HOW TO WRITE THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA BRIEF AND TEMPLATE IN 2024

Find below how to write the best social media brief in 2024. Top template, steps & tips when writing the best social media brief for an agency in 2023. Increase reach, engagement, likes, followers, leads and sales. Boost your social media results with this exclusive & premium social media brief template.

By Mau, Global Head of Digital Marketing Strategy and Social Media Training Facilitator at eDigital.

HOW TO WRITE THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA BRIEF AND TEMPLATE IN 2024

You are about to learn the top techniques I have been personally using when writing successful social media briefs for 16+ years to get the best results from my social media agencies.

What I discovered in this process was that most of the principles for writing a powerful social media brief remain the same regardless of industries, company sizes and changes in the way brands connect with consumers.

However, one fact emerged:

You should always map out your top two goals for investing in social media and have specific metrics defined for each of your goals. It is in this format that you can find out what exact actions – from your social media agency – are driving the best results for your business.

That’s exactly what I do.

Whether I want to increase traffic from social media or boost my leads and sales from social media channels, I write a powerful social media brief.

You know you have done your social media briefing process correctly when your social media agency offers only the best strategies and tactics that best reach, convert and nurture your most profitable customers on social media.

In this article, I will take you through the step-by-step process of writing the best social media brief to be presented to a social media agency.

You will be surprised at how easy it is to craft it once you use our premium template and learn about the strategic social media brief design thinking process you have to develop.

What you are about to read will take the complexity out of the process while it will show you how you can write a social media brief even if you have never written one before.

In fact, the most popular comment I get from marketers and brand owners who get my Premium social media Brief template is:

Thank you, I now realise how important is to write a powerful social media brief with your template

Several business owners and marketers have paid me to show them the below steps you are about to learn for free.

That’s right, being able to write a successful social media brief is a powerful marketing tool that will serve you for the rest of your marketing life.

Before you get ready, grab a comfy chair now, a cup of your favourite drink, lock the door and let me guide you through the below steps you will follow as you quickly learn how to write a successful social media brief.

social media brief for an agency

social media brief for an agency

To start, I am going to explain what the activity of social media marketing is.

“SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING” DEFINED

If you have taken one of my popular social media training sessions, you have heard me saying:

“Social Media Marketing is a strategic marketing process that maps out a series of activities on social media channels to reach, engage and create a mutually beneficial relationship with your most profitable customer segments”

Mau, Global Head of Digital Marketing Strategy at eDigital.

As it is a planned effort, you must learn how to write a successful social media brief for a social media agency or social media assistant. 

When you write a good social media brief you are making it easier for your social media agency to deliver some of the most common benefits of social media marketing activities:

  • Increase customer awareness about your brands and your company on social media channels.
  • Create a general public preference for your products/services or change consumers’ sentiment levels about your brand.
  • These gains ultimately help you get more brand advocates, more loyal customers and increase sales and brand equity.

Tip: When briefing a social media agency, you not only want to influence general brand sentiment but also to change purchase behaviour.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SALES

When a social media agency uses multiple social media channels to reach your preferred audiences, the social media specialists are simultaneously trying to make the customers’ purchase decisions easier by giving them a compelling story about your brand.

Most social media users enjoy stories about brands that offer:

  • Proximity. Is your social media content relevant to the geo-location of your key audiences?
  • Timeliness. Are your social media posts about interesting things that are going to happen? or have permanent relevancy in your customer segment’s life?
  • Unusualness. Does your social media content offer something out of the ordinary?
  • Emotional trigger. Does your content on social media evoke an emotional response? Fear, trust, guilt, belonging, instant pleasure, etc.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  A must-have template

This social media brief template has become an essential tool for our team. It covers everything we need to consider when briefing our social media agency while allowing for customisation. It’s an absolute must-have for any marketing team.

Tod S. Verified Buyer

LONG TERM VIEW

Every social media agency’s goal should be to form good long-term relationships with clients. So instead of taking the instant gratification approach that’s all about immediate reach, new followers or likes; social media agencies should think about the long-term impact of the social media activities performed.

KEY SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES

Some of the most popular social media objectives to be added to your brief include:

  • Increase website/app traffic from social media channels
  • Increase website/app leads from social media channels
  • Increase website/app sales from social media channels
  • Make “likes” and respond to fans’ comments on our social media posts. 
  • Increase “reach” from our organic social media posts.
  • Increase “engagement” from our organic social media posts. 
  • Increase the number of “shares” from our organic posts.
  • Increase the number of brand mentions on other partner social media channels. 
  • Post relevant stories, news and interesting content on our social media channels. 
  • Benchmark objective: Help us compare our reach and share of voice with our top two competitors on social media. 
  • Monitor and track social media conversations and user-generated content about our brands.
  • Create monthly reports that show our progress on social media including all/some key metrics: reach, engagement, traffic, leads, sales, user-generated content, share of voice, and brand sentiment. 
  • Train our team with the best and latest social media marketing practices, new channel features and opportunities.

Tip: When using any of the above social media objectives,  make sure your agency understands how each objective is currently being measured. If you have any past reports, share them with your social media agency.

Also, the best social media brief should help and aid your other multi-channel marketing activities: TV, radio, outdoor, magazine, podcasting, direct mail, etc.

THE BENEFITS OF A WELL-CRAFTED SOCIAL MEDIA BRIEF 

Having a professional social media brief reviewed and understood by your social media agency is even more important when you are briefing them with specific goals you want to achieve and ways to measure them.

In addition, writing a professional social media brief will ensure your social media agency minimises errors in the setup, execution, measurement and reporting of your social media campaigns.

It is recommended you also leave room for their new ideas which can be written back to you in a formal proposal.

The top 3 goals when writing the best social media brief:

  1. Understand with total clarity your specific social media objectives.
  2. Let your Social Media Agency know exactly how you want your social media to be measured. The agency should advise on the best social media analytics tools to use.
  3. Help your Social Media Agency deliver extraordinary social media results for you with no hassle, at the right time and on budget.

The top 7 benefits of a professionally written brief for a Social Media Agency:

  1. Deliver the right social media activities (posts, content) in the right social media channels at the right time.
  2. Reduce any misinterpretations.
  3. Ensure expectations from both parties (client and Social Media Agency) are clear.
  4. Agree on the exact expected results
  5. Agree on the methodology to track results
  6. Agree on timings.
  7. Agree on specific social media campaign tactics.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Great template

I did not know enough to write a Social Media Brief. This is a very good and thorough template and I feel now far more confident presenting our needs to my social media agency. The template’s instructions are easy to follow. Filling out the template also made me realise I need to think about my overall social media marketing objectives and strategy. Highly recommended. 

Christine Z.  Verified Buyer

BEFORE WRITING A PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA BRIEF

Before you embark on the process of spending time writing a professional social media brief to be shared with a social media marketing agency, we suggest you check the below:

  • Proven experience in your industry. Ensure the social media agency you are contacting has demonstrable experience planning, tracking and delivering social media campaigns in your industry. Ask for a demo of the social media analytics tools they use and how they present reports.
  • Niche. Some social media agencies’ work might be extraordinary in a specific industry. Every industry requires different social media marketing skills as each industry has different challenges. Some social media agencies’ experience might be focused on fashion marketing, B2B, art, fitness, food, music, manufacturing, travel, etc.
  • Influencers’ reach. Some social media agencies might work with global influencers. Hiring a social media agency with direct contact with your top industry leaders and influencers will not only offer you access to great social media reach but also a great social media boost.
  • Size. When you hire a social media agency, decide what size the social media agency is right for you. Social media agencies come in all different shapes and sizes, and the agency that’s right for you might not be the agency you’d predict. There are many reasons to go with a large social media agency (global reach, direct contact with social media channel’s support teams, great experience running multi-million dollar campaigns) and just as many reasons to choose a boutique social media agency (smaller, more closely-knit teams, local expertise, niche industries, etc). One thing to keep in mind is how much your budget dollars will mean to the social media agency you hire. For instance, often a $10k/month retainer could be one of the largest accounts if you hire a small social media agency, but a very small account if you are hiring a large social media agency. Keep in mind that the bigger clients usually get the A-team. If your budget is modest, you may want to consider a smaller boutique agency.
  • Team involvement. Involve all stakeholders who are part of your social media marketing efforts. If a set of meetings with key stakeholders are required to define your social media brief; ensure a structured agenda is in place with expected outcomes so your social media brief is approved.
  • One great idea. Make sure your potential Social Media Agency offers at least one idea you’re excited about! In the pitch meetings, if the invited social media agency has done its homework and prepared properly, the agency will present a few different social media ideas based on your “Request for Proposal” (RFP) requirements. At least one of the ideas should be out-of-the-box and cool enough to get you excited!
  • Understand the contract. Make sure you review it carefully, with a lawyer if possible, and understand all key terms (cost/budget, duration, team, hours you receive based on budget, how they will report out results, etc.). I have yet to see a social media agency contract that I have not redlined substantially. If something seems off, red-line it and negotiate. Most of the time social media agencies are agreeable assuming your requests are reasonable.
  • Exclusivity. Clarify whether your social media engagement with an agency should be “exclusive” in your industry. Keeping in mind that “exclusive” means: The agency is not allowed to work with competitors in your industry. Make sure your “exclusivity” definition is clear to all parties. The last thing you want is for your competitors to know about your social media ideas before you implement them.

The top 10 reasons professional marketers and business owners love this premium template: 

  1. Instant access. Do not wait for anything. Once you pay, you will be redirected to a confirmation page with the link to the template.
  2. Secure. Once you access this premium template, you can save securely a copy in seconds on your PC, or laptop or keep it on your Google Docs account. No one else will have access to it unless you give them access.
  3. 100% guaranteed delivery. You can always contact us if there is an issue.
  4. Fast support. Same-day response to any questions.
  5. Access your template anywhere/anytime. Just need an internet connection.
  6. Real-time interactive collaboration. You can grant permission to edit your document to other team members and see changes and/or updates in real time.
  7. A universe of add-ons/plugins is available. Bring and manipulate data from your marketing department into your brief document using powerful plugins and add-ons available only on Google Docs.
  8. Turn data into powerful charts. Use the Google Docs editor to create and customise charts, if needed.
  9. Voice typing. Lazy to type? Use Google Docs voice recognition to fill in your template.
  10. Perpetual access. Save the link to the template to always access the latest version of this template anytime.

Note: The latest version of this template has just been released. Don’t miss this introductory price offer only valid this week.

SOCIAL MEDIA BRIEF TEMPLATE – SECTIONS 

✔  Your company, brand vision, mission and the exact target market you want your social media to influence. 
✔  Current marketing and promotional campaigns and key visual examples.
✔  Specific social media goals. We suggest choosing a maximum of three objectives. The more objectives you choose the harder will be to achieve each one
✔ Marketing activities, campaigns and timings to be considered. 
✔ Past social media activity, examples and key learnings.
✔ Things you believe you would like your social media to do better. 
✔ Benchmark section: a couple of social media accounts and campaign examples to review.
✔ Available resources: Customer testimonials, image/video library, industry awards, popular blog content, etc.
✔ Expected competitive activity during the social media agency engagement period.
✔ Payment instructions

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Fantastic template!

With this template, you can develop a highly customised brief, which was great as we received social media ideas helping us build our brand profile with the right audiences. Great timing to use this template as we did not have much time. Thanks to the eDigital team!

Natalie A. Verified Buer

HOW TO GET THIS TEMPLATE

  • Complete payment on Paypal. It is fast, secure and easy.
  • Once you complete payment, please click on the “return to merchant” link to be taken to the page where you will find a link to the premium social media brief template.
  • You can always contact us anytime if you have any questions. We respond fast! ⚡️

Do not miss this offer > The latest version of this template has just been released. Don’t miss this introductory price offer only valid this week.

HOW TO HELP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY

  1. Start with high-resolution images/videos. Provide high-resolution multimedia that helps express a narrative and visually represent your story the way you want. Without an image, video or other content to go by, social media agencies may be not that effective in promoting your brand.
  2. Provide your social media agency with a list of upcoming stories. While some social media agencies may plan the stories about your brand without the need of you, they will benefit from having a list of upcoming stories. This will give them the appropriate lead time they need to craft potential viral story ideas into your brand’s social media calendar.
  3. Let the social media agency do its job. Social media specialists get frustrated over feeling micromanaged by clients. Daily, you (the client) should not be correcting every single post going live on your social media channels.

CONCLUSION AND FINAL TIP

The way you brief your social media agency will highly influence the success or failure of your future social media activities and campaigns. Secure this professional social media campaign brief template today so you do not need to start from scratch.

Involve all your team members in the process of briefing your social media agency as there might be some interesting points  -your team (as a collective mind) – can bring to the table.

Next > Get your premium social media brief template today! 

Need training on how to boost your leads and sales online and increase conversions? Contact us today! 

eDigital can help you conceptualise, plan, develop, run and optimise successful social media advertising campaigns that generate leads and sales for your brand.

Our digital marketing services include:

  • Strategic planning for social media and other digital marketing channels.
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  • Celebrity and influencer marketing campaign strategy. 
  • Brand development. Logo creation, brand personality development and design of marketing materials.
  • Consumer contests/competitions/giveaways.
  • Email marketing. Dip sequence design and deployment. 
  • Conversion rate optimisation. It is also called “path to purchase” optimisation. 

Contact us today and start boosting your leads and sales.

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HOW TO WRITE THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA  BRIEF & TEMPLATE

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