3 Smart Social Media Goals and How to Achieve Them
By Heather Robson

Social media has changed how companies interact with their customers in dramatic ways.

For instance, a recent survey showed that 52% of American consumers say Facebook plays a role in their decisions to make purchases … both online and off.

On Twitter, 8 out of 10 people who post a brand-specific complaint expect someone from that brand to respond to them within the hour.

If a consumer has a positive social media experience with a brand, there’s a high chance they’ll recommend that brand to their friends, family, colleagues … and social media connections.

Companies know this … but that doesn’t mean they know what to do about it.

In so many cases, companies use social media to broadcast promotional material and share their own blog posts and other content. But posting too many promotional messages can drive away your audience. Forty-six percent of social media users give this as their top reason for unfollowing a brand.

In the majority of companies, marketers admit they don’t know how to measure the effectiveness of their social media efforts.

One of the reasons behind social media confusion and poor performance among businesses is that they fail to set clear goals for their social media efforts.

Marketing through social media is like marketing anywhere else … the first step is knowing what you’re trying to accomplish.

And if you can figure out how social media will best benefit your client … and then help them implement a strategy to achieve their social media goals, you’ll be a hero. A well-paid one.

Businesses can use social media to accomplish a number of different goals.

Three of the top goals your clients might want help with are:

• Increasing the traffic to their site.
• Building brand awareness.
• Listening to and connecting with their audience.

Or you might use social media to achieve these goals for your own professional writing business.

Driving More Traffic to a Website

If your goal is to bring more traffic to your website through social media, then there are several steps you can to take to achieve it.

First, start tracking what content on your website is most popular. What gets the most traffic? What gets the most comments? You want to create more content like that.

Whenever you create great content, share it to your social media channels. When you do, it’s important to pay attention to the response from your followers. When people comment, answer them, if only to say thank you. If someone retweets your post or shares it, let them know you appreciate it.

It’s also important to create content that’s easy to share. Use lots of images. Write great, intriguing headlines. And include sharing opportunities within your content on your website, so people who find it on there have an easy way to share it with their own audience.

Driving traffic doesn’t just rely on sharing your own great content. To be effective, you need to be a good social media citizen. Share other people’s content with your audience too … so long as it’s relevant. In particular, if someone who has shared one of your posts has some of their own great content, reciprocate and share that.

Be consistent. Attracting traffic to your website through social media means showing up regularly, interacting, and sharing.

Increase Engagement

Another common social media goal is to get more clicks, more Likes, more shares, and more comments. That kind of engagement usually leads to more clients. (Or if you’re helping a client with this goal, to more sales.)

Some of the steps to take for this goal include:

• Creating more multimedia content. Infographics and video tend to generate higher engagement social media. Creating those kinds of content will get more of a response from your audience.
• Organizing a contest. Contests are a great way to encourage audience engagement.
• Supporting a cause. Like a contest, raising funds and awareness for a specific cause during a specific time frame can really give your engagement a boost.
• Being available. Let your audience get to know you. Be consistently present on social media to respond to comments and answer questions.
• Starting conversations. Whenever there is news that affects your industry, start talking about it on social media. Share your thoughts, and solicit those of your followers.

Listening to Your Audience

Social media is an excellent place to learn what your clients are excited about, concerned about, thinking about, and talking about.

You’ll enjoy a number of benefits from social media listening. You can get feedback on your services to make future improvements. You can collect testimonials. You can pick up on language cues, so the content you create resonates better with your target audience. You can ask clients about problems they’re trying to solve, which can be invaluable when it comes to developing new services and creating marketing messages.

If your goal is to listen to your audience, then start:

• Keeping close track of social mentions. Whenever you’re mentioned on social media, make it a point to respond. Answer questions. Say thank you to compliments. Document feedback. And help out clients (or potential clients) who are having issues.
• Posting questions. Ask questions about results, client satisfaction, challenges your audience is facing … that kind of thing.
• Letting followers vote on product or service decisions. Say you’re planning to create a new information product. Poll your followers to find out what topic they want you to cover.
• Giving shout-outs. If a client provides useful feedback, and you make a change based on that, give a social media shout-out to the person who set everything in motion.

No matter what your goal, the key to success on social media is to be … social. That means sharing, conversing, and interacting more than promoting.

Keep that in mind and any social media goal you set your mind to will be instantly more attainable.

Do you have any questions about getting started as a social media writer and setting social media goals? Share with us in the comments below so we can guide you.