4 Simple Steps to Set (& Achieve) Your Social Media Goals In 2022
It’s almost the New Year! (Cue joke about how we’re still processing 2020…)
For most people, with each new year comes new goals. Instead of promising yourself you’ll journal every day or go to the gym 5 times a week, just to inevitably fail halfway through January, why not set goals for your business’s social media this year?
One way to set goals and hold yourself accountable to achieve them is to do it in a team. So grab your team, or simply forward this blog to them, and then put a date on the calendar to brainstorm and set the goals.
Why is It Important to Set Goals?
Setting social media marketing goals is crucial. It not only keeps you from having NO marketing efforts, but also keeps you from throwing time or money out the window with no plan.
What Do I Need to Ask Before Setting My Goals?
- What do I want to accomplish this year for my business?
- What does my team need to work on to accomplish this?
- What could possibly keep me from achieving this goal? (Lack of resources, people, training, etc)
- How can social media help to achieve this goal?
The 4 Steps to Setting (& Achieving) Your Social Media Goals
1. Consider Your Why
If you’re a business owner and you haven’t read the book Start With Why, you need to. In the meantime, ask yourself— Why are you on social media? Do you need more leads? Would you like to increase your sales? Do you need another channel for customers to reach out for service? Are you trying to simply build your brand awareness?
Once you know your “why,” you can more clearly figure out the “how” when it comes to your social media strategy.
Ask yourself the following questions before setting your social media goals:
- Who is your target audience?
- Where is your target audience hanging out online?
- What platforms do you want to focus on and why?
Knowing why you’re posting on each platform and how it will benefit your business is so important when setting concrete goals.
2. Take a Look at Your Current Performance
Before setting goals for the future, it’s important to get a good picture of the present. It may be hard to take an honest look at your current social media performance, but it will only help you grow. By looking at current performance insights, you’ll know what to post more of and what to maybe re-work or abandon altogether. You can use Facebook and/or Instagram Analytics for this. They are free to use and pretty easy to understand. (Thanks, Meta!)
3. Set Realistic Goals
After you’ve finished your current social media performance audit, it’s time to officially set concrete goals.
Make sure your goals are specific and are able to be measured. Do you want a certain number of followers? A higher percentage of engagement? A certain amount of website clicks per week from social media? This will help you track the success or failure of your content.
And hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. Have you ever set a goal of going to the gym 5 days per week when you’re used to going zero? Yeah, that’s a lofty goal, and you’re likely to fail. Why not start smaller? Your goals should be challenging, but within reach. Once you’ve set your goals, decide on a timeline.
4. Regularly Check-In on Performance
Regularly checking your performance analytics is key in knowing if you’re achieving your goals. Decide how often you’re going to check in with your metrics and utilize free metrics given by Facebook and/or Instagram (Or you can choose a third-party like Later). Just like you set your goals as a team, check in on performance as a team as well. This will be important for accountability and growth.
Final Thoughts
Setting social media goals doesn’t have to be scary, especially not anymore! We hope this blog was helpful to get the ball rolling. Remember, achieving your goals is more like a marathon, not a sprint… especially with social media.
As always, if you have any questions, we’ve got your back.
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