Planning season is nigh. Before the 2027 plan gets locked and handed to your social team to execute, there is a better order of operations that strengthens your brand’s opportunity to resonate with your audience. Bring the social media team in before planning begins.
Often, annual planning cycles leave the social media team without a seat at the table. This leaves a team that is rich in customer data to join the effort only after the strategy is already set once the campaigns need executing. But, the brands getting this right treat social as a business-driving function, not just a department that produces content. Duolingo built a brand voice strange enough to catapult it to the top of language learning. Red Lobster leaned into a back-from-the-dead attitude after nearly going under, driven by menu innovation and fast customer feedback sourced from their social audience.
Your social team is the closest read the business has on its audience. They are immersed in the conversation every day: the recurring narratives, the shifts in sentiment, who your advocates are and who is pushing back. A plan built without that insight carries campaigns built on assumptions instead of insight-driven signals to the finish line.
The value here is not the content social produces, but the context only social sees.
Before you finalize 2027, convene your social team and ask five questions:
This works best as a meeting, not an email. Bring the whole team, from coordinator to VP, since each person is immersed in the community and notices different signals. For how your Head of Social should prepare and what to do with the answers, this week’s companion post on the blog covers the details.
If you were the CMO, what would you want from our brand in 2027, and why?
I ask this one because I am of the mind that today’s social media leaders are tomorrow’s CMOs. They see the audience up close, often skew a different generation than your leadership team, and tend to have real opinions on platforms, partnerships and new territory that warrants exploration. This question opens that up without putting anyone on the defensive.
For more on bringing social media into the start of annual planning, watch this week’s video.
The CMO 5-Minute Briefing
A short, actionable briefing for marketing executives: what's shifting in social, why it impacts your bottom line, and one precise question to bring to your next 1:1 with your Head of Social.
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