Social Media Marketing Goals That Matter For Small Business

You know you need social media marketing goals.

Goals are critical to anything you want to succeed at.

As a smart business owner, you’re an expert at goal setting and measuring progress.

And you know how to set SMARTER goals and stay on track.

But without understanding what goals matter to your small business doesn’t let any of that knowledge and experience work for you.

Social media happens to be a marketing platform that has goals that confuse small business owners.

Because it’s such a new channel compared to more traditional marketing people are still learning its impact.

However, you don’t have to learn everything about it the hard way.

There is a thorough understanding of social media marketing goals that grow businesses.

To be sure social media works for your small business, you just have to read and apply.

With that in mind, let’s learn about social media marketing goals that matter.

Not All Social Media Marketing Goals Build Your Business

Small business owners tend to focus on the wrong factors with social media.

It’s not your fault if you are, though.

For a long time, amateur marketers and our friends sold us on the wrong metrics.

They told us our social media marketing goals should focus on earning more likes and getting more followers.

These vanity metrics were easy to track and even simpler to grow.

Getting you to focus on them made a marketer’s job easy because they could manipulate the results to make them look good.

However, that gave many small business owners a bad impression of the value of social media.

High vanity metrics rarely translate to anything you can act on, and they seldom translate to increased revenue.

But they make you feel awesome, don’t they?

“Vanity metrics: good for feeling awesome, bad for action.” – Tim Ferris Click To Tweet

Now that businesses have learned to focus on metrics that signify results, it’s apparent when things are working.

All you have to do is choose social media marketing goals that are possible, then focus on the metrics that signify their progress.

Once you learn which ones those are, it’s truly easy to see the benefits of social media.

The Social Media Marketing Goals You Should Focus On

As you develop your social media marketing strategy, you’re going to need to identify your goals.

Make sure you’re following the SMART framework to be sure those goals can get you somewhere.

That’s the only way you’re going to be sure your goals take your business somewhere.

But where those social media marketing goals take you is largely dependent on your understanding of which goals matter to growing your business.

Don’t waste your time on goals that won’t get you anywhere. Click To Tweet

Setting goals that focus on the superficial or on things social media marketing can’t provide doesn’t make any sense.

Goals that don’t apply to your brand or what you want for it also don’t make any sense.

So how do you know which social media marketing goals you should be setting?

To identify your goals, you need to understand social media marketing goals that make sense.

Here is what social media marketing can do for your brand.

Building Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a massive part of growing a business.

If your target market doesn’t know you exist, they can’t buy from you.

So, to make sure you get customers, you need to make sure they know you’re there.

And social media happens to be a great platform for that.

One of the easiest to track social media marketing goals is brand awareness.

There are already a ton of metrics on the different social platforms that allow you to do so.

Success with this goal is apparent, too.

Here are some of the metrics you need to watch to know if people are aware of your brand on social media:

• Reach – the more people see your content the more people are aware of you.
• Mentions – when people talk about you, they know you’re there and so do the people they talk to.
• Hashtags – branded and campaign hashtags can be tracked for use and visibility, letting you know how many people see them and you.

Building brand awareness is a great social media goal to start with, especially if you’re a new business.

Nothing helps your brand with every other marketing endeavor the way exposure does.

Increasing Website Traffic

If you’re looking to improve your chances of earning a lead or making a sale, website traffic is one of social media’s best options.

Adding opportunities to do either on your website increases your totals dramatically.

No matter how good or bad your conversion rate is, more traffic will always mean more conversions.

Increased website traffic is one of the most focused-on social media marketing goals.

That’s because small business owners understand how important it is to get people to their site.

However, it’s often done in the least effective way possible.

Consistently asking for the sale doesn’t drive anyone to your site.

You’re not going to earn traffic with sales like you will with value. Click To Tweet

Instead, if this is one of your social media marketing goals, offer your audience more value through your site.

Providing a good reason incentivizes their traffic for their benefit.

Whether it’s blog articles full of information or a lead magnet they can benefit from, the idea is to focus on bringing value.

And, with simple analytics, you can track how many visitors you’re getting through your social efforts.

When it comes to social media marketing goals, increasing website traffic does a lot for you.

Growing A Loyal Fanbase

Audience loyalty is an incredible asset to your small business’s long-term marketing strategy.

They’ll help spread your message further and for longer through social media.

With a loyal fanbase, any other social media marketing goals are hit much easier.

So, setting a social media marketing goal to grow your loyal fanbase makes a ton of sense.

To grow a loyal fanbase, you’ll need to make sure you’re a great resource for your target audience.

You’ll need to share information that’s valuable to them and make sure you’re paying attention when they engage.

Earning loyalty requires you to be worth being loyal to. Click To Tweet

Hold conversations with them that show they’re valuable to you.

By proving to your audience that you value them, acknowledge them, and give value to them, they’ll naturally feel more loyal.

That audience will send you their friends, boost your reach, and increase engagement with your company.

Referrals and engagement are great ways to track audience loyalty, too.

The more you get, the more you can see their loyalty at work.

Getting Your Community Engaged

Sometimes it helps to build the community around your brand.

Think about the way sports teams or charities use communities to grow.

An engaged community can help develop more opportunities for your company.

Plus, it’s a great chance to build your brand’s credibility and engage one-on-one with your customers.

And you have an excellent platform to position yourself as an expert in your industry.

So, as a social media marketing goal, getting your community built and engaged is a precursor to bigger forms of brand-building.

To build a community like this, focus on your brand’s values and story.

Your mission statement and journey make up the most important things your community cares about.

Bring them to the forefront of your social media strategy and make them known to your audience.

Don’t forget to engage and interact with your audience as they chime in.

Interaction doesn’t just build loyalty.

It also encourages engagement by showing that their thoughts aren’t falling on deaf ears.

Track your community’s engagement with standard engagement metrics.

But you’ll also need to focus on who is engaging.

If it’s frequently the same group of people, you know you’re building a community.

An Important Social Media Marketing Goal Is Creating Audience Relationships

Beyond loyalty and community are individual relationships.

Some members of your audience will engage more and display greater loyalty.

Those individuals are likely to become clients.

However, you’re not looking for a short-term sale.

You want to build a long-term strategy that will continue to help you grow your business.

Get to know your audience and make friends with them. Click To Tweet

Set a social media marketing goal to build great relationships with the people who make your audience.

Individual relationships build loyalty and positivity to a higher level.

People you work on those stronger connections with are not only more likely to become clients but brand evangelists as well.

They’ll share the message about the personalized experience they had with your company.

Remember, people love the personal attention.

Especially in a world that has become so distanced.

But you can’t track if you’re building relationships using metrics.

In this situation, you need to consider how well you know your audience by name.

The more people you’re used to talking directly with, the better you’re hitting this social media marketing goal.

Manage Brand Reputation

Social media is the place where people air their dirty laundry.

Especially when it comes to their dealings with the companies they buy from.

The fastest way to get yourself into a reputation crisis is to ignore negative social media feedback.

But ignoring the positive doesn’t help either.

One of your social media marketing goals should be to help manage your brand reputation.

Brand reputation is something you can measure as you address it.

Reputation can make or break your business. It’s up to you to monitor and care for it. Click To Tweet

When your audience or customers – even the ones you lost – have something to say about your brand, you need to respond to it.

Even when it’s not a review left directly on one of your business listings.

Social listening allows you to find public conversations about your brand that you can chime in on.

Using conversations that you find about your brand helps identify opportunities to improve and act.

Making the right moves from there allows you to grow your brand and earn more clients.

Earn Audience And Market Insights

Listening to your social media audience can give you a lot of answers.

Setting social media marketing goals that allow you to earn the answers you need can reveal tons of possibilities for your small business.

Make it a point to talk to your audience.

Ask them questions about how you’re doing as a company and what they want to see from you.

Welcome criticism and complaint as much as you do compliment.

This process is made easier when you’ve built a loyal, engaged audience and individual relationships.

And using social listening can, again, give you market insights as well.

Your audience will tell you what they need from you if you let them. Click To Tweet

The purpose of this goal is to discover where your small business needs to head next.

You’ll know if you’re successful with it when you’re getting the insights you need.

You should wind up with a clear vision of the space your small business needs to fill in the industry.

Use that information to make adjustments that make sense.

Then, take your place as a leader in your industry.

Discover And Share Social Proof

I’m not shy about mentioning the benefits of social proof.

Because it works on a psychological level, it’s a great way to show people they’re making the right choice in working with you.

And it uses honesty to convey that effect.

One of your social media marketing goals should revolve around discovering it, then sharing it with your audience.

I say “discovering” because you won’t always get it directly.

Through social listening, again, you might find social proof in a public conversation about your brand.

Whenever someone recommends you, that’s also a form of social proof.

Social proof shows people that you do the job you say you will and make your customers happy. Click To Tweet

Getting reviews, testimonials, and case studies, then adding them to recommendations builds you a library of social proof that will blow your audience away.

But only if you share it with them.

Once you have social proof, make sure it gets in front of your audience.

Share reviews and recommendations through social media.

Make sure all the social proof shows up on your website.

Every time your audience says something good about you, make sure someone sees it.

When it’s not your word, people are more likely to take it.

Nurturing Leads Makes A Great Social Media Marketing Goal

Lead nurturing is an important part of making sure you earn sales long-term.

It helps you usher your leads through their buyer’s journey and helps build a relationship with them.

And social media happens to be one of the places you offer nurturing content.

Social media marketing goals should, at some point, include lead nurturing.

Sending content to your target audience that’s personalized to what they need to see seems difficult on social media.

But it doesn’t have to be.

The use of remarketing tactics can help you make sure they’re getting the messages they need to when they need to.

Remarketing is about getting the right lifecycle messages to your audience at the right time. Click To Tweet

It’s not only going to help your social media, but it will help every other place you’re putting content in front of them.

By remarketing your audience (focusing on lifecycle content), you help them move through the lifecycle at a faster rate.

When you start earning clients from your lead list faster, you’ll know for certain it’s working.

Boost Leads And Sales

Yes, ultimately all marketing is about boosting leads and sales.

However, social media marketing goals can focus on increased conversions.

There are tons of ways you can use social media to do this.

Some of those ways even include creating conversion opportunities directly on your social channels instead of relying on your website.

Promoting these conversions is directly trackable and easy to tie to your income.

That makes this social media marketing goal valuable to your brand in a big way.

Conversions are the biggest goal you can set for your social media marketing. Click To Tweet

Choosing to make this a goal should wait until you’ve made significant progress on some of the previously mentioned goals.

This one is hard to do if you don’t have brand awareness, a loyal, engaged audience, or any connection to the people you want to convert.

But once you’re ready it will help you see what all the other work was about.

When you do, you’ll get so much more from your social media.

Deliver Customer Service

When things are rolling for you, you need to look at a new social media marketing goal.

People expect customer service from your social networks.

As your social marketing becomes more successful, people will reach out to you on a customer service level more often.

They expect an answer from your social networks.

Often, they expect it quickly.

What’s surprising, though, is that they don’t necessarily expect their problem to get solved.

But even when they do, it’s your ability to respond and work with them that matters.

Social media is the customer service platform your customers will prefer for a long time to come. Click To Tweet

Customer service through social media is incredibly important.

By showing your customers you’re there for them, you show that you care about them.

That reinforces loyalty and helps you build for the future.

Plus, it’s not a bad way to help you with some of your previous goals at the same time.

Great customer service helps you manage your brand reputation and remarket to your audience.

Those will help you grow even faster with the same effort.

Who can complain about that?

Set The Right Social Media Marketing Goals For Growth

Social media marketing goals should be focused on things that help you grow.

Now that you know what they are and how they help, you can decide which ones are right for your small business right now.

Apply as many of them that make sense and make your social media efforts work in your favor.