But, in reality, you'll be offered pages and pages of results all offering you the same thing. A downloadable template or calendar. This isn't going to change the game or help you stand out. Thousands of other marketers have just done the same thing. And, you are just adding to the growing list of crap. So don't waste your time.

What works for one brand, doesn't work for another. Sure, you can use a template as a starting point but don't build your entire plan around it.

Instead, focus on the following proven strategies for posting:

• Quality over quantity
• Set objectives and measure results
• Test, test, test

Quality over quantity

The worst thing you can do is post something just to fill an empty time slot. Social Media Guru #1 might say posting at 8 AM on a Tuesday is the best time to engage with your target audience but if you don't have anything interesting to say you are better off keeping it to yourself.

Your customers don't really care if you are in an airport lounge or at a networking event. They care about how your product or service can help improve their business.

Spend some time researching your target customers, what type of content they engage with and what their pain points are. Build your content around this research and you will see improved engagement.

Set objectives and measure impact

Setting social media objectives is a key component to proving the value of your social media strategy. Measuring and regularly reporting on your progress significantly increases the likelihood that you will achieve what you set out to do.

Goals help you chart a course for improvement and success. They allow you to measure the impact of your efforts and can provide direction in a documented, shareable way.

To get you started we would recommend working with the below objectives:

• Grow your follower count by 10% each month
• Increase the volume of traffic visiting your website
• Build the number of contacts stored in your CRM system
• Boost brand engagement
• Gain customer/market insight

We use software to collate and measure all of our digital activity. From one dashboard you can review your performance against targets and link your digital activity to your sales pipeline.

Test. Test. Test

When you first start social media marketing you will likely base your strategy on assumptions. You may have read that video content is the most likely to get engagement. But does video actually resonate with your target audience?

Testing your social media can help you find out. Post content with a video and try the same post without. Then if the post with video performs best, you can then test different types of video - longform versus short, sound versus silent, animation versus live action.

You can then try this strategy with your different social media accounts and content variations. Don't make the mistake of assuming that what works best for you on Twitter will work best for you on LinkedIn.

Once you know the content preference try posting at different times of the day. You may find that your audience is more engaged on a Tuesday afternoon than on a Monday morning.

Over time you will gain insights about what works best for you on each social media channel to help refine your strategy.

When you think you have a winning formula you should continue to test different variations. Doing this will ensure you remain informed about any changes to your audience preference over time.

Over to you

Now it is time to get started. If you need some support, Fifth Ring can help you manage your social media accounts, produce your strategy, schedule your posts, track the success of your efforts, and use your results to inform your strategy.