Learn how to set, achieve and become social media #goals
Make your social media dreams a reality with a clearly defined strategy and carefully set goals. Whether you want to improve your metrics or refresh your page, our team has you covered. In this blog, we sit down with our Founder and CEO, Ashley Logan, to talk content strategy, goal setting and all things social media.
How to set achievable social goals
First, take a step back and think about your overall business direction and the role that social media plays in your content strategy. Are you educating potential customers about a problem, or keeping your past customers engaged and your company top of mind? Only when you determine that can you start zeroing in the metrics that matter and the initiatives you want to put into motion.
Here are 5 goals that we set and achieved for our clients last year.
1. Increase your follower base
The number of followers is a pretty standard metric, and one that many brands are trying to boost. Stand out in a crowded market place by being an authentic brand with a personal touch. This will look different from brand to brand, but one way to incorporate personality is to feature your business’s employees and community members. For example, alternate between shiny, professional product shots with tweets from satisfied clients or user content showing the products in action.
“Creating content that resonates comes back to knowing your target audience,” says Ashley. “Knowing who you’re catering to is key to keeping your audience engaged and providing them with content that they truly care about.”
2. Start a branded hashtag
Every good hashtag strategy should include at least one specific hashtag for your brand. This is especially important for Twitter and Instagram, where this branded hashtag can alert you to posts by community members or other like-minded users. User-generated content is set to be even bigger this year, so establishing a branded hashtag will help you connect with users who love your company and enable you to leverage their content and audiences for your benefit.
Other best practices include using that hashtag in your Instagram stories, putting it in your Instagram bio and checking in on it every day.
3. Partner with Instagram influencers
Instagram influencers are the new celebrities, and getting them to endorse your product or service can go a long way. Before cultivating any relationships, think very carefully about whether your target audiences align. That’s a better indicator of your potential partnership’s success than their follower count. Next, it’s time to reach out.
“The best way to approach an influencer is to think of them as a friend,” explains Ashley. “While you want to be professional, it’s good to infuse a little personality. Engage and comment on their content to build a relationship, so when you reach out it doesn’t read like a recycled email.”
4. Build engagement
With social media, it does you no favors to “set it and forget it.” While social scheduling platforms can automate your posting, they cannot replicate the authenticity that’s required to thrive on social media. Set aside time, whether that’s during your morning or evening commute, to log into all of your platforms and respond to all comments, check in on your branded hashtags and like 30 posts on your brand’s feed.
Bonus tip: Social listening doesn’t just make your followers feel heard, but it also clues you in on what’s happening in the industry so you can reap the benefits of piggybacking on relevant social trends.
5. Experiment with new content
Does your Facebook feel dry? Is your Instagram engagement stagnant? If so, it might be time to spice it up. Consider hosting a Facebook Live to build thought leadership and interact with your community, or promoting evergreen content on your Instagram story. While these products might not have just hit the market, it could be time to incorporate them into your everyday social media schedule.
“Your audience consumes content on a variety of different channels, so it never hurts to take the extra effort and reconfigure existing content for new spaces,” explains Ashley.
Whether you’re looking to set new goals or you already know which metrics you’re doubling down on, our team is here to help. Our content and analytics teams work in tandem to make sure we’re delivering the kind of content that does the job and then some. Contact us today to set, achieve and become social media goals.
