17 Social Media Templates to Save Time and Increase ROI:
Social Media Templates and Checklists
Your social media presence, like Rome, isn’t going to be built in a day. There are a lot of things to consider when building a social media strategy and even after your strategy is created, you’ll need to invest time and resources in implementing that strategy. Without social media templates and checklists, it can be a very daunting task. But you don’t need to worry about that. Why? We have 17 social media templates and checklists that are going to give you everything you need to absolutely nail social media marketing. To get access to the template so you can use it for your own social media marketing plan, just click on the link and follow the instructions.
Social Media Strategy
We’re starting off our list of social media templates with templates that will help you with strategy. Your social media strategy is the foundation upon which your entire social media marketing plan is built, so it’s important to get it right. The templates here cover an overall strategy, a social media audit, competitor analysis, and more.
1. Social Media Strategy Template
No matter if you’re starting your social media journey from the beginning or you want to improve your current strategy, this social media strategy template will make it easy to:
Define your mission Target your ideal customer Gather important information about your competitors Understand what’s working with your current strategy (and what isn’t) Build powerful social media profiles Create a plan to meet your goals on each of the social media platforms you use Build a content calendar and publishing schedule Establish social media marketing benchmarks so you can measure your success
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2. Social Media Audit Template
Has your social media campaign performance been lacking? If you’re considering making changes to your current social media strategy, start with a social media audit so you know exactly how well your current strategy is performing and you have data points that you can use for testing a new strategy. You don’t have to wait until you’re unhappy with your social media campaign performance to conduct an audit, either. You can use this template to inform your strategy on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis. This social media template helps you track:
The social media platforms you use How many followers you have on each account Date of your last account activity How often you post The amount of referral traffic you get Changes in traffic, engagement, reach, and clicks for a certain time period
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3. Social Media Competitor Analysis Template
A competitive analysis gives you insight into who your competitors are, what they’re doing, what your audience is interested in, and more. You can use this information to inform your social media content strategy. This template includes everything you need to keep track of your competitors, no matter the social media metrics and platforms you want to track. You’ll be able to track:
Account names and URLs Competitor follower counts Average growth Interaction and engagement statistics Reach statistics
To learn more about your competitors, check out our post on how to conduct a social media competitive analysis. Access the template.
4. Social Media Profile Bio Template
Social media profiles are an often-overlooked part of a comprehensive social media marketing strategy. Your bio should include:
Who you are What you can do for people A call to action Relevant hashtags Link to your home page or a relevant landing page
Here’s a template you can use to create a powerful social media profile: [Who you are] + [What you can do] [CTA] [Relevant hashtags] [Link] Just fill in the blanks, add an eye-catching emoji or two, and you’re done! Check out our guide to creating an awesome Instagram bio. These guidelines can be applied across social media platforms.
5. Social Media Target Audience Template
One of the most important things you can do for social media marketing success is understanding who your target audience is. Your target audience is who your content is for, and knowing who you’re talking to will guide every aspect of your social media marketing strategy. Research into your target audience will help you create compelling, targeted content and ads that your audience will enjoy. This will, in turn, lead to better engagement and higher conversion rates. Your target audience template (check this one out) should include this information about your ideal customer:
Background Demographics Interests Other relevant traits Favorite social networks Least favorite social networks Buying behavior Spending power Size of business Decision maker(s) Challenges Goals How we (business, product, or service) can help? Purchasing barrier? Messaging Preferred content type Voice and tone
Social Media Planning
This next set of social media templates is all about planning. You already know that planning campaigns for social media isn’t easy. There are a lot of moving pieces to consider. The three templates (and one checklist!) we’ve included here will help you create a social media content calendar, an editorial calendar, create a social media campaign, and always choose the right image sizes for the platform you want.
6. Social Media Content Calendar
This social media content calendar template will help you keep track of everything you need for each post you’ll publish. This makes it a lot easier to plan and schedule your social media posts in advance, freeing up time for you to focus on other things. This template will help you:
Find the right mix of content Identify gaps in your publishing or content Collaborate with your team Track assets Keep your content fresh and interesting
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7. Editorial Content Calendar
Editorial calendars give you an overview of everything happening in your marketing world, including your social media content. While keeping a social media content calendar is vital, an editorial calendar is important because it gives you an at-a-glance look at all of the marketing campaigns you’re running, as well as those that are coming up. Your editorial calendar should include:
Monthly, quarterly, and annual views Detailed monthly schedules of content Fields to assign projects, schedule deadlines, track metrics, list SEO data, platforms you’ll promote the content on, and target audience details
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8. Social Media Campaign Template
Launching an effective social media campaign takes research and planning. With this social media campaign template, you’ll be off to a great start. The template makes it easy to plan and track:
Goals for your social media campaign Calls to action Campaign start and end dates Platforms you’ll use for your campaign Assets Metrics Promotional details and who you’ll engage
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9. Social Media Image Sizes Checklist
Every social media platform has its own best image sizes. Getting the sizes right for each platform is an important step in creating scroll-stopping images that appeal to your target audience. This social media image sizes checklist is always up to date and will help you create the best images no matter what platform you’re using to publish.
Social Media Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing can have an enormous impact on your social media marketing strategy. In this set of social media templates, you’ll find everything you need to develop an influencer marketing strategy, track your influencer marketing campaigns, partner with brands, and create a social media proposal.
10. Social Media Influencer Marketing Strategy Template
In this influencer marketing strategy template, you’ll find a breakdown of each stage of the marketing funnel, from unaware to most aware so you can target the right influencers to lead your target audience deeper into your funnel. This template includes the following for each stage of awareness:
Context: how the audience member came to be at this stage of awareness Customer Perspective: what’s going on in their life that makes them need you Influences: what influences them at this stage of awareness Conversation Clusters: what types of things are they talking about or asking about Ways to Influence: how can you reach them at this stage and move them to the next Direct Impact on Sales: what impact will your efforts in this stage of awareness have on sales
11. Influencer Marketing Tracking Template
If you work with a number of influencers, you’ve probably found that it’s a bit, um, difficult to manage everything. With this social media template, you’ll be able to simplify the process of working with influencers to better understand how effective prospective influencers are, who their followers are, what their work looks like, how they align with your brand values, and help you identify online assets. The template includes space for tracking:
Blog name, URL, and author The amount of traffic per month Facebook URL and follower count Twitter account URL and follower count Instagram account URL and follower count The content quality (poor, good, great) Links to blog posts the influencer has published Brand affinity Brand values match Whether the influencer is recommended for your project
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12. Social Media Brand Partnership Template
If you’re an influencer interesting in finding brands to partner with, a brand partnership template (like this one) can help you present a professional pitch and win more business.
13. Social Media Proposal Template
If you’re a freelance social media professional or social media agency, you’ll probably need to create several proposals to respond to RFPs (request for proposal) or send them out to brands after you’ve gotten their interest. This template includes a complete social media proposal that you can fill in with the appropriate information and send it off.
Social Media Analysis and Reporting
Our next group of social media templates includes everything you need to analyze your social media performance and report out. Analysis and reporting are vitally important for an effective social media strategy. When you can track and understand the social media metrics that are important for your brand, you can make adjustments to your strategy for even better results.
14. Social Listening Template
Social listening is integral to managing your brand. When you know what is being said about you on social media, you can better control the narrative and address minor issues before they become major problems. There are several great social listening tools available, but this template will give you an at-a-glance look at what’s going on so you can easily identify opportunities for change. This template includes:
Platforms where you’re mentioned Post titles Dates and times when content was published Content type (text, image, video) Word counts for written content Potential reach Number of shares Links to the mentions/posts
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15. Social Effectiveness Tracker Template
This social effectiveness track will help you understand how effective your content is on social media. You can populate the template by exporting data from your social media platforms, filter, and find new opportunities for your brand. The template includes:
Post date Social media platform categories and subcategories Target audience Calls to action Meta tags Posts Impressions Comments, replies, likes, shares, retweets Clicks Total engagement
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16. Social Media Analytics Report Template
This template gives you a place to track important metrics for your different social media platforms, including:
Followers gained/lost Engagement Views Shares Click-throughs
Keep in mind that while this template is helpful, there are several social media analytics tools that make the entire analytics process really easy.
17. Social Media Report Template
If you need to be able to present your social media analytics information to people not familiar with wading through analytics as they’re shown in your analytics tool, this template is perfect. You’ll be able to include hard data in an easy-to-digest way, share key takeaways, and offer recommendations.
Wrapping Up
Social media is a powerful marketing channel that gives brands and influencers a way to connect with followers, nurture relationships, and increase sales. But if you don’t know how to approach social media, you’re not going to get the return you want. The social media templates we’ve included here will help you create an effective strategy, plan creative campaigns, use influencers to help you meet your goals, and analyze your efforts.