In this Identity Building Blog post we will discuss the importance of setting social media goals and preview 5 goals that may help you get started…

Social Media Is No Longer NEW

I’ve always had a fascination for advertising ever since I was a little kid. I remember being told once that products in the store can only label themselves as “NEW” for a period of six months. As a kid I would always watch how my favorite breakfast cereals would alter the recipe and suddenly the packaging would scream “NEW!” for the next six months on the shelves.

All products and services have a small window where being new can be a great part of the promotional mix. But like everything else, eventually that phase comes to an end and it is no longer new. Now the product must be able to prove its value based on something else.

Your social media marketing is no different. Perhaps you garnered some initial interest in your business when you first developed your facebook page or twitter account. It’s possible that your early experience with these new outlets excited you and investing your time and personality was more fun than work. But eventually your experience probably started to look like the experience of most beginner social media enthusiasts – you ran out of creative ideas, your number of subscribers plateaued, or you had moderate interaction but couldn’t really translate these efforts into sales.

Setting Social Media Goals

Every business sets goals for itself – quality, volume of sales, enrollment, donations, etc. But why is setting social media goals very often overlooked? We know that in order to drive a business forward, we must set goals, develop a strategic plan to achieve those goals, then implement this strategy and be able to measure our success and adjust along the way. Interestingly, most people believe they are operating their social media marketing with adequate goals when they really are not.

When I ask clients what their social media goals are, I often hear responses such as:

- “To acquire X number of fans.”
- “To make a post at least once per day.”
- “To make my posts fun.”

The single most important idea when setting social media goals is this; Before setting specific goals for your social media marketing, first establish what your broader companywide goals are then determine how social media can be a strategic objective to reach these goals. You will accomplish much more with social media when your primary focus is on company goals rather than the social media outlets themselves.

However, while you’re working on your larger goals you can begin building a powerful social media platform that is primed and ready to fire on all cylinders when finally called in to support that important mission.

5 Helpful Social Media Goals

#1. Experiment with a variety of ideas to determine the most successful type of promotional plan you can implement to have your current group of followers spread the word about you.

EX: We helped one of our clients implement a social media contest through facebook. The photography business offered a free shoot for the fan who could introduce introduce the greatest number of people to the company’s website. The results were tracked through blog comments on the site.

Takeaway – It’s good to know what has worked for you in the past so these ideas can be part of a strategy when necessary.

#2. Discover which social sites are actually driving traffic.

EX: If you’re a producer of blog content, are you submitting your content to social bookmarking sites like digg, stumble upon, reddit, etc? Submit to at least a half dozen social sites over the course of a year. Then, using a tool such as google analytics, determine which of these sites are actually producing traffic to your site.

Takeaway – know which social sites are driving traffic and which ones aren’t. Eliminate time spent on those that aren’t and find ways to foster more success in those that are by being more “social.”

#3. Make it a goal to determine what type of Facebook posts result in the highest level of interaction. Spend 6 – 12 months carefully documenting the types of topics you introduce to your social community and what level of discussion is created by these different topics.

Takeaway – Once you know what works you can develop a method of how you’re going to communicate these larger goals.

#4. If you are a blogger, then other bloggers are your best friends. To get the most out of your blogging success, make sure you’re determined to foster and maintain positive relationships with other bloggers in your field.

Takeaway – These relationships are often a great way of “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.”

#5. Develop and streamline best practices for the quickest and most efficient ways to share real-time content in a multimedia rich way such as video.

Takeaway – Did something big just happen? Can you shoot, edit, post, and promote your video before the evening news? Doing so can allow you to get ahead of the conversation to come.

What Are Your Social Media Goals?

Do you have tactics and goals you can share with our Identity Building Blog community? Be sure to leave your comments below.