Social Media Startup Business Plan [Sample Template]

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Are you about starting a social media company? If YES, here is a complete sample social media startup business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE. With the level of exposure to the Internet, just any one can start a social media site. Starting a social media business can never be much easier as it is now, since many applications are now available to aid you with setting up a social media business.

This business is no longer capital intensive as it used to be, your only concern should be your advertisement and publicity. A social media business is something you can start as a one-man business and you can strive to grow it comfortably.

The social media industry is very competitive without doubt but most importantly, you can start your own social media business successfully, without competing directly with the big fishes in the industry, you just need to step up your marketing.

The internet remains one of the things that have set the present age apart from the medieval age. The social media is now as vast as the earth itself, and it makes business, life and communication easier, creating a perfect platform for you to make more money. If you’re interested in this business, read as we present to you a well detailed business plan template.

A Sample Social Media Business Plan Template

1. Industry Overview

It is very important to explain that the social media came into existence about 10 years ago when chat messengers that gave individuals the opportunity to communicate and share content with each other surfaced on the internet. But now this industry houses Facebook and Twitter under its wings.

This industry has become so popular that individuals and businesses have no choice other than to focus on strategically placing ads on these platforms as advertisement and publicity stunts. The big fishes in this industry are still very young; however, a few stylized facts about these players seem to have emerged in the last few years.

Companies in the Social Media industry all compete to present content in a manner that will generate the highest level of user interest, and also lead increased user engagement. This is because user engagement without doubt is the most valuable revenue generating source.

Also, businesses in this industry operate in a rapidly innovating, emerging field that is subject to significant investment and technological change. The major key of competition in the industry includes the size of a network’s user base, innovative product features and integration with other websites.

The Social Media industry is currently rife with mergers and acquisition. The biggest acquisition to date is that of WhatsApp. Facebook acquired the messaging app for $19 billion in February 2014. Also international players have acquired some companies like the Japanese internet giant; Rakuten acquired Viber for $900 million in 2014. Alibaba acquired an 18% stake in Chinese Twitter-like service Weibo, followed by a 20-25% stake in a popular chat-app by the name of Tango in 2014.It has been estimated that 65% of online adults (50% of all adults) use social media sites in the united states alone. This shows that the industry is open and willing for focused entrepreneurs.

2. Executive Summary

Bizworld.com is a U.S based standard social media company that focuses on bringing business lovers together to discuss ideas, share knowledge and experiences and help each other solve challenges wouldn’t be such a bad idea. This company did not just come for the social media but also for the good of the economy generally.

We have also secured a standard and well – positioned office facility that will serve as our head office in Downtown, Washington DC. This location is the business district of Washington DC and it’s known for its great traffic and business processes.

Bizworld.com is a business social media company that is very much ready to enter the social media industry, which we all know is vast and highly competitive, but we believe we can comfortably take over the business niche of social media industry.

Bizworld.com will create a very inspiring and comfortable social media platform to corporate organization, entrepreneurs, prospective entrepreneurs, and anyone will to try the business lane. Our goal is to become one of the leading social media companies in the world and to be able to compete without much weakness in this market.

To attract massive attention to our social media site, we had to come up with a unique concept and a niche focus that will differentiate us from others and we believe that our desired niche is large and comprehensive enough. We also plan to make our customers interest out top priority and we also hope to do everything in accordance to values and professional ethics. We also plan to make our website standard, well designed and moderate for our customers to share ideas and innovations.

Bizworld.com is the brain work of Donald Benjamin. Donald Benjamin we believe can guild the Bizworld.com team to its launch and is the lead concept champion. He has an astounding 14 years of high-tech industry experience, specializing in sales and marketing concept development, consumer behaviour, and user interface development.

He has held many leadership positions within the high-tech community and concurrently holds a marketing management position with a leading high-tech services company. Donald Benjamin brings his unique brand of creative talent and multiple years of professional business influences to the Bizworld.com creative and business strategy.

3. Our Products and Services

We at Bizworld.com plan to build an online consumer database of 4 million subscribers within our first 18 months of launch. Our social media will have four main areas of unique offerings:

We will be offering a way-point marking through GPS and integrated wireless devices, including emerging PDAs used in the hunting of jobs and business lifestyle.
We will concentrate on becoming the place to come for all location to assess information and opportunities related to the business world
We also plan to make use of a subscription-based e-mail newsletter/news alert system which will bring our subscriber’s love for business and the economy close to him/her on a daily basis or as the news breaks.
We plan to make this service attain the height of the “CNN” for just the business world.
We also hope to build Bizworld.com as a consumer brand that will also be built describe and make open the pervasive availability of content and brand e-commerce/e-retailing as it relates to the business world.
We will act as the members’ advocate and generate commissions and fees. Affiliates will also be sought in the travel, lodging, and guide and related industries.
We will also be offering chatting platforms to our customers to enable them engage in discussions and open talks.
We will also create an opportunity for our clients to boost their image in the business world and gain more connects.

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

Our vision at Bizworld.com is to create an online community focused on serving and supporting the well established, easily identifiable market of business Men and women.
Our mission at Bizworld.com is to serve the highly brand conscious and affiliation of loyal individuals and organizations whose members live and breathe the business world and the economies of the world by providing an explicit platform of value-added, special interest content, valuable information resources, e-commerce capabilities, and user information sharing opportunities through the use of advanced technologies.

Our Business Structure

The business structure ofBizworld.com is intended to be a flexible version of a normal business structure. We at Bizworld.com believe that a learning and cross-functional workforce is key to our success. The leadership or any staff team community of Bizworld.com must be able to perform related tasks when the needs or technical crises arise. Listed below are the portfolios we wish to start Bizworld.com with;

President
Internet Commerce Manager
Marketing and Brand Manger
Company lawyer
Chief Technology Officer
Application and content Developer
Technical and infrastructural manager
Guards

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

President

His in charge of Overseeing all other executives and staff within the organization.
He is Tasked with board of directors and other executives to determine if company is in accordance with goals and policies.
Charged with encouraging business investment.
He also promotes economic development within communities.
His in charge of directing the organization’s financial goals, objectives, and budgets.
Implement the organization’s guidelines on a day-to-day basis.
Preside over quality control.
In charge of Hiring, training, and terminating employees.
In charge of developing and implementing strategies and set the overall direction of a certain area of the company or organization.
Provide visionary and strategic leadership for the organization.
Collaborate with the board of directors to develop the policies and direction of the organization.
He makes sure that the members of the Board of Directors have the information necessary to perform their fiduciary duties and other governance responsibilities.
He also Provide adequate and timely information to the Board to enable it to effectively execute its oversight role.
Direct staff, including organizational structure, professional development, motivation, performance evaluation, discipline, compensation, personnel policies, and procedures.

Chief Technology Officer

Charged with establishing governance processes of direction and control to ensure that objectives are achieved.
He directs and development a security plan.
He protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the company’s data and servers.
He Identifies and implement technology trends and platforms.
He also Communicate the company’s technology strategy to investors, management, staff, partners, customers, and stakeholders.
Evaluate and recommend technologies.
Select and register company’s domain names.
Tasked with Establishing email service.
Implement web-based internal communications system.
He oversees graphic designer’s efforts to create a company corporate identity and website.
Manage vendor relationships.
Conduct code reviews and specification conformance testing.
Establish quality assurance process.
Establish an application deployment process.
Monitor web analytics regime to ascertain site traffic.
Implement technical requirements for Internet marketing and search engine optimization.
Integrate customer service and support with the software engineering process to support resolution of customer issues and improve application usability.

Application and Content Developer

Manage web traffic and analyse alterations accordingly to improve the Return on Investment.
Project management along with front-end development advertising using Ad words and other tools, implementation and optimization.
Validating contents for accuracy and usability using support communications and ensure adherence to goals set by the higher officials.
To find out the right place for the placement of contents in the website to develop the business and act as a traffic manager for supplier online marketing operations.

Marketing and Brand Manger

In charge of meeting the sales targets of the organization through effective planning and budgeting.
In charge of deciding strategies and techniques necessary for achieving the sales targets. He is the one who decides the future course of action for his team members.
In charge of mapping potential customers and generate leads for the organization. He should look forward to generating new opportunities for the organization.
In charge of brand promotion.
Tasked with motivating team members is one of the most important duties of a sales manager.
It’s the duty of the sales manager to ensure his team is delivering desired results.
In charge of not only selling but also maintaining and improving relationships with the client.
In charge of keeping the necessary data and records for future reference.

Technical and Infrastructural manager

Responsible for all IT systems within a company, including hardware, software, and security systems.
Spend a lot of time meeting with employees from various departments to discuss how to make the company’s data more accessible and secure, and how to make business operations run more smoothly and efficiently.
Other duties assigned by the president

Internet Commerce Manager

Develop an Online business strategy in collaboration with product and marketing managers.
Work with designers, website developers and content providers, such as copywriters and photographers, to create or improve the site.
Work with payment providers to develop payment mechanisms that are secure and that protect customers’ personal details when they pay by debit or credit card.
Check site content and systems regularly to ensure that they are working properly
Monitor site metrics, such as time for Web pages to load, total numbers of site visitors, and visitors by product or page.
Analyse the information and recommend changes to improve performance.
Make sure that any stored customer data is secure against threats from cyber criminals
Helps to develop or recommend marketing programs to increase sales.
Analyse metrics, such as the number of visitors who just browse, rather than place orders.
Identify products that took increased revenue following a promotion, or products where sales declined following a price increase.

Company Lawyer

Ensures that our business transactions are in compliance with the law.
Researches the law implicated by that transaction and advise on any negative effects it might create.
Ensures that our legal decisions translate to a strong bottom line.

Security Guard

In charge of protecting the agency and its environs
Controls traffic and organize parking
Give security tips when necessary
Patrols around the building on a 24 hours basis
Presents security reports weekly

6. SWOT Analysis

Just like the popular sayings ‘the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step’ and ‘nothing good comes easy’, we at Bizworld.com decided not to make mistakes right from the very foundation of our business. We decided and we did employed the services of a well known consultancy firm know for its marketing and business promotion ideas to aid us with our SWOT Analysis.

This consultancy firm during the time of their research were very thorough and straight. They had to make use of our available workforce to really understand how eager and competent they are to the success of Bizworld.com. Properly summarized below is the result of their SWOT Analysis for Bizworld.com;

Strength

According to the SWOT Analysis our strengths lies on our zeal, publicity budget and our workforce. They believe we have a team of standard A list team with excellent qualifications and experience in their various niche areas in the social media industry. They believe that our workforce is made up of competent, result driven, eager and we’ll educative individuals.

Weakness

It was very easy to note in the SWOT Analysis that the social media industry is very competitive. It was also noted that our weakness include the time it might take us to development an identity and consumer brand acceptance, develop and execute effective marketing communications, Identify and execute ongoing affiliate revenue generation, advertising, and ecommerce revenue stream. We believe all these are issues we can handle properly and very fast.

Opportunities

It was also note categorically that the opportunity available in the social media industry is so large that it will remain open even if ten new social media sites are to join the industry every year. It is sincerely true if we consider the number of individuals and corporate organizations with active presence on the internet and the vast numbers of people who visit the internet and social media platforms daily. We have established plans to make use of this opportunity and many more opportunities that may come our way.

Threat

The SWOT Analysis conducted for us also pointed out the threats we might be facing in the industry. It pointed out clearly that we may encounter threats like acquiring strategic investment and consistent funding stream, enforcing a tech2and strategic site development and content planning, developing of content/link generation, User functionality and programming development and execution, the vast nature of the industry, and the level of competition in the social media industry.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Trend

There’s no argument that video content is growing rapidly, in popularity and importance. People Now have fast and reliable mobile internet connections, and the flood of written content on the web has left users hungry for something more visually engaging.

In this age, video content is becoming more significant in the social realm did to mobile experiences and constant communication. Also digital assistants like Siri and Cortana have been steadily rising in sophistication and user adoption for the past several years, and now a new kind of digital assistant is emerging — the home unit. We hope to adjust our business to these new trends.

The internet or the social media platforms do not lack information from brands and users, but now that features like Facebook’s Instant Articles are emerging, the social media industry is expecting a new kind of social content develop. People have already started to warm to the idea that videos automatically play in their newsfeeds, and full-fledged articles are available without users ever having to leave a social app. And it has put an increased demand on brands to provide content through social channels first, which as you might imagine, also has implications for traditional on-site SEO.

8. Our Target Market

We are very comfortable that a lot of people are looking to start businesses no matter how small and those in the industry already are striving to connect to other business Men and woman. We are very straight with what we want and we hope to get it in due time.

We have designed strategies that will enable us reach out to various corporate organizations and individual who will benefit exclusively for our services. Outlined below is a list of the people and organizations that we hope to create a social platform for;

Banks, Insurance Companies and other related Financial Institutions
Blue Chips Companies
Corporate Organizations
Manufacturers and Distributors
Research and Development Companies
The Government (Economy, Chambers of Commerce)
Start up businesses
Prospective entrepreneurs
Students and teachers
Schools (High Schools, Colleges and Universities)
Hotels

Our Competitive Advantage

Starting a social media company doesn’t need just your Internet expertise, but your ability to put other peoples need way before yours, create a better place for them to enjoy even if it’s not a hobby of yours, and also to have them ability to convince people that a dog has two legs (advertising).

We at Bizworld.com understand how competitive the social media industry is and we know what to expect, which is why we believe we can be able to take over our niche and provide good and unadulterated services. We are focused and zealous, we know what to expect and how to create more opportunities that will suit our niche market.

Going by our SWOT Analysis, we choose to believe that our competitive advantage lies in our workforce and publicity budget. Bizworld.com is made up of creative, result driven and highly proficient, excellent qualifications and experience workers, who we believe came do anything within their reach to boost our business.

Also another advantage is the kind of website we will be lunching and the business niche we choose, we believe that Bizworld.com will be offering a service that is second to none in the industry.

We will be offering our employees a platform that will give the vibe to flow with Bizworld.com, we hope to make them comfortable enough to want to start and end their careers in Bizworld.com. Bizworld.com is a business that was established to reach the nook and crannies of the world and we can’t achieve that if we don’t have the very best. We are very prepared for what is to come in the industry.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

Sources of Income

Bizworld.com is a business we believe will reach all continents of the world and we have plans of using our own funds. Our source of income is focused strictly on the business niche of the industry. We hope to get our income and maximize profits by offering the following services;

Auctions
Specials Deals
Subscription fees
Commissions from travel, e-sales
Advertising banners
Advertising focused on special needs of recipients of outbound materials
Private-brand Bizworld.com products

10. Sales Forecast

We are a business that is vigilant of the new trends in the industry. At Bizworld.com, a prototype site has been developed and is up and running in a privately hosted environment and prospective customer and partner lists have been developed and several have been contacted for establishing an emerging business relationship. We have also established agreement have been with several vendor partners to offer ecommerce opportunities within the online community

We have also created a business management team has been created, consisting of business and technical professionals, also Focus groups have been established and are currently providing ongoing insight and consumer end-user feedback into the online community development cycle.

Initial market acceptance tests have indicated a warm welcome of the concept for potential. This is to show that we are bent on making Bizworld.com the best. Below is the sales forecast of Bizworld.com within the next three years;

First Year-: $560,000
Second Year-: $1,000,000
Third Year-: $2,400,000

Note: it is worthwhile to note that this sales forecast was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that all our threats will be a stepping stone for us.

Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

Bizworld.com being a business forged on tryst and hard work will not be leaving any stone unturned to become and remain the best in the industry. We understand how competitive the industry is and we hope to make it our hub and zone.

We hope to employ our sales and marketing team based on their vast experience in the social media industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall business goal of Bizworld.com.

We all at Bizworld.com hope to fulfil our business goal which is to take over the Industry and becoming relevant in the world market. We hope to make use of the following strategies to become the king of the business social media industry;

We plan to attract and leverage current outdoor industry leaders for content and co-brand association
We will leverage branding efforts in marketplace across multiple media and technologies
Introduce our social media marketing company by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to individuals, corporate organizations, religious organizations and key stake holders.
Promptness in bidding for social media marketing contracts from the government and other cooperate organizations
Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still deliver excellent design and services
Leverage on the internet to promote our business
Engage direct marketing approach

Make use of referrals

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We at Bizworld.com have created unique and well budgeted publicity strategies to boost our business. Just we have said many times in this business plan, our publicity budget gives us nothing less than a 70% chance of survival in this industry.

Our publicity and awareness strategies will rely on the power of targeted online messaging tools, strategies, and word-of-mouth references, followed up with directed traditional media promotional strategies, such as outdoor advertising, periodicals, and network and cable sponsorships. Outlined below are the strategies we hope to adopt at Bizworld.com

We plan to Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
We hope to Sponsor relevant community based events/programs
We will make use of the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
We all also install Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Washington DC
We will also make sure we engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighbourhoods
Deep will distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
Contact corporate organizations by calling them up and informing them of our business
List our web cum graphic design company in local directories/yellow pages
Advertise our social media marketing company in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

We at Bizworld.com will be keeping our prices for now below the average market rate to attract customers and clients. We also plan to inculcate promos on in our subscription fees for the main time. Bizworld.com we believe will grow to what we dream it to be and we hope to be part of the future of the social media industry.

We at Bizworld.com understand the nook and crannies of the industry, and we believe in what we can do. We hope to provide distinctive services that will shake the social media industry from its roots.

Payment Options

Bizworld.com being a business we hope to take over the world, we plan to create payment options that will favour all our customers right from the south of Africa up to the Antarctica. We will be creating online payment options that will be very secured and easy to access. We have partnered with a well known bank in the United States to enable us provide the following services;

Payment via cards (credit cards, debit cards, smart cards etc.)
E-banking
Mobile banking
Other electronic payment procedures

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In starting Bizworld.com, the price or cost depends explicitly on the approach and size, which we believe will be very large. Finance is indeed in any business venture, funds are needed for renting office space, and buying equipment, advertising et al, and any start-up can either be low or high depending on the goals, vision and aspirations for the business.

We believe we will earn back any cent we spend as start up capital. Listed below are the ways we expect to spend our start up capital;

Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
Our price for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $10,000
Our budget for acquiring an office space or warehouse that will accommodate the number of employees for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $100,000.
Equipping the office (computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers/internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $100,000
Amount required to purchase the needed software applications – $3,500
Launching an official Website will cost – $4,000
Our price need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $70,000
Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
Our publicity and marketing budget – $2,000,000
Miscellaneous – $10,000

From our detailed analysis above, we need $2,303,250 to start Bizworld.com. This business will be a world class business that will reach all the corners of the world.

Generating Funding/Start-up Capital for Bizworld.com

Bizworld.com is the idea and sole business of Donald Benjamin. The business being a huge business won’t be easy for just one man to fund, which is why we hope to attract more funds. These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

Raise part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
Raise part of the start – up capital from friends and other extended family members
Attract angel investors and venture capitalists
Raise a larger chunk of the start up capital from the bank (loan facility).

Note: we are hoping to raise $1million – $1.5 million for the development, launch, and 5-year ongoing expense outlook of the company expenses. Additional funding requirements will potentially be required for consumer brand and related, currently unseen partnership development opportunity investments.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

Bizworld.com we believe to build is a global business that will surpass the territories of United States; we will expand Bizworld.com to all the ends of the world. Bizworld.com will start its expansion plans by next three years when we must have established a first class corporate identity.

We will also make sure that we constantly engage in continuous capacity building of our workforce; we will not relent in training and re – training of every of our employees. We also plan to create good incentives that will keep them with us and not just only that, but give their best to the business. We have made sure that our workforce will remain the best in the coupon industry.

Our tactical execution activities will continue as follows in support of what is obtainable in the industry. Our website will be launched no later than mid October. Bizworld.com website will have an estimated 75 percent portion of initial “look and feel” issues resolved, 75-90 percent portion of content/links available, 70 percent of interactive functional issues resolved, and 80 percent of revenue-generating affiliate partner programs in activation.

Checklist/Milestone

Business Name Availability Check: Completed
Business Incorporation: Completed
Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
Application for business license and permit: Completed
Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
Conducting feasibility studies: Completed
Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
writing of business plan: Completed
Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing/Promotional Materials: Completed
Recruitment of employees: In Progress
Purchase of the Needed software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
Establishing business relationship with banks, financial lending institutions, vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress