New year, new social media goals. The start of a new year is the ideal time to assess what your brand has accomplished on social media over the past 12 months. It’s also a smart stage to make strategic changes, especially as you evaluate which marketing efforts have worked and which haven’t.
Whether you’re planning big changes or small tweaks, you don’t want to waste time or resources. So how can you create effective objectives for your social media strategy? Find out how to set social media goals and make 2019 your brand’s best year yet.
Know Your Destination
It doesn’t matter how big your brand is or how many followers you have. Social media can help you achieve a long list of objectives. But to reach your destination, you’ll need to know what type of roadmap you need to create.
Think about what you want to accomplish with social media. Consider these options:
- Increased Brand Awareness: Most members of your target market use social media, which means it’s a smart place to introduce new customers to your brand.
- More Sales: Whether you sell products online or in-store, social media gives you a platform to drive purchases and share special offers.
- Better Customer Service: If customers frequently reach out with questions or concerns, you can stay on top of communication with social media.
Get SMART About Social Media Goals
Once you have a sense of where you’re headed, it’s time to get down to business. Use the SMART framework to get serious about your social media goals:
- Specific: You want to build brand awareness. But what does that really mean for your business? Think about whether you want to generate more likes, gain more followers, or increase your reach — and by how much.
- Measurable: If you can’t measure your goals, how will you know if you’ve hit them? Rather than aiming to boost your purchases via social media, strive to achieve certain sales numbers per week or month.
- Attainable: It’s okay to think big when planning your social media campaigns. But when setting hard goals, you should always consider what’s really feasible. If you aren’t sure what’s realistic, reflect on past goals or growth on social media.
- Relevant: You can set infinite goals for social media. But which ones will truly move the needle? Make sure that any goals you set directly relate to the growth you want to achieve instead of acting as vanity metrics.
- Timely: All social media goals should include a time frame. Think about what you can achieve in a week, a month, or a year.
Audit Your Efforts
Setting SMART social media goals helps you define what you want to accomplish. But how do you know where to start? Auditing your brand’s social media efforts is essential for establishing a baseline.
When we begin working with new social media clients, we always start with an audit. First, we chart all of the brand’s active social media accounts. We assess basics like follower counts and audience makeup. Then we dig into performance metrics for each platform. We evaluate best- and worst-performing posts to get a better sense of what resonates with the audience. We also analyze growth patterns to understand if a brand is on the rise or if it’s flat lined.
After an audit, we know exactly where the brand stands in terms of size, awareness, and engagement. With that data in hand, we can determine just how much work we’ll have to do to bring those SMART social media goals to life.
Check Metrics Regularly
Putting your plan into action means you’re on your way to reaching your social media goals. Don’t assume that flawlessly following your map will ensure success, though. Your brand, your audience, and your social media platforms change continually. That means you’ll want to check your progress regularly — and modify your plan as necessary.
Use the native insights for all social media sites to track your numbers. If you haven’t accomplished as much as you’d hoped, dig deeper into the metrics to learn why. Perhaps your posts aren’t resonating or you need a bigger ad budget. If your social media efforts are paying off far better than you’d planned, don’t celebrate just yet. Take the time to find out why so you can continue to amplify your growth — and continue to set your expectations higher.
Need a hand setting social media goals or want help steering your digital marketing efforts in the right direction? Contact us to set up your social media strategy for success.
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