For a small business or someone who doesn’t personally use social media, marketing through a digital platform can be a little – well, wait, a LOT – intimidating. However, with literally billions of people using it to photograph their cute pup, read trending business articles, or to tell the world about the best little coffee shop they found, your audience doesn’t get much closer.  

The best marketing gurus out there will tell you that there are many, many steps to creating the most pristine strategy plan, and that is probably where we lose most of you. Because let’s face it, when you are trying to get money rolling in the door, you may not have time now for the many, many steps! Identifying your audience, picking a platform (because they really all do have differences), etc., etc., etc., can make most small business owners give up before they even get started. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way and you CAN start super small and work up to that gorgeous strategy design that the best marketing folks talk about.  

Creating a plan of action s one of your first tasks, because if you don’t have a plan of action, the content will not likely get posted. It is just like the saying, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,” so will your marketing plan. Start with just a month because once you have a month put together, you can easily duplicate that across the rest of the year.  

I can hear some of you now, though, “a whole MONTH!” Hear me out before you panic because it really is easier than you think. First, how many times a week do you want to post? Until you get into the habit of posting consistently, start with two or three times a week. They don’t have to be every Tuesday and Friday either. You can switch it up each week so that it keeps things fresh for your readers.  

Once you have decided on the number of days a week, you will need to now focus on the “what” of your content. What drives you to market your business? What do you want people to know about what you do? How do you want people to FEEL about what you do (yes, feelings are important, too)? 

Here are three things you can do today to break down the "what” into digestible chunks and help you get started on your social media marketing journey. 

Include holidays, and not just the main-stream traditional ones – There isn’t a month on the calendar that doesn’t have holidays, and if you question that, you aren’t looking broadly enough. There are all kinds of calendars that have been developed to identify special days that celebrate our differences, or the quirky side of being a human. These can be an easy filler because you can use posts such as Happy Lefties Day or inclusive days that fall within a non-traditional calendar to connect with someone who is lurking in your business shadows. Posts that highlight and celebrate those you are considering as your audience will snag their attention long of enough for them to read who posted it (maybe). 

Use articles that speak to what you are about – You don’t have to be the person who authors the article, but it might help. If you aren’t in the writing mood or just don’t have the time, the internet is filled with millions of articles right at your fingertip. The date the article was written isn’t necessarily as relevant as what it is saying. Write a brief rebuttal or complementary thought and link the article for your followers to dig deeper and possibly comment on it.  

Products, services, and people – Fill in your remaining marketing post days with content from your business. Specific products, events you are hosting, services you provide, and the people who provide them within your organization, makes for easy core content. A quick three sentence blurb, a link to your website, and a great little graphic you created on Canva – and boom – you just became a marketing whiz.  

Using these three suggestions when creating your monthly marketing strategy will break down a challenging task. Developing your month template will make the remaining months of the year, less overwhelming and create the visibility your business needs.