Before you begin to read, this is the second part of a 5 part series if you haven’t read the first part Developing a Social Media Marketing campaign: Part 1 – Monitor and Listen, then please do.
Goals
All plans require goals to give them a sense of direction. Without a clear vision of where you want to get to and what you want to achieve from your campaign. It will be unfocused and the results will be weak and disjointed. Your goals should be specific to your organisation and remember your social media campaign is a part of your overall marketing campaign so make sure your social media goals and objectives are in line with your overall marketing goals and objectives and do not conflict one another.
Common social media goals
Lets take a look at some of the common social media marketing goals.
Brand Awareness– Social media can be used to increase your brand awareness. I like to see social media as extension of your brand online. It is a chance for you to represent your brand in the online world, with a more human touch. Social media is viral and sometimes referred to as the online equivalent of word of mouth, It can spread very quickly. You can quickly increase the visibility of your brand.
Increase Traffic – Social media can help you increase traffic to your website, the viral element of it means links can spread quickly bringing in more traffic. On the most basic level social media is content and so it indexed in search engines. Google, Bing and Yahoo are currently working continuously working to improve the way in which social media content is being indexed and shown to users, as they continue to innovate and index social media your chances of being fund will further increase.
Reputation Management – You can manage your reputation online by influencing conversations taking place. The way you talk and engage online can influence the way you and your organisation is perceived. Remember when you enter the social media world, you have to also prepare for criticism and negativity. Be quick to address these to try and rectify the situation.
Objectives
Objectives help you to achieve your overall goals. They allow you to break down your large goals into smaller more manageable goals. They should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound). I am sure you have come across SMART in relation to objectives before, so I will just do a quick summary below to refresh your mind.
Setting SMART objectives
Specific – Your objective should be concrete, well defined and focused. You should be clear on exactly what you want to see happen. It should be specific to your organisation and social media marketing.
Measurable – Your should be able to track and analyse the results of your objective. You should be able to state whether it was achieved or not.
Attainable – Don’t set yourself an objective that you will find impossible to achieve and at the same time don’t set one which you will be able to achieve with little effort. Your objective should stretch you but not to the extent that it is impossible to achieve.
Realistic– Can you realistically achieve your objective? By that I mean do you have the resources to achieve your objective. In a small business, time is very precious as is money, do you have enough of both to dedicate to achieving your objectives?
Time bound – Your objectives need to be tied down to a date. Without this you won’t have a sense of urgency to do anything and there will be no motivation.
Here an example of an objective if your social media goal is to generate sales.
Goal: To sell 10 pairs of trainers per week
Strategy: Blog about the upcoming marathon and the importance of having the correct footwear. Tweet it and put it on Facebook with tracking links. Find other blogs on the subject and leave constructive opinions.
Measurement: Check tracking link referrals. Include a ‘how did you hear about us’ in your order form. Send feedback survey post purchase.
The goal is simple and specific. It has a weekly time component attached to it. I have got 4 actions in my strategy which all can be achieved and I will measure it my checking tracking links to see if any visits came from Twitter or Facebook. I also have a crucial ‘where did you hear about us’ section on my order form. The objective can be something as simple as that!
Summary
– Goals and objectives give your campaign direction, focus and motivation
– Define overall goals for your social media campaign
– Create SMART objectives to help achieve your goals
Watch out for my next post on Developing a Social Media Marketing campaign: Part 3 – Selecting Social Media Channels. Follow me on Twitter to receive updates.
I am learning as I go, therefore I always welcome comments and feedback. Please comment below.
What other goals and objectives would you recommend for a social media campaign?
