According to the Sprout Social Index: Empower and Elevate, nearly half of marketers struggle to align their social media campaigns with company goals. But to succeed on social media, it’s important to set goals that align with your business goals. This helps you stay focused on what you hope to accomplish with your social marketing efforts.Let’s dive into the step-by-step guide for creating SMART social media goals.
How to start setting social media goals
Begin with a clear Purpose
Your purpose is an overall, somewhat generic statement – whereas your objectives should be measurable and specific. To define your purpose, simply ask yourself what you would like to achieve with your social media presence.
Pop quiz: Why do I want to establish a presence on social media?
Beginning with a big-picture purpose makes the goal-setting process less intimidating.
Here are some examples to get you started
- Brand awareness
- Enhance customer service
- To increase website traffic
- Educate potential customers
- Product or service promotion/distribution
- Supplement existing communications channels
With a clear objective in mind, you can then start thinking about specific goals that’ll directly inspire your social media activities toward achieving your purpose in the long run.
That leads us directly to our next point.
Setting SMART social media goals
SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Specific: Your social media goals should be specific and well-defined. Avoid vague goals like “increase engagement” and be as specific as possible. For example, “increase Instagram engagement rate by 20% in the next quarter.
Measurable: To track your progress and measure your success, your social media goals should be measurable. This means setting specific targets for your chosen metrics. For example, “achieve 10,000 Instagram followers in the next six months.”
Achievable: Your social media goals should be challenging, but also realistic and achievable. Consider your available resources, budget, and timeline when setting your goals.
Relevant:
Your social media goals should be relevant to your overall business objectives. For example, if your business goal is to increase sales, your social media goals should support that objective.
Time-Bond: Setting a deadline for your goals will help you stay focused and motivated. Establish a timeframe for achieving your goals and set checkpoints to measure your progress along the way.
Identifying your goal metrics:
Next, focus on the right metrics that will help you achieve your social media goals. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you may want to focus on metrics like reach, impressions, and shares.
If you’re looking to drive traffic to your website, then metrics like clicks, landing page views, and bounce rate will be more relevant.
Regularly review and adjust your metrics:
Social media is a dynamic and ever-changing environment, so it’s important to regularly review and adjust your social media metrics as needed. This will help you stay on track toward achieving your goals and ensure that you’re using the most relevant metrics for your business.
By following these steps, you can create SMART social media goals that will help you achieve success on social media and support your overall business objectives. Remember to regularly track your progress and adjust your goals as needed to ensure that you are always moving in the right direction
Examples of SMART goals for social media marketing could include:
- Increase social media engagement by 25% within the next 3 months by posting more interactive content and responding to comments and messages within 24 hours
- Generate 50 new leads per month from social media by the end of the quarter through targeted ad campaigns and lead magnets
- Increase website traffic from social media by 50% within the next 6 months by sharing more blog posts and optimizing social media profiles for search engines
By following these steps, you can create SMART social media goals that will help you achieve success on social media and support your overall business objectives. Remember to regularly track your progress and adjust your goals as needed to ensure that you are always moving in the right direction