A social media plan is a roadmap that defines what you’ll post, when you’ll post it, and how. It also specifies the KPIs you’ll track to measure success.
Without a social media plan in place, it’s easy to fall into random posting that burns energy but delivers little impact. That’s why we’ve created this 90-day social media marketing plan to help you stay consistent, save hours of planning time, and above all, ensure every post supports your bigger marketing goals.
Inside, you’ll find a complete roadmap, ready-to-use templates, a budget tracker, and a KPI framework.
Before we jump into building your social media plan, let’s clear up a common confusion: plan vs. strategy. Your social marketing strategy sets the big-picture direction, your “what and why” and long-term goals. While your plan breaks it into actionable steps, your “when and how.”
You need both to create campaigns that are not just creative, but consistent, measurable, and truly effective. Now, let’s dive in and see how it all comes together.
Plan = how & when
A plan is your operational playbook, covering your posting calendar, content workflow, asset formats, and campaign timelines. It answers questions like: who is responsible for posting, how often content goes live, which social media channels to prioritize, and how results are measured week-to-week.
Essentially, it turns your social media marketing strategy into concrete, actionable steps that your team can follow day by day. Without a solid plan, even the best ideas can get lost in execution.
Strategy = what & why
Your social media marketing strategy defines the overarching goals and brand positioning behind every post. It identifies your target audience, communicates your value proposition, establishes your brand voice, and sets content themes.
A social media strategy ensures your marketing efforts have purpose and direction. Without it, your posts risk being random or inconsistent.
For example, if your strategy is to position your SaaS tool as the must-have solution for agencies, your plan could include:
- TikTok automation hacks: Agencies are often short on time, so weekly TikTok videos that show “one-minute workflow fixes” (e.g., automating client reporting or cutting down time spent on keyword research) would resonate.
- YouTube tutorials: Agencies value proof of efficiency. Posting biweekly YouTube Shorts that demo real use cases like setting up dashboards for multiple clients or integrating with other martech tools helps show ROI in action.
- LinkedIn carousels with client wins: A carousel that doesn’t just list features but tells a mini-story (e.g., “How Agency X cut reporting time by 60% with your tool”) creates authority and makes you stand out from generic feature dumps.
This should be supported by a clear posting schedule and a content approval process. You’ll also want to track key performance indicators like traffic, demo sign-ups, and engagement.
This roadmap gives your team clarity, keeps campaigns consistent, and ensures every post has a measurable purpose. Let’s get started week by week.
Week 1 – 2: Foundation
Before you publish a single post, you need to set the groundwork. These first two weeks are all about clarity and direction. Key steps:
- Set clear objectives: Use OKRs or SMART goals to define what success looks like.
- OKRs focus on a big-picture objective (e.g., Build brand visibility on LinkedIn) and pair it with measurable key results (e.g., Gain 2,000 new followers, increase average post engagement by 15%).
- SMART goals ensure each target is concrete and trackable (e.g. Grow LinkedIn followers by 20% within 90 days).
- Build audience personas: Identify who you’re speaking to, their pain points, and what type of content they engage with most.
- Run a baseline audit: Review your current social media performance: engagement rates, reach, follower growth, and content mix.
- Benchmark competitors: Identify their posting frequency, top-performing content formats, and engagement strategies.
- Select your channels: Focus on the social media platforms that align with your audience and goals, and prioritize quality over quantity.
By the end of the second week, you should have a clear north star for your content and know exactly where to focus your social media marketing efforts.
Week 3 – 4: Content system
Now that you know your goals and audience, it’s time to set up the structure that will power your content. Key steps:
- Define content pillars: Choose 3–5 themes that will guide your posts (e.g., educational tips, behind-the-scenes, product highlights).
- Set your brand voice and tone: Keep it consistent across all social media platforms.
- List asset specs per platform: Image sizes, video lengths, file formats.
- Prioritize accessibility: Add alt text to images, captions to videos, and design with inclusivity in mind so all audiences can engage with your content.
- Ensure brand safety: Establish clear content guidelines and use monitoring tools to keep your posts aligned with brand values and free from potential risks.
- Build a production workflow: Outline how content moves from idea to publication, and create a simple, clear process to avoid last-minute chaos. Don’t forget to include a social media approval process. To speed up this process, use specialized tools like Planable, which let you set up multi-level approvals to ensure every post is reviewed and approved before going live.
Real-time collaboration and approval process in Planable
Week 5 – 8: Execution
With your foundation and content system in place, it’s time to put the plan into action. Key steps:
- Build your social media calendar: Map out exactly what’s going live, when, and on which channels.
- Balance campaign types: Mix evergreen content with timely, event-based posts.
- Decide on paid vs. organic split: Allocate your budget and resources accordingly.
- Set up UTM tracking: Ensure every link is trackable for performance measurement. Add specific parameters to URLs to track where traffic originates from. For example: https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=facebook
- Prepare an escalation matrix: Know exactly how to handle negative feedback or crises.
- Create a community playbook: Define how you engage, reply, and moderate.
With Planable’s Engagement features, you can reply to comments directly and even filter them by sentiment to stay on top of interactions.
Example of how easy it is to reply to Facebook comments in Planable
Week 9 – 12: Optimization
You’ve been posting consistently, now it’s time to learn, adapt, and improve. Key steps:
- Design experiments: Test different post formats, captions, timing, and CTAs.
- Set KPI thresholds: Decide what “good” looks like for each metric (e.g., CTR above 2%).
- Establish a reporting cadence: Weekly or biweekly check-ins keep everyone aligned.
- Use “stop/scale” rules: Double down on what works, cut what doesn’t.
- Reallocate budget: Shift resources to the highest-performing channels and social media campaigns.
- Check attribution: Make sure you’re crediting results to the right touchpoints.
To make this stage as productive and impactful as possible, you need solid analytics to pinpoint which content drives the most views and engagement. Planable’s intuitive social media report gives you exactly that. It tracks impressions, engagements, likes, comments, and shares for every post, and instantly see your average performance at a glance.
Analytics dashboard for an Instagram post
Here’s a complete checklist to make sure your plan covers everything your social media team needs.
1. Goals & OKRs → KPIs & targets
OKRs stand for objectives and key results. For example, your objective might be to increase LinkedIn engagement, with key results such as boost average post engagement by 15%.
Each objective should have corresponding KPIs and measurable targets to track success. Here’s a sample table you can use for your projects:
Increase brand awareness
Reach & impressions
Number of unique users who saw your post
Native analytics, Planable, GA4
+20% in 3 months
Boost engagement
Engagement rate
(Likes + comments + shares) ÷ impressions
Native analytics, Planable reports
5% average per post
Drive website traffic
Click-through rate
Link clicks ÷ impressions
GA4, UTM tracking, Looker Studio
2k clicks per month
Generate leads
Conversions
Form fills or sign-ups from social
GA4, CRM integrations
200 per month
Build community loyalty
Audience growth
New followers or group members
Native analytics, Planable
+1k followers per quarter
Metric definition
Number of unique users who saw your post
Tool
Native analytics, Planable, GA4
Metric definition
(Likes + comments + shares) ÷ impressions
Tool
Native analytics, Planable reports
Target
5% average per post
Metric definition
Link clicks ÷ impressions
Tool
GA4, UTM tracking, Looker Studio
Target
2k clicks per month
Metric definition
Form fills or sign-ups from social
Tool
GA4, CRM integrations
Metric definition
New followers or group members
Tool
Native analytics, Planable
Target
+1k followers per quarter
2. Target audience & jobs-to-be-done
Target audience is the specific group of people you want to reach. You need to create audience personas that include demographics, interests, behaviors, and pain points.
For example: SEO professionals at small agencies who want valuable insights to improve client websites.
Then, understand the “jobs” they want your relevant content to help them accomplish. Are they searching for educational resources, product tutorials, or industry insights? Mapping these needs ensures your content resonates with the right people.
For example: If your audience is SEO professionals, their “jobs” might include:
- Learning the latest SEO techniques and updates
- Finding tools to improve keyword research or backlink tracking
- Getting actionable tips to optimize website rankings
3. Channel roles & posting frequency
Not every platform serves the same purpose. Assign clear roles to each channel: Instagram for visual storytelling, TikTok for short-form engagement etc.
Plus, define posting frequency for each channel to maintain consistency without overwhelming your team. For example:
- Instagram: Visual storytelling and brand lifestyle content. Post 3–4 times per week using high-quality images, carousels, and short video content.
- LinkedIn: Industry insights and case studies. Post 2–3 times per week with long-form articles, carousel posts, and infographics.
- TikTok: Short-form, engaging videos showcasing tips, behind-the-scenes content, or trends. Post 4–5 times per week.
4. Content pillars & asset specs
Social media content pillars are the themes or topics your brand consistently posts about and detail the asset specifications for each platform (image sizes, video length, caption style).
This ensures brand consistency and easier content production. Here is an example:
SEO tips & tutorials
Carousel posts, 5–7 slides, professional tone, branded visuals
Tool walkthroughs
YouTube
3–5 min videos, on-screen captions, branded intro/outro
Industry news & updates
X
2–3 sentence posts, hashtags, link to blog, concise tone
Case studies & success stories
1–2 min Reels, captions with key metrics, branded templates
Asset specs & style
Carousel posts, 5–7 slides, professional tone, branded visuals
Asset specs & style
3–5 min videos, on-screen captions, branded intro/outro
Asset specs & style
2–3 sentence posts, hashtags, link to blog, concise tone
Asset specs & style
1–2 min Reels, captions with key metrics, branded templates
5. Content calendar & workflow
A content calendar is a crucial tool for keeping your social media posts timely and high-quality. It usually includes details like publication date and time, target platforms, content format, copy, status, and more.
While you can manage it in Google Sheets, using specialized platforms makes planning easier, more organized, and allows for automation.
You can use Planable’s calendar, which lets you visually plan, drag-and-drop posts, and see your entire campaign at a glance.
Social media calendar in Planable
For your convenience, you can view content not only in calendar format but also in feed, grid, or list view.
Grid view in Planable
Remember, for a calendar to stay full and function effectively, your team needs clear processes. Assign responsibility for each task so everyone knows their role.
A RACI chart is a great tool for this, as it clearly defines who does what and keeps your workflow organized. Here’s what it might look like:
Content idea creation
Content writer
Social media manager
Marketing team
CEO
Graphic design
Designer
Social media manager
Marketing team
Marketing director
Draft
Content writer
Social media manager
Marketing team
CEO
Scheduling & posting
Social media manager
Social media manager
Marketing team
Marketing director
Performance reporting
Analyst
Social media manager
Marketing Director
CEO
Responsible
Content writer
Accountable
Social media manager
Accountable
Social media manager
Informed
Marketing director
Responsible
Content writer
Accountable
Social media manager
Responsible
Social media manager
Accountable
Social media manager
Informed
Marketing director
Accountable
Social media manager
Consulted
Marketing Director
In Planable you can set custom marketing approval workflows for each workspace: none, optional, mandatory, multi-level.
Custom approval settings in Planable
6. Budget
In social media marketing, budget is the detailed estimate of how much money you’ll spend to run your successful social media strategy over a certain period (monthly, quarterly, or yearly).
It’s helpful to consider typical social media management pricing when outlining costs. Include a line-item budget covering paid media, content production, tools, and any creator or agency fees.
This helps your team allocate resources effectively and avoid overspending.
7. Risk & crisis plan
Prepare for unexpected situations with a risk and crisis plan. Include escalation charts, social care SLAs, and guidelines for responding to negative comments or PR issues.
- Set clear response times for customer queries and complaints (e.g., within 2 hours during working hours, 24 hours max overall).
- Outline who to contact if an issue escalates (PR lead, senior leadership).
- Establish a process for vetting sensitive claims, compliance requirements, or user-generated content rights.
- Create a simple 24-hour response plan. The simplest template will look something like this:
0–1 hour: Identify
- Monitor alerts & confirm issue.
- Assess severity (low/med/high).
- Capture details (time, screenshots).
1–3 hours: Escalate
- Notify crisis team (social, PR, legal).
- Assign roles & draft holding statement.
3–12 hours: Respond
- Publish approved response.
- Engage users if appropriate.
- Monitor sentiment & adjust.
12–24 hours: Stabilize
- Issue final update/statement if needed.
- Continue monitoring.
- Quick team debrief.
8. Measurement & reporting
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s why every social media plan needs a solid approach to tracking results. Pick the metrics that matter most to your social media marketing goals (these are the KPIs we discussed in the first point) and monitor them regularly.
Set up simple reports (weekly or monthly) to spot trends and identify areas that need adjustment.
Here’s a list of a few social media analytics tools you can use for measurement and reporting:
- Native analytics: Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, X Analytics, TikTok Analytics.
- GA4: Track how social traffic behaves on your website—great for measuring conversions and ROI.
- Planable: Makes it easy to present content and performance data to clients or teams.
- Looker Studio: Build custom dashboards that pull in data from multiple platforms (social + web + ads).
Which social media channels should you use?
Not every platform works the same way, and your social media plan should reflect that. Choosing the right mix of social media channels helps you reach the right audience. Here’s a quick snapshot of the major social platforms:
Great for brand storytelling and community building. Top formats include Reels and carousels.
- Quick win: Hop on trending audio early. ✅
- Avoid: Posting only static images with no engagement strategy. ❌
TikTok
Best for discovery and virality. Short-form video rules here.
- Quick win: Experiment with challenges and trending formats. ✅
- Avoid: Overly polished, ad-style content (it feels out of place). ❌
YouTube
Perfect for long-form content and tutorials.
- Quick win: Optimize titles and thumbnails for search. ✅
- Avoid: Inconsistent posting. Audience growth depends on regular uploads. ❌
A must for B2B and professional thought leadership. Native posts, documents, and video do well.
- Quick win: Share insights, not just promos. ✅
- Avoid: Posting without sparking conversation. ❌
X (Twitter)
Best for real-time updates and engaging in conversations.
- Quick win: Join trending discussions with relevant takes. ✅
- Avoid: Being overly promotional. People come for dialogue, not social media ads. ❌
Great for lifestyle, e-commerce, and evergreen inspiration.
- Quick win: Use keyword-rich descriptions for search visibility and social media presence. ✅
- Avoid: Low-quality visuals. Pinterest is all about aesthetics. ❌
Still strong for community groups and targeted ads.
- Quick win: post video or go live to boost reach. ✅
- Avoid: posting links only. The algorithm favors native formats. ❌
By the way, you can manage multiple social media accounts in Planable and sync posting schedules across platforms to handle execution efficiently.
A simple line-item approach makes it easier to plan ahead and justify investments. Here are the key buckets to consider:
- Media spend (40–60%): Paid promotion is often the biggest line item. Allocate enough for boosting high-performing content, running ads, and testing new audiences.
- Creators & content production (20–30%): Covers freelance creators, influencers, design, video editing, and photography. This category grows if your brand relies heavily on influencer partnerships.
- Tools & platforms (10–15%): Includes scheduling software, analytics dashboards, social media listening tools, or creative apps (e.g. Canva, Planable, SE Ranking).
- Headcount (15–25%): Your internal team: social media managers, community managers, designers, copywriters. If you’re lean on in-house staff, you may shift more budget toward freelancers or agencies.
Budgeting isn’t one-size-fits-all. Start with a rough split, then adjust based on what drives the most results for your brand.
Some companies go heavy on creators, while others double down on media spend. The key is to resource in a way that supports your business goals and is sustainable for your team.
Your social media should be optimized not just for audiences, but also for algorithms and AI systems. Key tactics to include:
- Social search optimization: Use relevant keywords in captions, on-screen text, video descriptions, and hashtags on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. These signals improve discoverability inside the platforms’ native search.
- Entity-rich summaries: Write concise, keyword- and entity-focused post summaries so both search engines and AI tools can identify what your content is about.
- FAQ snippets: Turn common audience questions into short, clear answers. These are highly reusable across platforms and increase your chances of being pulled into AI-driven results.
- Structured data: Make sure your website and blog are marked up with structured data (Org schema, FAQs, How-To, etc.) to reinforce authority and connect your brand with relevant queries.
- Consistent brand signals: Keep your About section, bios, and author information consistent across all social channels.
Boоst your SEO with SE Ranking’s tools for technical and on-page optimization, keyword research, competitor analysis, and more.
To make planning easier, we’ve created a free Google Sheets toolkit. The toolkit includes a content calendar to organize posts and campaigns, a budgeting sheet, and a KPI tracker to monitor results.
Download it now and start building your social media marketing plan with ready-made templates.
What are the best KPIs to measure social media success?
The right KPIs depend on your campaign’s objectives. To boost brand awareness, focus on reach, impressions, and follower growth. For engagement, track likes, comments, shares, and engagement rate. If your goal is lead generation or sales, prioritize click-through rate, conversions, and cost per acquisition.
How often should I review and update my social media marketing plan?
A best practice is to review your plan every quarter to adjust for trends, platform updates, or performance shifts. However, if your social media metrics show a sharp deviation from targets, run a mid-cycle review immediately to reallocate budget, tweak messaging, or revise your posting cadence.
What is the 50/30/20 rule for social media?
This rule is a simple content mix guideline: dedicate 50% of your posts to value-driven content (educational, entertaining, or helpful), 30% to curated or engagement-focused posts (sharing industry news, polls, or user-generated content), and 20% to promotional content (offers, product launches, or company news). This balance keeps your audience engaged without feeling oversold.
Your social media marketing plan is a key to business success
A 90-day social media marketing plan helps your team stay on the same page, makes sure every post has a purpose, and gives you an easy way to track results and adjust when needed.
With Planable, creating content and planning is no longer a headache. You can build, review, and approve all your social media content in one simple, shared space. No endless email chains, no messy spreadsheets.
Give it a try for free and see how much easier social media planning can be.
SEO and digital marketing copywriter with 4.5 years of experience creating blog posts, landing pages, case studies, research, and more. Travel geek, photography lover, and art enthusiast.
