Setting Social Media Goals

Create An Actionable Plan

Many companies and individuals are utilizing the power of social media to help their business succeed. This is a great plan in an age where ideas and events are spread easily through the internet. Social media can help your business grow it’s brand, reach new users, or convey messages and promotions. What many companies lack are good short/long term goals on what they want to achieve on social media such as increasing followers or generating buzz about their activities. Remember that social media goals do not directly translate to your business goals. You can double your followers without doubling your profits, but the overall aim is to increase your brand awareness and future customer loyalty. Are you seeking to increase your following, if so, by how much and in what time frame? Setting goals will let you know how much time and resources you should spend on social media and help you measure your success or need for improvement... When it comes to social media, goals are achieved organically.

Set A Time Frame

An important detail many people will leave out when planning social media strategy is setting a fixed time frame. If, for example, you want to see 25% more website traffic coming from social media, set a fixed time to achieve this goal. Based on your following and rate of engagement this goal could be two months or it could be six. Choose your time frame and monitor your daily/weekly time spent on social media efforts and make sure you stick to your schedule/routine while leaving some room for flexibility. Often social media proves ineffective when users do not commit to upkeeping their online presence. This will give you a good estimation of how much more resources and time you need to expend to get the results you want. Not setting a time frame or recording progress over time will leave you floating and unsure if your activity is actually making a significant difference towards what you are trying to achieve.

Set Realistic Goals

Everyone wants to have the next viral product or media release but the chances of this occurring overnight are slim. Be honest and realistic about your goals and know that real social media success takes time and effort. Start by taking inventory of your current social media reach and base your goals around that; account for growth in a natural/organic way. Do you have 200 twitter followers? How long did it take you to earn those and if you increase your efforts how many more can you achieve? Set your goals to match your expectations but also the tools you have at hand.

Measure Your Results

Metrics and social media go hand and hand although many people forget that. There are many goals people set in social media such as,

• Increasing Website Traffic
• Higher Conversion Rates
• Promoting Brand Awareness
• Brand/Customer Loyalty

Measuring the dollar return from your social media efforts is still not easy but you can measure the human impact of your efforts. Social media relies on person to person communication and how connections made by users will positively impact your business. Accurately record your followers, shares, retweets and other social media activity to give you a good feel of how users are reacting to your presence over time. Seeing increased traffic to your website? Use analytics to know if visitors are arriving through Facebook, Twitter, Search Engines or somewhere else. Are more people are talking about your company or products on Facebook this month than last? Refer to your posts and the amount of viewers/readers to analyze what made this month more effective than the last.

Repeating your process and maintaining your presence is necessary to achieve your goals. Social media is built through steady, determined efforts and the rewards match your commitment. Have a good plan starting out with a set time frame, monitor your progress, adjust your efforts accordingly, be realistic about your expectations, and repeat this process on a regular basis and you can make social media work in your favor.

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