It's been a year for social media.

From Instagram removing 'likes' and Facebook data breaches to up-and-comer TikTok battling lawsuits over its ties to China, anyone arguing that these platforms are on the way out would be sorely mistaken.

The stats speak for themselves. Between April 2018 and April 2019 alone, social media users grew by 202 million - averaging out to someone new on social every 6.4 seconds.

Now more than ever, as platforms continue to draw attention and evolve into the new year, it's important as a business to go in with a digital marketing strategy plan. You can't get by with haphazard posts and unreasonable expectations.

Like any other aspect of your marketing efforts, finding success on social media - an outcome that's relative to your specific business - requires thoughtful preparation and time. It's an investment, one you have to be willing to make in order to justify a presence on these channels in the first place.

As you work to draft out professional and process-based documentation for the new year, set a couple of hours aside to think through how social media will play into the bigger picture.