How to Create Achievable Social Media Goals

 

When you think about goals, you are probably thinking of self-development, finances, business, family, and health.

But Social Media? Really? 

Have you wondered why goals are not just left as they are but we go ahead niching them down to address different areas of our lives? According to research, diversifying goals improves their chances of success. 

"Why exactly should I set Social Media goals?" 

First, to avoid putting the cart before the horse, let’s address the question, “Why do we set goals?”

Generally, we set goals because we are unsatisfied with our present level and seek to reach our desired level by employing consistent action and efforts. This applies to Social Media as well. 

As a serious brand with an active social presence, setting social media goals are necessary for growth and to achieve your overall goals. I recently published an article on building an active social media presence where I explained in brevity the importance of building an active presence on a social network and provided cutting-edge insights on the stages of building.

Once you are determined to grow an active presence on social media like an active student in class who prioritizes listening and contribution – and we do know that active students get the best results, It is then important to sharpen your swords for your media journey. To emerge victorious in media, it’s wise to be aware that it’s not a space for the weak.

Daily, new businesses, personal brands, and organization accounts are created across all networks and there is a high probability that a greater percentage of existing and incoming ones are aiming for your targets.

On this basis, it will be outright smart of you to consider goal setting as an integral part of your operations on social media whether as an entrepreneur, business owner, career professional, or student. First, setting goals brings you one step closer to being a sought-after entity on social media. However, you would not be completing the puzzle if you limit your approach to setting raw goals.

You have to CREATE ACHIEVABLE SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS. 

Social media is a vast space. It’s pertinent to create achievable social media goals that correspond to your overall brand goals and existence. When you create achievable goals, you increase your chances of success and mitigate the probability of falling out.

Below, you will find 5 ways to create achievable social media goals:

1. Identify your AUDIENCE

Social media is an interconnected network of people. As a brand, your targets are people so while creating your social media goals, it's reasonable to consider your audience before anything else. Remember that you are offering them value in return for expected proceeds. If you haven't defined your audience, you can't proceed to set goals that enhance your success rate on social media because indirectly, your success metrics are largely dependent on the audience factor.

Once you identify and study your audience, this informs your decisions on the type of goals to create. It informs your focus and eliminates the excesses.

Look out for successful brands in your niche and you will observe that the strategies they employ are audience-oriented and this is a significant factor in their overall growth on social media.

2. Use the SMART METHOD

To set achievable social media goals, consider the SMART method. This method has been proven effective in life goals success. So, it’s recommended to apply it in this regard. While setting your social media goals, you are working towards improving your performance rate on the media so they must be:

• Specific – They must be clear and aimed not random and vague.
• Measurable – Are there ways to measure their success?
• Attainable – Can they be attainable considering your time, scope, and available resources?
• Relevant – Are they relevant and important or they are unnecessary? Cut down on the excesses.
• Timely – Set timelines. They must be time-bound.

Your goals must be bounded by the elements listed above.

3. Consider Indicators for Social Media Success

Since success on social media has its peculiarities, setting promising goals that target major indicators of social media growth is key. Key indicators of social media growth are:

• Clicks
• Likes and Follows
• Shares and Retweets
• Comments
• Search Results
• Brand/Hashtags Mentions
• Profile Visits
• Impressions
• Reach 

It’s however important to consider indicators that are relevant to your success as a brand. For example, If you aim to increase the number of your followers by 20% in a month. First, you might consider setting goals that improve the probability of getting a 20% follower count. It might be by creating helpful content that gains consumers' attention rates. Also, you might consider including icons linking to your social media pages to your designs. This will enable prospects to locate your account easily. 

If you aim to improve traffic to your website, you might have to consider setting goals around creating informed guides and eBooks that address the needs of the audience in your carved Niche, create an attractive infographic, demo, or video that showcases the guide, and include a CTA (Call To Action) that refers prospects to your website.

4. Include STRATEGIES

Goals without strategies will hardly survive.

Once you have enlisted your goals, it's important to anchor them with strategies to implement them. Consider all possible strategies and use them to achieve your social media goals.

For example, If your goal is to drive engagement on your business page you must employ engagement strategies like e.g. creating helpful content in an infographics/ video format became this form of content tends to attract engagement on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. For Facebook, you might also include the community feature.

However, your engagement strategy might be a little different on Twitter. For example, you might consider using the poll/ Space feature to drive engagements.

For Pinterest, you might focus on creating informed graphics.

5. Use DATA to inform your GOALS

Data helps to improve your chances of success on social media and social media developers have incorporated data and analytics features into their software. 

For Example, Zoom has a poll feature to help brands engage with their audience during a call. Thus results from these polls assist brands to build better products and services that improve their value proposition to the public and also accelerate their growth.

Other networks are also embedded with similar features.

It's ideal to study your previous data if you are an existing brand using the analytics feature and you can get this done using Google Analytics. Study and track major Indicators as discussed in bullet two and let this inform your goals.

If you are a new brand, consider studying other brands in your niche. Search the web for data to help you with this. With relevant information, you can create sound goals that position you for a higher chance of success.

As you fire your shot on social media using these tactics, you wouldn't be missing your target.