By Katy Howell | February 8, 2022
Most marketers would agree that social media can have a big impact on brands and businesses. But the first step you need to take is setting up the right goals for your campaign. A social media goal is what you want to achieve within your activity as a marketer. It isn’t the same thing as a social media strategy, although both are important. You can think of social media goals as the building blocks for your social media strategy.
Learning how to set goals can benefit your campaign in different ways. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does help to have a structure to guide you. Follow the golden rule in marketing – set goals that get you where you need to be by making them SMART. They are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Specific
What exactly do you want to achieve within your social media marketing campaign? It might be brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, boosting conversations or driving sales. It’s okay to start with some general direction but your goal should as specific as possible.
Measurable
How will you know when you’ve achieved your goal? If you can’t find quantitative indicators to measure success against, your objective might not be specific enough. Depending on your goals, you might be interested to track social media metrics such as CTR (Click-through Rate), Conversion Rate, brand mentions, number of followers or leads, etc. Keep in mind that the names of those metrics may differ across social media channels.
Attainable
Before kicking off activities – ask yourself if you set a realistic social media goal. If your main objective is to reach a thousand leads, and you only launched your campaign yesterday, then you haven’t set a very good goal. Successful marketing campaigns take time and effort before you can see the actual results. Be patient!
Relevant
Next on the list is does the objective fit into your overall plan. Each goal should be a focused piece of a larger picture. Consider conducting research about where you stand compared to your competitors and define what can be improved within your brand presence on social. This will help you better understand where you are and where you need to go.
Time-bound
Lastly, can you achieve the goal in a specific amount of time? If you can’t come up with a realistic timeline, that might be a sign that the goal isn’t specific or attainable enough.
Businesses have worked so hard to succeed on social media, but sometimes a small missing piece can be a deal-breaker. Choosing the right social media goals for your business is essential. Don’t get lost – we got you. Work with an experienced partner – like us! Get in touch today!