Social media is an essential tool for any company, especially small businesses trying to stand out in competitive industries. But what is it you’re really trying to accomplish when you create a Facebook page or Instagram account? You can’t leave your pages blank, but you also can’t spam yours news-feed.
Even when you have a planned content strategy in place for reliable updates, you need social media goals and objectives against which to measure the success of your efforts. For a small business, there are a number of perfectly attainable goals that should be established with each chosen social media platform. Mapping the goals early on gives you clear guidance.
Establish Your Social Media Goals
Think big, and think S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-oriented). Your goals for social media should be integral to your overall marketing goals.
These goals can include:
- Brand awareness in the market
- An engaged, faithful following online
- Direct, personal customer service
- Lead generation
While social media might seem like an alien entity, a practical approach to using it as a viable business tool doesn’t require you to deviate too much from what you likely already want to do with your business. You want to reach people and help them find value in what it is your company offers.
Establish Your Social Media Objectives
This is where you can get into the nitty gritty of your social media content strategy plan. Objectives help you realize the scope and size of the goals you’ve created.
Social media objectives can include:
- Increase our online following (likes, followers) by 20%.
- Generate 5% more leads this quarter than last quarter via social media traffic.
- Generate 10% more website traffic through social media posts by the end of the quarter.
- Use social media as a customer service platform to generate trust and provide a faster response rate for customer problems.
When creating the tactics you plan to deploy, keep these objectives in mind and how they relate to each step you take on your social media platforms:
- When you create an image to be posted, make sure it’s optimized for social.
- When you share a link, check that it’s relevant to your business and area of expertise.
- When talking to customers in a private message or on a public forum, be professional and courteous like you would be when talking to them directly.
Whatever you do on social, it must bring you one step closer to accomplishing these objectives.
Find the Right Platforms for Your Goals and Objectives
You’re likely aware of the many social media platforms in cyberspace, but some are more helpful to your purpose than others.
The platform that’s right for you depends on what type of company you run and the nature of your customer personas.
B2C companies can be more casual, direct, and playful in their social messaging. Your customer base wants to be entertained.
Facebook continues to be the ideal social platform for B2C companies. 66% of marketers list it as their strongest social media tool.
Instagram is driven entirely by images and video clips. It is a simple but highly effective tactic that can help you reach their 400+ million viewers.
B2B companies thrive on answering their customers’ challenges and grievances. The content you generate for B2B social marketing needs the eyes of other industry professionals.
LinkedIn is the most effective platform for B2B social objectives. Its network consists of professionals from all kinds of industries and allows you to engage with them directly. Creating education and informative content will catch their attention and establish you, in their eyes, as industry leaders.
Measure the Progress of Your Objectives and Use It as a Guide for Future Decisions
Tracking the success of your objectives has never been easier with the kinds of stats and data that social platforms provide.
Before you start tracking, consider what is important to you and what most adequately informs your future decisions for your strategy.
There are a few minor distinctions in how the data is presented across the different platforms, but it’s all the same idea. Some metrics to track are:
- Likes/followers
- Impressions
- Engagement
- Interactions
- Clicks
- Shares
- Mentions
- Visits to your website
These metrics give you a summary of how well your tactics are supporting your objectives. Tweak the scope and ambition of your objectives based on the data in order to set more realistic expectations.
The task of executing goals for social media seems daunting until you break it down. Goals and objectives are tangible, measurable, and attainable with the sophisticated tools available to businesses. If you can commit to making social media an integral part of your business plan, you’ll see massive payoffs.
If you want the assistance of social media marketing professionals who can map out goals and objectives for you, contact us today.
