Setting Your Social Media Goals for 2013

After spending a lots of time with recruiters during 2012, I’ve found that some businesses fail to realize their full online potential because their goals are simplistic, misguided, or completely unrealistic.   For example, when I initially work through my clients social media goals, I guarantee that at least 70% of them will say that their main goal would be to increase sales.

Don’t get me wrong, increasing sales is fundamental to business success and sales growth is one of the many benefits to having a successful social media strategy.  But in order to achieve that goal, I advise breaking the ultimate goal down to identify specific targets that will lead to the end result. 

One exercise that I run in my workshops is to get business owners to consider other objectives that they may not have considered before.  Here are a few examples of better foals to have when crafting your social media strategy:

1.      Increase traffic to your website

2.      Establish credibility as the expert in your field

3.      Build your audience / following.

4.      Build your email list by using opt-ins

5.      Brand awareness (great for new businesses)

6.      Increase customer loyalty

7.      Discover new opportunities

8.      Reputation Management

9.      Raise awareness of a new product or service

Setting these types of goals will ultimately lead to increased sales.  If you think of social media as a tool that builds your reputation, generates awareness and brings more visibility to your business then you have the right mindset from the very beginning.  

It is worth keeping in mind that these are not the only goals that you can set.  Maybe you want to have a goal that’s more specific to your recruitment business, like educating job seekers about an aspect of your business that is often misunderstood.  Whatever the case, I highly recommend identifying two short term goals. Finally, while not everything in social media is measureable, it certainly does help if you can select goals that are measureable.    Use tools such as Hootsuite, Google analytics, KLOUT, Crowdbooster to measure your success. 

Have you set your social media goals for 2013?  What are you working towards?

Julia Doherty
Green Umbrella  
Land: 01604 726758
Mob: 07855 522 027