In this article, you will learn what are social media goals and how to set smart social media goals for your business?
An essential part of building a brand with social media is setting focused goals and developing your social media marketing strategy with a clear direction. Taking the time to set clear social media goals will help you get the most out of your social media marketing campaigns.
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What Are Social Media Goals?
A social media goal is a statement about what you want to achieve with a specific social media marketing tactic or your overall social media strategy. Smart social media goals align with broader business objectives. Examples of common social media goals include generating leads, increasing traffic to a website or online store, or increasing followers.
Social media goals can apply to anything from a simple ad or organic post to a large-scale campaign.
Social media goals are not the same as your social media strategy. Instead, think of goals as elements of a larger strategy.
Social Media Goals Importance
Smart social media goals give you a target to hit and also help you:
- Manage your budget.
- Structure and streamline your workflow.
- Prove the return on your marketing investment.
- Align your social media activity with your organization's broader business goals.
How to Set Realistic Social Media Goals for Your Business
Wondering if there's anything specific you can do to set social media goals that fit your business needs? We have everything you need.
1. Consider your business goals
Your business objectives determine the shape of your social media goals. If your business objective is to increase brand awareness, it's important to determine how you can achieve this through social media.
In this particular example, increasing organic reach seems like an achievable goal.
2. Define your social media strategy
A successful social media presence also requires a solid social media strategy. Let's look at what the key elements of a strong and successful media presence look like:
- Use visual content regularly
- Promote your content on various social media platforms
- Publish regular posts on social media
- Develop a social media strategy
But what is a social media strategy? Here's what it includes:
- Audience research
- A review of your current strategy
- Knowing who your competitors are
- Establishing a posting schedule
3. Set SMART goals
A SMART goal is not just any type of goal. Rather, it is a structure that allows any social media marketer to organize effectively. What is a SMART goal?
- Specific: Your social media goal should include details about what your company is trying to achieve, who is in charge of the process, and a series of steps to follow.
- Measurable: If your goal is to gain 200 more followers on your social media pages, you also need a metric that will confirm those numbers. This means setting a threshold and finding key indicators.
- Achievable: If your business goal is not realistic, you may be disappointed. Know what your team can do and set your goals accordingly.
- Relevant: It will assist you in solving a problem your business is facing. Knowing why you added a goal to your list will make it clear if it fits your overall strategy or not.
- Time-bound: This is about setting specific deadlines. Knowing when your team will start and finish a task list will give you a clear picture of where your business stands.
10 Smart Social Media Goals Examples
The social media goals you set should always reflect the specific needs of your business. But many goals can be applicable to almost any social media campaign. Some campaigns can even contribute to multiple goals at once.
Here are some smart social media goals examples and the metrics you can use to measure their success. They can help you frame your work in concrete, actionable terms.
1. Increase brand awareness
Increasing brand awareness means increasing the number of people who know about your brand. This goal is ideal for launching a new product or entering a new market.
Of course, expanding your audience never hurts. But brand awareness is usually the first step on the road to expansion.
You can measure your brand awareness on social media using specific metrics such as:
- Post reach: Number of people who have seen a post since it went live.
- Audience growth rate: How quickly you gain followers over time.
- Potential reach: The number of people who are likely to see a message in a given time period.
- Social Share of Voice: How many people mention your brand on social media compared to your competitors.
Video social media platforms are excellent for building brand awareness. If that's one of your goals, try social media channels like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Stories and Reels. Watching videos is, after all, the fourth most popular reason people use the internet.
2. Manage brand reputation
Social media marketing is one of the main tools you can use to build trust in your brand. In this day and age, trust is the engine of growth. This social media goal measures the public's attitude toward your brand.
Reputation metrics are similar to brand awareness. Of course, you'll track brand mentions and relevant hashtags. But you'll also want to monitor what people are saying about you, even if they don't tag you.
In addition to traditional social media, consider using social audio platforms. Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Spotify can be very helpful in this regard.
For example, 22.9% of Internet users aged 16-64 listen to radio shows or stations online each week. This figure is even higher (39.6%) when talking about music streaming services. Capturing users' attention on these platforms allows you to build your brand's reputation.
3. Increase traffic to your website
The social media goals are not limited to actions that take place on social networks. Your website is a major contributor to your social media strategy. This is important if you're trying to drive sales or move people down your social media marketing funnel.
Measuring website traffic in analytics is relatively simple. However, here are some of the key metrics you should be monitoring:
- Traffic to your site. This is obvious, but remember to limit your reports to the most relevant time period. This could be daily, weekly, or monthly. If you have a reference number to compare traffic to, that's even better!
- Network referrals. Tracking referrals can help you determine which platform works best.
- Email sign-ups. Once your social traffic has arrived at your website, are they signing up to receive more of your content?
4. Drive brand engagement
Knowing how well people are interacting with your business and how often they are doing so is an important goal to consider. A high engagement rate shows how aware people are of your brand, and it also provides insight into the quality of your content and people's overall responsiveness.
Metrics to estimate your brand engagement:
- Engagement rate: this refers to the total number of engagements divided by the total number of impressions.
- Hashtag tracking: check how many users are using your hashtags and also get an idea of how your online presence is perceived.
- Number of likes, comments, and shares: one of the most important metrics to get an idea of how your audience is engaging with your posts.
5. Develop a long-term content strategy
Some blog posts work well, others don't. That's why you need to have a solid content strategy in place. Tracking the performance of your articles and organizing your workload into an editorial calendar can give you important insight into the direction your blog should take.
You can also improve underperforming articles and get a general idea of what your audience is looking for.
Metrics to evaluate your content's performance:
- Web traffic: how many people have read your blog posts and how they are performing in terms of unique visits.
- Sales/Conversions: how many sales are generated by the content you publish, especially if you want to boost your sales.
6. Generate leads and sales (revenue)
Not every interaction with a customer turns into a sale, and there will always be potential customers. That's why it's essential to stay in touch with them.
Lead generation includes information that will facilitate your interaction with social media users. This information includes emails, names, or any other fields that users might fill out.
Metrics to evaluate your leads:
- Bounce rate: how many users click on your links but end up leaving the page without taking action.
- Social media conversion rate: how many conversions did you get from social media?
- Conversion rate: how many visitors take action on your page, divided by the total number of visitors.
7. Create a community
Conversations with customers are an essential part of your social media goals. In fact, creating a community also gives your brand a voice. Creating a community can also bring you more visibility and therefore better engagement on social media with your audience.
Metrics to measure your community engagement:
- Daily/Weekly/Monthly Users: a snapshot of how many unique visitors your community has over a period of time.
- Number of mentions: to see how many times your brand has been mentioned on different platforms.
- Session duration: how long users spend on your page during their unique visit.
8. Provide effective customer service on social media
Effective customer service on social media can improve your customer satisfaction rate and even increase your revenue. In addition, customer service can give you an edge over your competitors.
Metrics to evaluate your customer service on social media:
- Response time: this metric tells you how quickly you respond to your customers' requests.
- Customer satisfaction testimonials/surveys: these will give you insight into the positive sentiment of your customers and are also very useful for customer retention.
9. Do some social listening
Social listening allows you to better understand your audience, as you can easily track the mentions or keywords they use to talk about your business.
Social listening allows social media marketers to find better ways to engage customers and create more value.
Metrics to consider for social listening:
- Reactions: the number of suggestions your customers have made through social media.
- Share of voice: the number of conversations people in your area are having about your brand or product, compared to your competitors.
If you need a little advice, we've got you covered. Not sure which social listening tools to use? Start with tools like Brand Mentions and Brand24.
10. Get in touch with your target audience
Finally, it's all about getting your content in front of your audience. You can do this by running ads. Ads on social media can help you reach your target audience, based on things like demographics, interests, location, or occupation. Not sure where to start? You can check out Elementor’s Facebook ads library.
Metrics to measure your reach:
- Conversions: used to track actions set for your goal. You can use Google Analytics to track all conversions.
- Clicks: how many people clicked on a link and visited your website or profile.
Social Media Goals Summary
These days, social media is a great way to reach your audience, whether it's local or global. However, you need to make sure that your social media marketing plan will bring you the results you want by adding some social media goals.
Whatever your overall social media marketing goals are, SMART goals can help you succeed. If nothing else, you'll learn from your mistakes!
