Photo by cottonbro studio

I have a great ability to stress myself out over projects before I even attempt to make sense of them. It essentially goes like this: when I agree to tackle a project, I’m simultaneously agreeing to be stressed about it.

My recent experience with this was not much different at first. When I saw the requirements for my Content Creation course project, I panicked a little. I could feel my perfectionist tendencies and time management jitters starting to squirm around in my brain.

Nonetheless, after reading through all the material about turning large projects into smaller, bite-sized pieces, I realized I could do this. All I had to do was start chewing…a.k.a. planning.

The Project Proposal

The most essential part of any project is the proposal. Here, you document your plan to break down and organize each task required to get you to your intended result. The absence of a plan breeds disorder and chaos, which then leads to unnecessary stress and an unsatisfying final product. 

The other, and equally as important, purpose of a project proposal is to establish a written agreement between you and your client that details your strategy, goals, and tactics for managing social media presence. This will vary based on your client and their needs, but the general outline for a good proposal involves these three components:

1. Topic & Goals
2. Research
3. Project Plan

To fully explain them, I’ll walk you through my own project proposal: A Moment in Matchbook

Topic & Goals

Over the next six weeks, I’ll be planning, producing, and executing a social media campaign that serves to educate those interested about the significance of matchbooks and matchbook collecting across multiple generations.

If this topic seems somewhat peculiar to you, and probably oddly specific, you should know that it took me a while to get here. Finalizing the topic or theme of your project involves thoughtfulness and an understanding of what it even is that you’re trying to create.

You must also establish the goals you want to achieve through your efforts. Some sources refer to these as S.M.A.R.T. goals, and others encourage a more general recognition of your why for using socials.

Again, the kind of goals you set depend on your client, and in my case, my client is me. My goals are outlined in the document below, along with the main areas of interest I’ve chosen that will give structure to the next phases.

Research

The second phase of any thorough social media proposal is preliminary research, and this doesn’t just include your topic or theme. Every piece of curated content for a campaign requires various amounts of research, making this phase the most important part of your entire project.

For my project, some topics of interest, like history and design, rely almost solely on fact to inform the audience (e.g. the original inventor of the matchbook). Others, while not as fact-reliant, still involve other forms of research that are open to interpretation (e.g. DIY matchbook shadow box displays).

The medium I’ll use to carry out this campaign will also require a deep dive so I can best leverage it for target audience reach, engagement, and overall best practices.

Of course, it wouldn’t be proper planning if we had nowhere to store this information. So, all necessary components should be carefully cited in an annotated bibliography. In my first draft version, you’ll find a list of over thirty sources ranging from magazine articles to podcasts.

Production Plan

Once preliminary research is complete, your next task is to create a specific project outline which highlights your plan of attack for getting things done.

My first order of business in this phase is to lay the groundwork for a seamless production process by creating a content calendar that maps out the details, duration, and depth of the campaign.

This strategy will help determine the general frequency of posts and the variation in main topics.

The production portion of my project is where I’ll create all social media content for the campaign.

Content type, as detailed in the calendar, includes a range of visuals from carousel posts to reels. I’ll use various design software to make the graphics and other visual elements which will also be linked in the content calendar as completed. 

Written content will also be produced in this stage, including all copy that gets directly placed into the visuals and all captions.

With all elements of the content calendar complete, and all adjustments made to reflect feedback from a mock launch, I’ll officially begin to launch content according to the dates and times on the calendar.

To manage and evaluate success, it’s important to monitor certain KPIs which can be found on platform analytics pages. Data will be updated on a weekly basis so quick adjustments can be made if necessary. This will also help determine what can be done to improve further campaign-related efforts.

Below, you can read my full proposal and track my plan for the next six weeks.

Final Thoughts

By combining my knowledge of content planning, creation, and evaluation, this project will be a test of my time management, multitasking, and organizational abilities. At its core, it’s a chance to truly learn about the effectiveness of my stress management skills on top of the deep thinking required of this topic (and how crucial a project proposal really is). 

I believe this will be a rewarding experience in terms of the professional and personal growth to be had here. I only hope that it proves to be a great resource for someone else as well!

---

Works Cited

Baluch, A. (2024, February 15). Social media marketing in 2024: The ultimate guide. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-marketing/#social_media_marketing_best_practices_section

Chen, J. (2021, March 26). How to write a successful social media proposal (free template included). Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-proposal/

Chi, C. (2023, June 9). 5 dos and don’ts when making a SMART goal [+examples]. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/smart-goal-examples

Create engaging and effective social media content. (2024, June 26). Hootsuite. https://help.hootsuite.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403597090459-Create-engaging-and-effective-social-media-content#know-your-post-anatomy-0-0

Handley, R. (2023, December 14). 4 content calendar examples to inspire marketing teams. Semrush. https://www.semrush.com/blog/content-calendar-examples/

Newberry, C., & Macready, H. (2024, May 29). What are social media kpis? 25 examples + how to track them. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-kpis-key-performance-indicators/