media marketing.

Estimated Monthly Budget Allocation Share To Monthly Total Budget
Content Creation
Copywriter $100 8%
Graphic Designer $100 8%
Video Editor $250 21%
Paid Advertising
Facebook Ads $100 8%
Instagram Ads $150 13%
Influencer/Content Creator Partnerships $500 42%
TOTAL $1200 ~100%

7. Social Media Performance Audit Template

This one requires some self-awareness. Evaluate your current performance (based on several metrics) and consider how you can improve your current strategies. Review each social network you use and assess whether they perform well in terms of your objectives.

Platform: Instagram
Handle: @skylinemarketer
Current Performance Benchmark
Total Followers 35,000 40,000
Average Monthly Follower Growth Rate 8.5% 12%
Average Reaction Per Post (Average Total Likes, Shares per Post) 4200 5000
Average Comment Per Post 121 500
Top Performing Content Short-form videos, infographics, memes
Top Content Approach 1 to 2 posts per week
Remark Follower growth and engagements are on an upward trajectory but can be further improved. Produce content that encourages conversations to boost comments. Continue posting top-performing content types.

8. Social Media Multiple Channel Management Template

Managing multiple social networks is no easy task. To keep everything under control, you can use this centralized plan to track content schedules and task delegation across platforms.

Platform Topic Content Type Call-to-Action Assigned To Status
LinkedIn 10 Tips for Effective Startup Marketing Blog Connect with us today to plan your next marketing strategy Social media team Done
Twitter Client Testimonial Post Thread Sign up now and work on your marketing strategy with us. Social media team In progress

Use HighPerformr’s multiple automation features to seamlessly post across multiple networks.

9. Social Media Content Planner and Tracker Template

This plan gives you a bird’s-eye view of the progress of your planned content. It lets you track the status of your content from conceptualization to live publication.

Platform Idea/Concept In progress Editing Published
All platforms How to increase your leads? (August 12, 2024) Using SEO for digital marketing (August 9, 2024) Social media marketing for startups (August 15, 2024) 8 best social media platforms for lead generation (July 28, 2024)
LinkedIn, Twitter 8 best AI copywriting tools (August 14, 2024) What is social media prospecting? (August 11, 2024) Top 5 tools for digital marketers (August 18, 2024) Why does digital marketing matter today? (August 3, 2024)
LinkedIn 5 CRM tools for any business (August 15, 2024) 5 game-changing email add-ons (August 13, 2024) How to stay productive in the virtual world? (August 21, 2024) Product launch live stream (August 5, 2024)

10. Social Media Strategy Plan Template

This template breaks down every step of your overall strategy and outlines the expected time frame. This plan keeps you on track to achieve crucial milestones in social media marketing.

Task Time Frame Done?
Stage 1: Research Determine Target Audience July 15, 2024 - July 21, 2024
Perform competitive analysis July 21, 2024 - July 26, 20
Perform social listening July 28, 2024 - August 5, 2024
Review existing accounts August 6, 2024 - August 8, 2024
Stage 2: Plan and Strategize Set objectives August 10, 2024 - August 12, 2024
Determine KPIs and metrics August 13, 2024 - August 15, 2024
Prepare content calendar August 18, 2024 - August 22, 2024 In progress

11. Comprehensive Social Media Approach Plan Template

This template consolidates all important aspects of a social media strategy—audience, content, metrics, goals, etc. It is an amalgamation of the previous templates.

Audience The "entrepreneur" persona
Targets and Objectives Goals Lead Generation
Brand Awareness
Platform LinkedIn
Content Strategy Content Types How-To Guides
Educational Articles
Pre-Made Templates
Tips and Tricks for Beginners
Content Velocity 2-3x/day
Ideally, every M, W, F
Engagement Style Straightforward, friendly,
professional
Use CTA on every post
Measurement KPIs Follower growth
Post engagements
Resources Data Source https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890abcdefghij/edit?usp=sharing
Images and Videos https://drive.google.com/file/d/2234557890abcdefghij/view?usp=sharing

12. 30-day Social Media Plan Template

Reaching social media success in a mere 30 days might seem impossible. However, you may witness significant growth in your online presence and marketing by accomplishing one goal per day.

Of course, your daily tasks must be attainable, realistic, and measurable to make this plan effective.

Day 1
Define business objectives
Day 2
Translate objectives to social media goals
Day 3
Identify KPIs and metrics
Day 4
Perform SWOT analysis
Day 5
Perform competitive analysis
Day 6
Run social audit
Day 7
Review audit results
Day 8
Define your brand voice and persona
Day 9
Build a strong online profile
Day 10
Determine your target audience
Day 11
Perform social listening
Day 12
Research popular keywords
Day 13
Identify current trends, topics, and conversations
Day 14
Conceptualize content ideas
Day 15
Solicit content ideas from other teams
Day 16
Consolidate content ideas
Day 17
Prepare a content calendar
Day 18
Delegate content creation tasks and responsibilities
Day 19
Prepare resources for content creation
Day 20
Start content creation
Day 21
Improve and polish content created
Day 22
Publish content
Day 23
Optimize content visibility
Day 24
Engage with audience
Day 25
Monitor content performance
Day 26
Assess performance based on benchmark
Day 27
Determine opportunities for improvement
Day 28
Prepare a social media report
Day 29
Review the current strategy for revision
Day 30
Prepare for the next 30-day cycle

Get Your Social Media Plan Into Action With HighPerformr

Turn your actionable plan into reality with HighPerformr’s innovative features for an impactful social media presence:

  • Social AI: Use AI to produce high-quality posts based on your ideas and keywords and let it track trends to understand your audience better.
  • Post Templates: Post high-quality content consistently with our ready-made template for different purposes.
  • Analytics: Measure success and social media ROI with our high-caliber analytics tools.

Achieve social media excellence. Try HighPerformr’s free features today.

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