One of the hardest parts about social media marketing is that it takes a lot of time and effort to keep it going.

The most effective businesses are posting almost every day and creating campaigns that are definitely not designed to “set it and forget it.”

But the reality is—sometimes you really do need to set it and forget it.

Here’s an example.

Earlier this summer, I knew I was going on vacation for two weeks. I wanted to promote a new guide we developed while I was gone, but since I wasn’t going to be here to physically promote it—I had to come up with a plan B.

So what did I do? I used Social Campaigns—Constant Contact’s online tool that makes it easy to get fans for your Facebook Page, so you can get more business.

It took me just 45 minutes to develop a campaign featuring the guide and 10 days of Facebook posts to support it.

Here’s the play-by-play of how I was able to “make it happen”

4:25 p.m. — Logged into my Constant Contact account and started building my campaign using a downloadable content template. I kept it simple! On the “Like-Gate” Page of my campaign I created a clear call to action—“Like” us to download 28 Tips for Better Facebook Marketing. I did this so people would know exactly what to do when they got to the Page. On the “Reveal” Page of my campaign, I simply thanked people for “liking” the Page and told them how to download the guide. Nice and simple, right? Next, I uploaded the guide to “MyLibrary” and then added a link to the guide to the “Download” button. Finally, I left the block that made it easy for people to share the Page if they enjoyed the guide.

4:31 p.m. — After completing the “Like” and Reveal Pages of my campaign, I customized the initial Facebook post and tab name from within my Constant Contact account and scheduled a start and end date for my campaign.

4:35 p.m. — Now, it was time to build out my promotional calendar. I like to use a mix of posts specifically promoting the campaign, and some that were just interesting to the people who are already  fans of my Page.  Personally, I like to work in Microsoft Word so I began crafting short posts in a single document. I wrote my promotional posts, each featuring a different element of the guide and included a link to the campaign Page itself.

4:47 p.m. — Next, I searched for a few other articles to post to my Page around hot topics and success stories that I thought our audience would find interesting. In this case, I included some recent facts and success stories about small businesses using social media. In total, I created 14 posts, eight promotional, and six content-only posts.

5:09 p.m. — Next, I logged on to Facebook and used their new schedule posts functionality to create 10 days of posts.

5:10 p.m. — I logged off and went on vacation!

So, what happened?

It was a wonderful vacation to Seattle and Vancouver, full of good food, laughter, and great beer.

Oh wait, you probably care more about the campaign results!   Well, that was just as good. While I was away, 123 people downloaded our guide, nine of them shared it with their own networks, and 45 new people “liked” our Page. In addition, we used Facebook Insights to see that we had received huge increases in our reach based on the frequent, engaging posts.

The takeaway

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to run a “set it and forget it” campaign, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t work for your organization. By having something worth offering to your audience, and promoting the campaign effectively, you can grow your audience and keep them engaged on a regular basis.

Ready to set up your next social media marketing campaign? Give Social Campaigns a try!