Archive for social media strategy
How to Set the Right Goals for Your Social Media Campaign
Posted by: Wendy LugoSantiago | Comments (0)In order to achieve anything in life, you need to have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to achieve. This is the case in every aspect of your life – and with social media. Beyond picturing the end result in your mind, you need to write your goal down, so it is more tangible. In social media, goals are very important as well. Once you decide what you want to achieve with your social media marketing efforts, you can start thinking about a strategy. But how do you make sure your goals can really be achieved?
I am sure you all heard already about SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable,relevant and timely. As so many other goals in your life, your social media marketing goals need to be SMART.
Here is a little checklist how you can make sure that your goals are on the right track:
Is your goal specific?
In order for your goal to be specific, it has to answer the 4 W questions:
What exactly do I want to accomplish with social media marketing? Do you want to gain more Facebook Fans, more Twitter followers, more LinkedIn connections, have more traffic on your website, sell more products or have more people sign up for your list?
Why do you want to accomplish that specific goal? It is great to have more followers, fans and connections, but what benefit will that give me? Is it that I can use the number as social proof?
Who is involved? Usually it will be you and your target audience.
Which requirements and constraints need to be watched? For example, Facebook only allows 5000 friends on your personal profile.
> As an example, a specific goal would be “I want new subscribers for my list” or “I want more Twitter followers.”
Is your goal measurable?
In order for your goal to be measurable, you need to have a specific amount in it. You need to answer the question: how much of it?
> For our 2 examples, they would have to be changed into “I want 200 new subscribers for my list” or “I want 200 more Twitter followers.”
Is your goal attainable?
Did ever anybody achieve a goal like that before? Is it do-able?
> As for our examples: yes, both are doable and a lot of people have achieved those goals already.
Is your goal relevant?
How important is it to achieve that goal? Will it be worth to spend time and/or money in it?
> Both goals in our example are worth your while. Having 200 more subscribers in your list means you have a bigger pool of potential clients that hear on a consistent basis from you. Having 200 more Facebook fans can signal to your potential client that you are worth checking out.
Is your goal timely?
When will you check if you achieved your goal? In 60 days? In 90 days? You need to have a specific due date so you can check if you reached your goal or if you need to make adjustments.
> For our examples: “I want 200 new subscribers for my list in the next 60 days” or “I want 200 more Twitter followers in the next 60 days.”
Think about your social media marketing goals. Brainstorm freely. Just make sure your goals are SMART.
You are a business owner and you have started with social media. You heard all the hype about it and you figured free marketing is just great. You found out how to start in Twitter and you had that Facebook profile already anyway. Now you start posting. You write about your service (or product) and you post some nice quotes. But somehow this whole social media thing is not taking off. It is just not working like you thought it would. Why not?
I have heard a lot of stories like this one. The number one reason why social media marketing is not working for businesses is that they don’t have a strategy. You need to have a goal in mind of what you want people to do. Here are some examples:
- Contact me for a consultation
- Come into my store
- Buy a product on my website
- Like my business page on Facebook
- Follow me on Twitter
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
A good strategy should have one primary goal and one secondary goal that ties in with the primary goal. Any more than that and it will not work. You can go ahead after you have reached goal one and make a new strategy to achieve the next goal. But you should stick with one after the other. Here is the reason why: you would do different things and post different things depending on what you want to achieve. So, if you send a lot of messages and each one will pull your audience in a different direction, they will not do any of it. Focus on one goal. Think about how you want to reach it and make a plan. Then follow that plan.
Social media is everywhere and you know by now that you should be riding the wave as well. Maybe you even tried it out already. Did you reach the results that you wanted?
One of the key factors for social media success is to know your business goals. You need to answer the question: “why do I want to use social media?” Without knowing your ultimate goal, you will be a ship without a rudder. You need to know where you want to head to in order to choose the right way how to get there.
The second key factor for social media success is that you need to know your target audience. If you do not know what your target audience needs, you are shooting with a shotgun instead of a rifle. You might get them and you might not. Especially important are the needs and wants of your target audience, so you can choose the right channels and the right approach to reach them.
The final key factor for social media success is that you need to have a strategy in place and use it. You know what you want to achieve, you know what your target audience needs, now you need to plan the best strategy how to get there. Do not forget to add specific measurements into your strategy, so you can measure where you are in your plan.
All three together will lead you to be successful in social media.
