12 Elements of a Successful Social Media Campaign

The beauty of social media is that the campaigns can be incredibly varied in their approach and execution. While there is no specific formula for why one will work and another one will not, there are a few common elements of campaigns that can be picked out and identified. When you are working on a social media campaign, it makes sense that you look at each one of these elements in turn. You may well find that there is something missing from your own campaign that needs to be added to the equation. Conversely, it could be the case that you are entirely satisfied that you have managed to tick everything off in a highly successful manner. What are the main elements of a successful campaign?

1. Integrated and Well-Planned

First of all, the initial planning phase certainly does not want to be skimped on. This is where you can easily start to make mistakes if you have simply tried to start the project without a clear framework to hang everything upon. At the same time, it also needs to be an integrated approach that includes all of the different social media channels that you have going for you. Not only this, but you also need to think about integrating the campaign within the rest of your marketing operations. The key pillars of your marketing operations all need to be taken into account as much as possible. If you do not plan out the campaign successfully, you are much more likely to find that it loses a clear sense of what you are trying to achieve. This will be covered more in the following section.

2. Having a Clear Sense of Purpose

Next up, we have the idea of having a clear sense of purpose, which can easily be lost in all of the creative endeavours of the campaign. Ultimately, the best social media projects are highly focused and to the point. Otherwise, you can easily end up in a situation in which you are trying to force in a million and one different messages to a project rather than allowing it to have a clear focus. So, you are better off sticking to a single message per campaign. If this goes well, you can always create additional projects further down the line that cover some of the other points that you would like to focus on.

3. Ensure the Campaign Is Fully Trackable

The next point to bear firmly in mind is making sure that the campaign is fully trackable. After all, you want to be able to check out what sort of response you are getting from it. Otherwise, you will not know whether or not what you are doing is working. There are several key indicators that can point to whether or not a project is successful. First of all, there is the number of mentions or shares that you get. If you are running a contest, it could be based on the number of entries that you are receiving. It could be that it is based on the number of sales that you generate using a certain discount or referral code. Once you have worked out the metrics that you are going to base the campaign on, make sure that these are stuck to as closely as possible.

4. Unique Content for Each Platform

While we have already mentioned just how important it is that the different elements of your social media strategy are integrated, this does not mean that you should make everything uniform and standard throughout. Instead, you need to think about creating unique content for all of the different platforms. User expectations are bound to be different depending on whether you are sharing content on TikTok or Twitter. Think about your individual messaging and the type of users that you have on each platform before you settle on the campaign that you will be using for that specific social media.

5. Stay on Brand

Every brand has different elements that make it unique. The better that you have defined your own brand, the more likely it is that you are going to be able to stay on message throughout everything that you have created. While you may have the strongest creative idea for a campaign in the world, if it is something that is simply off the wall and not to be expected from your brand, this is inevitably going to cause an issue. Ultimately, your social media content should be supporting the overall messaging that you are coming up with for your business as a whole. When you are brainstorming your ideas initially, you need to make sure that they all make sense for your company and the individual goals that you have set out.

6. They Are Original

One of the most attractive elements of social media is that it allows for a great deal of creativity. This certainly means that what you create needs to have a strong element of originality. If it seems like something that people have seen a million and one different times before, it is much less likely that they are going to respond positively to it. Ultimately, when you are creating the campaign in the first place, you always need to be going through the process of questioning just how fresh and original it all is.

7. Timely and Relevant

One of the best elements of social media is just how quickly it can react to modern trends. This means that anything that you create needs to have the sense that it is reacting to current events as they are happening. For this reason, you need to be prepared to create campaigns quickly. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself in a situation in which people are overlooking your business and going to the ones that appear to be fresher and more with it.

Add all of these elements together and it is much more likely that you are going to have a successful social media campaign that fulfils all its objectives.

8. Hire the talent

Just because the platform itself is free, doesn’t mean social media marketing is free. 

Businesses should be paying someone with social media expertise to run their channels, not just using an unpaid intern. 

Just because someone is young doesn’t mean they know social media (you don’t hire your accountant because they “grew up with math” do you?) They may know the technology, but they may not understand strategy and measurement.

9. Balance relevant content with calls to action

You can’t constantly promote your campaign. You need to mix things up and show your audience that you are aware a world exists outside your business. It may sound like a waste of time to talk about things other than your products or services, but by doing this you will gain people’s trust, respect, and attention; once you have obtained those things, your calls to action will be exponentially more effective.

10. Create a campaign hashtag

A hashtag will allow you to follow everything that is being said about your campaign. It can even show you how effective your traditional marketing tools are if you include the hashtag on those promotional materials. We suggest doing this, not only for measurement purposes but because it allows customers to continue their interaction with your campaign online.

11. Use visuals for your call to action

Visuals define social media. Photos are liked 2 times more than text updates and videos are shared 12 times more than text or link updates. Your call to action will get a lot more action in visual form.

12. Be responsive

Social media is not a static marketing tool. It is flexible and you are expected to take advantage of that by being responsive. Take note of what people are talking about and react when necessary.

James Daniels 

Business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.