It’s not a good idea to set up social media accounts and start posting willy-nilly with no attainable goals in mind (or a plan to achieve them). Setting up social media goals is easy, so there’s no reason to skip it. The easiest way to write out your goals is in the SMART format. Yes, you’ve heard it a million times, but SMART goals really are a valuable tool for your organization. If you haven’t heard of SMART goals, here’s what it stands for:
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely
So you should spell out very carefully exactly what achieving your goal is, whether that is generating 5 new leads per week or 100 more followers this month. The goal should be measurable, as these are, by some kind of analytical software internal or external to the medium. A and R sort of mean the same thing, no matter how many times my business professors have told me they don’t – you don’t want the goal to be so out there that it’s a shot in the dark. You should pick something that you really can achieve in the time frame you define. Which brings us to T, timely. You must have a set end point to achieve your goal, or else you have given yourself permission to work forever on gaining 100 followers – not hard.
So what are the best things to measure? That’s up to you, but some common measurable goals include follower growth, frequency of posts (something you can control), engagement (number of likes, shares, favorites, retweets, etc.), brand mentions, and reach. Each of these benchmarks will tell you something important about your social activity, such as if people care about what you are saying and want to tell other people about it.
It’s simple – pick your goals, make them specific, measurable, and realistic, and set an end date for achieving them. Then when the end date comes, reevaluate and set new goals. You’ll start to experience social media success in no time!
Photo credit: marketingland.com
For an easy step-by-step to successfully achieving social media goals, download our guide: The 6 Steps to Social Media Success
