Social media is an important tool for business owners. Unfortunately what often happens is that business owners are convinced of the need to use the tools, they set them up, and then they scramble to come up with content.

While social media can make an incredible difference to your business, jumping in without any thought or a plan can lead to some discouraging results.

Why you need goals

Setting goals for your social media efforts not only allows you to take a look back and see if you were successful, they help with the creation of your content.

For example, knowing that you are hoping to increase sales of a specific product means that you can create content that highlights the knowledge within the product, or link to articles that highlight the importance of knowing more about the topic of your product. Then, in six months, you can look to see if there actually was an increase in sales of the product over that time period.

What should your goals be?

Your goals for using social media can vary a lot. Pick a variety that help you achieve your overall business goals for the year. Some examples include:

Financial

Financial goals can include increasing the amount of clients you work with, selling more overall, increasing the revenue from specific portions of your business.

Reputation

Reputation goals can include becoming a thought-leader in a specific field, or being known as a great speaker, workshop leader or coach.

Community

Community goals can include increasing the numbers of followers you have for each channel, increasing the amount of engagement on certain channels, or increasing the amount that your community shares your content to their networks.

You could create a never-ending list of goals, but take the time to choose 3-4 that align with your business priorities and let them guide the direction you take when using social media to promote your business online.

Leave us a comment or send us an email sharing what some of your social media goals are for the next 6 months!