Business Development 2.0
Posts tagged social media goals
Social Media Marketing 101: Setting Social Media Goals (part 2: Creating Goals)
May 13th
After critically assessing specific questions regarding social media goals, it is time to take action and actually create them.
Creating tangible and realistic marketing goals can sometimes be difficult for businesses due to the nature of marketing, however this is an important step along the process of promoting your professional brand and (ultimately) closing sales. Here are a few examples of appropriate and manageable goals that can and should be a part of your social media marketing goals:
Increased Sales
- For business owners this is the number 1 goal for most endeavors. Higher sales results in more money, and despite the best intentions money is important and provides more opportunities to do more business. Digital marketing is valuable to businesses because it is so easy to monitor demographics relating to your business. Using social media is a great and (often) low cost way to market which should result in higher sales. Through social media marketing companies can promote products, services, discounts, deals, and more.
Increased Traffic
- Digital commerce flourishes based on traffic. Social media provides a strong outlet to drive traffic of relative and pertinent potential customers. Quality content, great products, positive experiences, and more all play into the numbers game of converting online traffic into sales. Increasing traffic to your company website should be a goal because better traffic simply results in higher conversions.
Increased Awareness
- Brand recognition is one of the most important pieces in business, and it always has been. With brand recognition comes customer loyalty, and in the on-line world that we live in being recognized as a credible and rational source is a powerful tool. Brand recognition and digital identity are developed through creating strong and credible content; when people begin to recognize you and your company as top sources of information or quality product producers, sales increase.
Higher Search Rankings
- With an ever-increasing amount of websites offering products and services that may be similar to what your business produces, it’s often a mystery of how people will actually be able to find your company website. Social media is currently the most effective way to affect the variables in search engine algorithms. Using social media expands your “digital real estate” which broadens the net to catch potential customers.
Monitoring “The Conversation”
- Social media allows different interactive tools and applications to keep an eye out for what people are saying. Companies can watch what customers are saying about products and services; companies can monitor relative conversations about relative topics to their brand and products. Setting this as a goal allows for tracking the interactions that you have regarding conversations that are happening in real time about content that your company and expertise may assist.
Getting started in the world of social media can seem intimidating, but articulating the desired outcomes of your marketing strategy will assist in determining which social media vehicles are right for your business.
Smeester & Associates offers several solutions for social media marketing, including creating a social media marketing strategy. Contact us for more information.
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Social Media Marketing 101: Setting Social Media Goals (part 1: Asking Questions)
May 12th
“Everybody says that my business needs to use social media, but I don’t know where to start…”
Setting goals should be the cornerstone of any marketing campaign. Marketing goals help us to articulate why to use specific tools, who is the target market, and how to reach specific markets while promoting a message. Social media should not take the place of traditional marketing campaigns, but should definitely be included as a piece of the greater puzzle. For people new to social media, the first step of setting social media goals is asking questions; through appropriate questions you can develop campaigns to market your business and your message.
If you plan on developing a social media strategy, take a few minutes to articulate answers to the following questions:
Basic:
- What message do I want to promote?
- Who do I want to reach with my content?
- What do I want to be known for/as?
- How is the competition marketing (is it effective)?
- How are clients and potential clients finding my business now?
Advanced:
- What is my “brand awareness” right now?
- How is my digital reputation (if it exists at all)?
- What kind of services/tools does my specific audience use?
- What do I have in common with my specific and targeted audience?
- Is my brand/business currently being talked about? How so?
Hard:
- What objectives are relative and pertinent to my marketing campaign?
- What does success look like for your business (in 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year)?
- What will I offer through social media to track and monitor my ROI?
Responses to the above questions, as well as similar questions, should affect how your company leverages social media. New business owners, entrepreneurs, and more would be making a wise choice to critically assess their current situation as well as where they would like to be in specific time increments. Be aware, however, that most “experts” agree that it takes 3-6 months (at least) to develop a strong online presence and begin seeing a return on the investment of time and energy.
Check this article out for more information about developing social media marketing goals (part 2)
Smeester & Associates offers diverse solutions for cultivating your business. Social Media Marketing is only one way that we can assist in the development of businesses. Contact us for more information.
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