How To Set SMART Social Media Marketing Goals For Your Business
Want to move your online marketing forward? Then you need to set some SMART social media marketing goals today.
It’s no secret that goal setting increases your likelihood of social media success, yet it never ceases to amaze me how many businesses have given scant thought to creating their social media goals.
When working with clients to create an online marketing strategy, one of my first questions to them is simply “what are you hoping to achieve with social media?” So many times I see businesses jump on board the latest social network without any thought as to what they actually want to achieve there.
Strategy Without Goals Is Putting The Cart Before The Horse
Without goals, it’s hard to know exactly how well your social media strategy is performing. Clear goals will not only propel your strategy forward, but they will also serve as defined metrics when it comes to measuring your progress.
Common Social Media Marketing Goals
Below you will find a list of some common social media marketing goals — decide which of these are most aligned with your business goals.
- Drive traffic to your website
- Sell a product/advertise a service
- Generate more sales and leads
- Communicate with customers
- Increase brand awareness
- Run an awareness campaign
- Establish online authority
Further Reading: 9 Social Media Goals You Can Set for Your Business (and How to Track Them)
How To Set SMART Social Media Goals
For a goal to become a reality, it needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic, as well as time specific — these are often called SMART goals. SMART goals are one of the longest-lasting, most popular goal-setting frameworks for business.
Let’s take a closer look at what makes a goal SMART
Specific — the more specific you can be with writing down a goal, the easier it will be to clearly see what it is you are trying to achieve. Let’s take as an example a goal to grow your Twitter followers.
Measurable — how will you measure your success? For example — double the number of your existing Twitter followers.
Attainable — is your goal attainable? Can you realistically double the number of your Twitter followers?
Relevant — a relevant goal is aligned closely to your business objectives. Does this goal support your business’s objectives, vision, or values?
Time Specific — give your goal a deadline. Double Twitter follower numbers in three months.
Further Reading: 7 Popular Goal-Setting Strategies That Will Help You Achieve Great Things on Social Media
Wrapping Up
Setting SMART goals to which you can align your social media activity is a good guarantee of online marketing success. Once you have a clear set of goals, you can track your key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics more accurately. Make sure to revisit your goals on a regular basis to determine if you are still on track or if something needs adjusting. A winning formula is to measure, adjust and then rinse and repeat.
