Many companies and marketers have difficulty determining and finalizing social media goals.
You’re not the only one struggling.
Setting goals can be an important part of your social marketing plan because it will help you focus on the data, guide your budget, and hold you accountable.
Goals give you direction and allow you to measure your progress.
Even with all of these benefits, many companies still overlook the importance of identifying SMART social goals.
We will discuss what SMART goals for social media are, how you can set them up, and which of these you should track.
What does SMART mean?
You must be able to set a specific, measurable, and relevant goal in order to achieve your goal.
They are called SMART Goals. These goals can be applied to any area of life but are especially useful in the business world.
When you look at it in detail, SMART is:
Specific: The goals should be simple and clear but still defined.
Measurable: The goal should be measurable by at least one metric.
Attainable: Your goals should be realistic and achievable.
Relevant: Your goals should be tied to your business and help you achieve the larger picture.
Time Specific: The goals must be time-specific, such as a period of months or even a year.
What are SMART’s Social Media Goals?
Take a look at your business goals. Identify SMART business goals.
After you have done this, ensure that your social media goals are aligned with those you set.
You will have SMART social media goals.
Smart social media goals are those that can be met on a social platform and also meet the requirements of each component in the SMART framework.
How to set SMART Social Media Goals
The first step to setting SMART goals for social media is to identify your overall goal with social media.
Why are you using social media?
Do you want to be more visible in your local community?
Are you generating leads and building awareness for a product launch?
Do you want to increase loyalty among your customers?
Answering this question will help you set your SMART goals for social media since you’ll know what you want to achieve within the next few months.
You should also determine your social media performance.
Check which accounts are performing well at the moment and which need some help.
You can use the SMART framework once you’ve created a list with all your social media accounts.
Specific
Your goal should be very clear and specific. You won’t be motivated to reach your goal if you don’t have a clear and specific goal.
While “Increase Reach on Social Media” is a great goal, it’s a little vague.
What is your preferred social media platform? How many followers do you have? Your goal is to answer as many of the questions as you can.
This is why the first step of the SMART goals framework is called “Specific.”
This goal is more specific since it specifies what, where, and how much.
You can see that the more specific your goal is, the easier it is to understand what you want to achieve.
Measurable
Your goal must be measurable. You can then track your progress and stay motivated.
You can stay on track, meet your deadlines, and gain excitement as you approach your goal.
Your goal may not be specific enough if it cannot be measured.
It is also likely that the company will not benefit from it.
It is not wrong to want to ” Improve Customer Service,” but you need to make sure that you are able to measure it.
If you’re interested in improving your customer service, many businesses use social media. Find out how to measure the effectiveness of this strategy.
Possibility: A decrease in phone calls, e-mails, and comments on Facebook over three months.
Attainable
It is fine if your goal requires you to exert some effort or stretch yourself, but it also needs to be within your reach.
Your goal should be attainable and realistic with some effort.
You can use previous data from social media to set future goals. This will keep them more attainable.
Please take a look back at your previous goals and try to improve on them.
When setting an attainable goal, ask yourself whether you truly believe that you can achieve it. Also, consider how realistic you think it is.
If you have 750 followers on Twitter and your goal is to retweet 500 times per week, you will be very unlikely to achieve this goal.
It’s great to have a challenging goal, but you must also make it realistic.
You will be discouraged if you do not achieve your goal. This is the last thing you want.
Relevance
You and your business will be more motivated by a goal that matters. It will ultimately drive your business forward, not backward.
Your business will benefit from a relevant goal. Social media can be beneficial to your business in many different ways.