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Social Media is now officially, “One Of Those Things” for businesses. Yes, it’s a great way to connect with your audience, build brand awareness, and drive sales. However, with the intimidation factor of the vast amount of content circulating on various platforms, businesses must define clear objectives for their social media content marketing efforts.
It isn’t enough any more to just “give it a go” and “slap up the odd post”… One simple yet effective method for doing so is by setting SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
This is something I’ve brought from my days as a teacher, as a way of helping students progress with certain skills they need to work on. With some thought, time and genuine effort, it can supercharge your socials.
Specific
When setting goals for your social media content marketing, specificity is key. Vague objectives like “increase brand awareness” or “gain more followers” just do not have the precision needed to guide your efforts effectively…
You can get brand awareness by running around a city centre screaming your company name in people’s faces, but that doesn’t guarantee effectiveness. Instead, aim for specific outcomes such as “increase website traffic by 20% through social media referrals” or “generate 100 leads per month from social media campaigns.”
Specific goals provide clarity and direction, making it easier to develop strategies tailored to achieving them. Neither of those 2 goals I suggest here are easy to do by the way, but why not be a bit aspirational?
Measurable
Measuring the success of your social media efforts requires quantifiable metrics. Without measurable goals, it becomes a “Hit and Miss” effort, and it’s challenging to track progress accurately and determine the effectiveness of your strategies. Identify concrete metrics such as engagement rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, or the number of leads generated.
By establishing measurable goals, you can track your performance over time and make data-driven adjustments to optimise your content strategy. Although one caveat to add here is that of course many of your ideal clients won’t be engaging with you at all – they’ll be watching from a distance before they even make contact in the first instance, so do be patient! Content marketing takes time.
Achievable
While it’s essential to set ambitious goals, they must also be attainable… Despite me telling you to be aspirational just a few sentences ago(!) Unrealistic objectives can demotivate your team and lead to frustration.
Consider factors such as your current social media presence, resources, and industry benchmarks when setting goals. You cannot simply go viral in month one – and I would even question whether “going viral” is such a thing to aim for anyway.
I would personally rather go on one great date with a perfect match than 200 dates with awful people. The same is true with the conversations you start on social media with potential clients – if you create a Reel that gets over 1 million views but your DMs are full of people asking for services you don’t do, or they can’t afford, what was the point?
Aim for targets that stretch your capabilities but remain within reach with proper planning and execution. As you achieve smaller milestones, you can gradually increase the difficulty of your goals over time and start to flex.
Relevant
Your social media goals should align with your overall business objectives and the needs of your target audience, and actually should rarely be the only way that you are trying to market your business… It generally isn’t enough to just post, and post, and post and hope that people just love the look of what you’re doing.
Relevance ensures that your efforts contribute meaningfully to your organisation’s success. Evaluate how each goal contributes to broader initiatives such as increasing sales, improving customer satisfaction, or launching new products.
Aligning your social media objectives with your business priorities ensures that every effort serves a purpose and drives tangible results. And I hate to say this as one who works in the sector, but not every business necessarily needs to be on social media – or at least certainly not on every platform out there!
Time-bound
Setting a deadline creates a sense of urgency and accountability, motivating you to take action and stay focused on your objectives. Without a timeframe, goals can linger indefinitely, diminishing their impact. You do the same thing over and over with no real point at which you decide to review.
Test and measure require a timeframe, and if you want one for your content marketing, I would recommend doing something for around 3 months before you make a firm decision as to whether it is “working” or not (however you decide that based on the goals you have set yourself).
Define clear timelines for achieving your social media goals, whether it’s weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. Break down larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks with deadlines to maintain momentum and track progress effectively.
Now Go Get SMART! There’s no way around it – social media content marketing is hard. It’s a long slog which requires time, thought, and intelligence, and in fact, can be downright frustrating for long spells. That being said, defining clear objectives is essential for success. Know what you want to get out of it before committing resources and diving in!
By adopting FOMOs SMART goal framework – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound – businesses can set themselves up for effective content marketing campaigns.
Whether your goal is to increase engagement, drive website traffic, or generate leads, a well-defined strategy guided by SMART goals will enable you to focus your efforts, measure progress accurately, and achieve meaningful results. Oh, and if all else fails, post a picture of your dog and you’ve already won.
