If you’ve ever tried to go somewhere new without any instructions to guide you there, you know just how vital a map or a GPS can be. The same is true on social media; without a clear map (a set of social media goals) your social efforts may fail to deliver the desired results.
Social media goals refer to the specific objectives a business hopes to achieve through their social media efforts. These goals can vary based on the nature of the business, its target audience, and the overall marketing goals and strategy. Some common social media goals include building brand awareness, generating leads and conversions, driving web traffic, fostering customer engagement and loyalty, and improving customer service.
By setting clear social media goals, you can create a plan that aligns your social media efforts with your broader business objectives. For instance, if the goal is to increase brand awareness, you can focus on creating and sharing content on social media platforms that resonate with your target audience and showcases your unique value proposition. Or, if the goal is to generate leads and conversions, you can leverage social media advertising to reach and convert potential customers.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the importance of social media goals, how to set realistic ones, and how to get the most out of your social media efforts.
But first, we’re excited to share something that a lot of Podium customers have been waiting for– we’ve launched an integration with Instagram! Instagram is an amazing way to showcase your products in a visual way and start a conversation with customers, but when things are siloed it means a heavier burden to keep up with things and longer response time. You and your customers deserve better!
Why are Social Media Marketing Goals Important?
Social media marketing goals are an essential component of a successful marketing strategy for businesses—especially for local businesses looking to gain a competitive edge. How? Allow us to explain.
Firstly, social media marketing goals provide you with direction—they give you a clear roadmap for your social media presence. By defining goals, your can tailor your social media strategies to meet specific objectives. For instance, you may set a goal to increase website traffic, boost brand awareness, or generate leads through your social channels. This direction ensures that you don’t waste resources on tactics that won’t yield the desired outcomes.
Secondly, social media marketing goals help you focus your efforts on high-priority activities. Having a specific set of goals allows businesses to prioritize the platforms and types of content that are most effective in achieving these objectives. For instance, if you’re looking to increase website traffic, you may choose to create social content that encourages followers to visit your website.
Lastly, social media marketing goals provide you with measurable outcomes. Setting specific and measurable goals allows for data-driven decision-making, which will help you continuously refine and improve your social media strategy to achieve better results. These goals enable you to identify what’s working and what’s not, which allows you to allocate resources appropriately.
How to Set Social Media Goals: 8 Steps to Help Your Local Business Win
Your customers want to engage with you on social media, and your competitors are likely already using social media as a customer interaction tool. In fact, 77% of businesses use social media to reach customers. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, these platforms are powerful tools that can help you reach more potential customers, increase brand awareness, and drive more revenue. However, to reap the benefits of social media, it is essential to set clear, measurable, and achievable goals aligned with your business objectives.
So, how do you come up with realistic goals that will help you get the most out of your social media profiles? Here are eight steps.
1. Align social media goals with your business objectives.
The first step in setting social media goals for your local business is to align them with your overall business objectives. In other words, your social media goals should be in sync with your business goals, such as increasing sales, driving traffic to your website, or improving customer loyalty. By aligning social media goals with business objectives, you can ensure that all departments are working towards the same objective, leading to better collaboration and improved results.
2. Set specific and measurable goals.
The next step is to establish goals that are specific and measurable. Specific goals help you to focus on the desired outcomes, while measurable goals allow you to track progress and evaluate your social media success. For instance, instead of setting the goal to increase social media engagement, you can aim to increase engagement by 50% within three months on a specific platform. This goal is specific and measurable—and even gives you a time frame to aim for.
3. Identify your target audience.
You can’t be successful on social media if you don’t have a deep understanding of your target audience. Knowing your audience helps you to create engaging content that resonates with them and increases the chances of conversion. Research your audience demographics, select the right platform, and create content that your ideal buyers are likely to find interesting and useful.
4. Choose relevant metrics.
Selecting relevant metrics is critical to tracking your progress. Metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and followers are standard social media metrics; however, they may not provide the actionable insight necessary to measure success. So, in addition, you may consider metrics that directly impact your business goals, such as website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and customer retention.
5. Set realistic and time-bound goals.
Set realistic and time-bound goals—sure, it’s good to shoot for the stars, but don’t set goals that are completely out of the realm of possibility. Unrealistic goals can lead to frustration and demotivation, while achievable goals keep you motivated and focused on success. Additionally, set a timeline for each goal to track progress and adjust strategies when necessary.
6. Create an action plan.
Creating a social media action plan is essential to bringing social media goals to life. An action plan outlines specific steps to be taken to achieve each goal, including the content strategy, platform selection, and publishing schedule. It’s essential to have an accountability system in place to ensure that the action plan is carried out, and the goals are met.
7. Analyze your results.
Monitoring and analyzing results is essential to evaluating the success of your goals. Analyzing the data helps you understand what is working and what needs improvement. Additionally, use data to identify trends, successes, and areas for improvement.
8. Adjust strategies when necessary.
Social media is constantly evolving, which means need to regularly adjust your strategies to remain competitive. Use the results of your social media metrics to adjust your strategy, improve content quality, and adapt to changing audience behaviors. And remember—pivoting is a sign that you’re making progress, not a sign that you’ve failed. Even the most seasoned marketers don’t always get it right on the first try.
Example of Social Media Goals
Developing a social media strategy that aligns with business goals can be a daunting task. When it comes to what goals you should set, the world is your oyster. Here are eight examples to get your creative juices flowing, along with detailed explanations and practical tips for achieving each goal.
1. Increase brand awareness by X%.
Goal: Improve the visibility and recognition of your business and brand.
Why it’s good: By increasing brand awareness, you’ll bring in more new customers and boost your bottom line.
How to achieve it: You can increase brand awareness by using social media to post engaging and informative content regularly, collaborating with influencers or other local businesses, running advertising campaigns, and engaging with followers through social listening.
2. Drive website traffic by X%.
Goal: Increase the number of visitors to your website and bring in more online sales.
Why it’s good: Generating website traffic is a crucial aspect of online marketing to drive more sales and revenue.
How to achieve it: You can drive website traffic through various methods, such as running social media contests, using social media advertising, optimizing your social media profiles, and incorporating links to your website within social media posts.
3. Boost audience engagement by X%.
Goal: Increase the number of likes, shares, and comments on your social media posts.
Why it’s good: High engagement indicates customer interest and loyalty, which ultimately results in more revenue.
How to achieve it: You can boost audience engagement by incorporating visually appealing social media content, asking questions, creating polls, responding to comments, and replying to direct messages.
4. Generate X% more leads.
Goal: Generate more leads through social networks, resulting in increased revenue.
Why it’s good: More leads offer more potential sales and growth for your business.
How to achieve it: You can generate leads through social media by creating lead magnets such as e-books, webinars, and free trials, including calls-to-action in social media posts, using targeted advertising, and offering discounts or promotions.
5. Enhance customer loyalty.
Goal: Keep customers engaged and loyal, resulting in repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing.
Why it’s good: Enhancing customer loyalty can drive customer retention and improve your business’s reputation and bottom line.
How to achieve it: You can enhance customer loyalty by offering personalized rewards, providing exceptional customer service, soliciting feedback and reviews, implementing changes based on feedback, running social media loyalty programs, and responding to customer concerns promptly.
6. Establish thought leadership.
Goal: Position your local business as an industry expert and thought leader and establish a competitive edge.
Why it’s good: Establishing thought leadership can drive customer trust and attract new leads.
How to achieve it: You can establish thought leadership by sharing your expertise via blog posts, creating educational content, participating in or hosting webinars, and contributing to industry forums.
7. Improve the customer experience.
Goal: Create a positive customer experience across all social media platforms, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.
Why it’s good: Improved customer experience increases the chances of customer retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and positive online reviews.
How to achieve it: You can improve the customer experience by responding to customer inquiries and complaints consistently, ensuring that your social media profiles are up-to-date and accurate, using engaging visuals and photos, and creating visually appealing social media posts.
8. Increase social media followers by X%.
Goal: Gain more followers on social media platforms, leading to a wider reach and increased visibility.
Why it’s good: An increased number of followers can help establish credibility and drive growth for your local business.
How to achieve it: You can increase your social media following by partnering with other local businesses or influencers, running social media contests, using relevant hashtags, including shareable content, and optimizing social media profiles.
Achieve Your Goals with Podium
While Podium isn’t a social media tool, it does help local businesses like yours enhance their online presence and streamline social media interactions.
Podium’s Inbox centralizes all customer messages from various platforms and channels, allowing you to view and respond to them from one place—so no more switching between dozens of tabs. This means you can provide timely and efficient customer support, which improves customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Furthermore, with Podium, you can easily collect and respond to reviews, which can be a game changer for your online presence. Whether you’re looking to get more reviews on your Google business profile, on Facebook, or on another channel, Podium can help.
If you’re ready to get serious about your online presence, improve customer satisfaction, and grow your business more quickly than ever before, you need Podium.
Ready to give it a try? Start a free 2-week trial today.
FAQs
1. What are the 3 main goals of social media for small businesses?
The three primary goals that small businesses should aim for when implementing a social media strategy:
- Increase brand awareness: In order for a small business to succeed, they need to be seen. Social media enables businesses to reach a wider audience and build a community of loyal customers.
- Increase engagement: It’s not enough to simply be seen on social media. Small businesses need to engage with their audience in a meaningful way. This can include responding to comments and brand mentions, creating interactive content, and fostering conversations.
- Drive conversions: At the end of the day, social media is a marketing channel. Small businesses need to create content that drives traffic and conversions, whether that be in the form of newsletter sign-ups, sales, or website traffic.
2. How do you create a SMART goal for social media?
To set a SMART goal for social media, first, identify a specific and measurable objective. Start by understanding the current social media performance of your business by analyzing metrics such as engagement rates, follower count, and click-through rates. From there, choose a specific goal that is attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For instance, increasing the number of followers on Instagram by 10% within a month or doubling the engagement rate on TikTok within a quarter. Ensure that the goal aligns with your business objectives and can be tracked using analytics tools.
3. What are some common mistakes small businesses make when setting social media goals?
Setting social media goals can be tricky, especially for small businesses that are just starting out. Some common mistakes that small businesses make when setting social media goals include: focusing too much on vanity metrics, not considering the competition, not tracking progress, and overlooking the importance of engagement.
