Planning

In the realm of social media, planning is the strategic process of organizing, scheduling, and preparing content, campaigns, and overall digital activities in advance. The purpose of this process is to achieve several closely held goals: increasing brand awareness, cutting through the distractions of the day, and getting people to pay attention, engage, and do stuff (which may include visiting a brick-and-mortar location, making a call, or going to the website before making a purchase). The brand's voice must remain consistent across all the platforms.

This is not a 'set it and forget it' concept. The digital world is not static. Audiences are mobile and mutable.

Platforms change. Change is the only constant, so at some point, a plan must be laid by which to govern activities. If not, activities will seem haphazard, and results may be hard to measure.

A well-thought-out plan allows the inevitable changes and challenges to be met with the response part of the process.