In recent years, achieving social media goals has become a crucial component of marketing activities for most businesses. It is rare to find a company that does not have at least one social site account. Though quite popular, introducing social media to an existing marketing strategy can be a bit confusing. Therefore, taking the time to develop a social media plan will help eliminate a lot of guesswork.
“Having a ‘presence’ in social media is worthless unless you do something with it… Having a social media program without attaching it to some sort of goal just creates more work for your staff.” (Blanchard, 2011)
Step 1. Identify Social Media Goals
Your company’s business objectives should be supported by the social media activities. Therefore, you must first align the social media goals with your overall business goals, to make them useful. Suppose one of your business goals is to increase sales on the company website. A supporting goal would be to drive more leads to the site with social media, because know that 100 visits to the company’s web page is likely to result in more sales than just 20 visits.
EXAMPLE
Goal: Increase company website traffic via social media pages.
Step 2. Make Social Media Goals SMART
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals describe detailed targets of success. Sure your goal may be to increase the website’s traffic via social sites, but are you successful if the site gains 2 additional visitors in one month? What if it gains an additional 30 visitors over the course of a year? Is that an acceptable rate? Without making the goals SMART, the definition of success is a bit blurry.
EXAMPLE
Goal: Increase company website traffic from social media pages.
SMART Goal: Increase company website traffic from social media pages by 10% in 12 months.
Step 3. Choose KPI’s and Monitoring Tools
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are metrics that tell you how well your social media activities perform in relation to the target goal. There are a variety of tools for monitoring KPI’s and other metrics, so the tools you choose should be based on what you plan to measure.
EXAMPLE
For this example, the number of visitors who visit the website via social networks can be measured with a free tool like Google Analytics.
KPI: Sessions via social referral
Tool: Google Analytics
Step 4: Research your Target Audience
At this point, you know what you hope to accomplish using social media. You also know what metrics will help you gauge success. Lastly, you know which tools you will be using to track the results. Now, you must get to know your target market, so that you can effectively appeal to them. This is information that you may already use in your current marketing strategy.
EXAMPLE
Suppose your company is a women’s clothing boutique that ships throughout the U.S.
Characteristics of Target Audience for Online Orders:
- women ages 21-45 that enjoy fashion
- middle-income levels
- gift shoppers
- online shoppers
Step 5: Define Strategy, Tactics, and Platforms
Once you know the target, you can determine what will be done, how it will be done, and using which social media platform. The strategy is the plan for reaching a goal. Tactics are the means or methods used within that strategy. The chosen platforms will depend on your strategies and tactics, because you must consider which social sites will allow you to execute your plans best.
EXAMPLE
Strategy: Use links on social media sites to direct consumers to the company’s website
Tactics:
- Post pictures of some of the top-selling items accompanied by their direct links to the website
- Offer discount codes on social sites for online orders
Social media Platforms: Facebook and Twitter
Finally You Now Have a Social Media Plan!
SMART Goal: Increase company website traffic from social media pages by 10% in 12 months
Key Performance Indicator: Sessions via social referral
Monitoring Tool: Google Analytics
Target Audience: women ages 21- 45 that enjoy fashion, middle-income levels, online shoppers, gift shoppers
Strategy: Use links on social media sites to direct consumers to the company’s website
Tactics:
- Post pictures of some of the top-selling items accompanied by their direct links to the website
- Offer discount codes on social sites for online orders
- Post engaging content to maximize discussions, potential
Social media Platforms: Facebook and Twitter
Reference
Blanchard, O. (2011). Social media ROI: managing and measuring social media efforts in your organization. Indianapolis, IN: Que.
Category: Advanced Tactics