Social Media Planning is currently the most effective strategy in today's digital age. Therefore, knowing and understanding popular social media platforms will greatly assist you in your Social Media Planning. Implementing the right social media strategy will maximize the reach of your brand. Furthermore, choosing the right digital marketing channel will help you connect with the right target audience and potential customers, thereby achieving your established marketing goals.
What is Social Media Planning? An overview of social media marketing
Social Media Planning is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on your target social media platforms. This plan serves as a roadmap for your advertising efforts and lets you know whether you are succeeding or failing. Every post, reply, like, and comment must have a purpose and be measurable. The more specific your digital marketing strategy on social media is, the more effective its execution will be. Do not make your plan so lofty and broad that it becomes unattainable or unmeasurable.
You cannot simply dive into a communication strategy without first researching which social media platforms you should or should not use. When evaluating the popularity of various social media sites to create a Social Media Planning, people often rely on a few key statistics, such as:
- DAU (daily active users) – the number of users interacting daily
- MAU (monthly active users) – the number of users interacting monthly.
The higher the DAU/MAU ratio (%), the better the engagement between that platform and its users. However, today, with many other analytical tools available, this metric should only be used as a relative reference.
To build an effective Social Media Plan, you simply cannot overlook Facebook.
Facebook is currently the largest social media site, with over two billion monthly active users (specifically 2.23 billion MAUs)—that is nearly one-third of the world's population. There are over 65 million businesses using Facebook and more than 5 million active advertisers on the platform. This makes placing your Social Media Planning bets on Facebook a relatively safe and low-risk choice compared to other sites.
Furthermore, Facebook's operations are relatively straightforward, and most advertising content formats—including text, images, videos, live streams, and stories—perform well on the platform. When executing Social Media Planning on Facebook, keep in mind that the platform's algorithms prioritize content with the potential to generate meaningful interactions and spark conversations between connected users. As long as you meet Facebook's requirements for your marketing assets, you can rest assured that your investment in this platform will not go to waste.
Another key point for Facebook is to ensure your content is optimized for mobile devices, as 94% of Facebook users access the site via mobile apps.
Don't overlook Social Media Planning for Messenger and Instagram—two social channels just as popular as Facebook.
Messenger (1.3 billion MAUs) is part of the Facebook ecosystem, with a core focus on messaging and connecting users who are linked on Facebook. Since 2011, Facebook has developed Messenger into a standalone app with many additional integrated features. Social Media Planning on Messenger offers businesses countless new ways to engage and connect with customers in a more intimate, personal manner.
In addition to Messenger, Facebook also owns Instagram—one of the largest image-sharing channels with 1 billion monthly active users. Beyond sharing photos and videos as standard posts, you can also share them via Stories, IGTV (for long-form video), and live streams. Social Media Planning on Instagram is considered a creative and highly promising move, as you have all the tools needed to build a business profile and analyze the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns.
Social media planning on image and video-sharing platforms is a high-potential opportunity.
While Facebook and various other social networks allow users to share images and videos, they are not as highly regarded as YouTube, Tumblr, or Pinterest when it comes to the strengths and specialization required for visual content.
YouTube is currently the largest video-sharing platform, where users spend billions of hours watching uploaded videos every day. To get started with Social Media Planning, you can begin by creating a dedicated YouTube channel for your business. From there, produce and upload useful, engaging content that encourages views, likes, comments, and shares. Beyond being one of the most effective marketing channels, YouTube is also the second-largest search engine after Google. Once you master the fundamentals of digital marketing on YouTube and put them into practice, you will undoubtedly see a significant boost in the SEO performance of your business and primary website.
If YouTube is the undisputed leader in video, then for Social Media Planning focused on imagery, you have more options. Specifically, Pinterest (250 million MAUs) and Tumblr (642 million MAUs) are top-tier social media sites for sharing images, videos, and audio, catering to everything from personal to professional use. These platforms not only provide an opportunity to build a more professional brand image but also serve as a highly effective source of inspiration for marketers.
Where else can businesses implement their Social Media Planning?
TWITTER:
A counterpart to Facebook, albeit slightly smaller, is Twitter—a social media site with 335 million MAUs. Twitter is a platform that provides news updates on almost every aspect of life, from entertainment and sports to politics, education, and healthcare. What sets Twitter apart from most other social networks is its intense focus on real-time information, providing the fastest updates on current events. Additionally, a unique feature of Twitter is its 280-character limit per post. Compared to the past, Twitter now offers a relatively robust set of tools for Social Media Planning to help businesses build and manage interactions and connect with customers.
LINKEDIN:
LinkedIn is also a thriving online community with 294 million MAUs. It is no longer just a site for resumes and job hunting; it has evolved into a professional social media platform where experts across various industries share work-related content, connect with one another, and build their personal brands. It is not just a playground for professionals and large enterprises; recent graduates also look to LinkedIn as a place to find fresh career opportunities.
LinkedIn offers businesses the opportunity to advertise, conduct Social Media Planning by boosting published content, sending advertisements and invitations to personal inboxes, and displaying ads directly on the web interface. In general, LinkedIn may not be the ideal place to advertise products to end consumers. However, it is highly suitable for businesses selling services, ideas, or B2B companies.
Social Media Planning can be applied to other messaging apps
If you succeed in planning your marketing on Messenger, then WhatsApp, Zalo, and Viber will no longer be a challenge for you. WhatsApp is currently the fastest-growing messaging app and the third-largest social media channel in the world with 1.5 billion MAUs (trailing only Facebook and YouTube), used in over 180 countries. Initially, WhatsApp was used for people to stay in touch with family and friends. Gradually, small and medium-sized businesses began expanding their operations through the platform. Similar to WhatsApp and other messaging apps, Viber—with 260 million MAUs—is also a highly potential choice for your social media marketing strategy.
Currently, to keep up with the trend of Social Media Planning, these messaging apps have developed numerous features for businesses, such as creating branded stickers, building communities, displaying requested products in shopping sections, and providing various customer services.
What is the solution for Social Media Planning in the Chinese market?
Due to internet censorship and information control policies, most of the aforementioned social media sites are not officially licensed to operate in China. This creates a significant barrier for businesses trying to reach the world's most populous nation. However, it is not entirely impossible for businesses intending to expand their operations there. If you cannot use the channels mentioned above, then to conduct Social Media Planning in this market, businesses must learn to adapt to the social media platforms built and licensed by the country's government.
WEIBO - RENREN:
Sina Weibo is the largest social network in China with over 700 million DAUs, accounting for more than 40% of the country's total internet users. The reason for Weibo's massive user base is that it combines features of both Facebook and Twitter into a single, beautiful, and user-friendly interface. Alongside Sina Weibo, Renren is also a major player with over 500 million registered users, offering great potential for promoting your brand in the Chinese market.
QQ - WECHAT:
If Facebook and Twitter have been replaced by Weibo and Renren, then YouTube is replaced by Youku, and messaging apps like WhatsApp or Viber are replaced by QQ and WeChat. Both of these platforms were developed by Tencent Holdings and are increasingly integrated and upgraded with expanded services such as online gaming, music players, movies, blogs, and online shopping. Notably, WeChat is now used not only by people in China but also has a growing user community in other Asian countries, including Vietnam.
What criteria should you use to choose the most suitable and cost-effective social media planning channel?
There are many factors to consider when deciding whether to expand your product advertising to a specific social media platform. Popularity is certainly the biggest factor, as larger social media channels (like Facebook, for example) tend to cover a wide range of topics and industries, making them suitable for a diverse array of businesses. However, this is not the only factor to consider. How the platform operates, its primary user base, and whether its brand image aligns with the one you are building also have a significant impact on your social media planning.
Therefore, selecting and analyzing the right social media channels should be handled by a professional and experienced team. Markdao Vietnam is confident in helping you achieve that! Contact us via our HOTLINE for a consultation and a quick quote:
Address: 14 Phan Ton, Da Kao Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
HOTLINE: +84 2871 099 090
Email: info@markdao.com.vn
