Setting SMART Goals for your Social Media Strategy

In today’s social climate, most people’s and businesses’ goals are to go viral, but that is not the only goal when creating your social strategy. This is why SMART goals are so important. Let’s break down the basics of creating a SMART goal to achieve maximum results from your social media strategy!

Specific:

Make your goals clear and focused. When determining your goals, you must ensure they are precise and defined. Saying your goal is to go viral does not give you a specific goal. Stating that your goal is to achieve 10,000 likes on TikTok is specific. This is important because you can create clear and defined steps.

Measurable:

Measurable goals are important because they allow you to track your progress using data and quantify your success. Great metrics for this include engagement rate, follower count, or website traffic driven by social media.

An example of this would be increasing your following from 5,000 to 6,000 by the end of the year.

Achievable:

As great as it is to have huge goals and shoot for the stars, you still need to be realistic and make your goals achievable. If you set your goal too high, you will become frustrated when it is not met, but if it is too low, you will meet it too quickly and easily and won’t feel like you are working towards anything.

An example would be increasing your following by 20% by the end of the year vs. the unachievable goal of gaining 10,000 in a month when starting with 7! Making your goals achievable will motivate your employees and team to work toward them instead of getting discouraged.

Relevant:

Relevant goals pertain to your business rather than setting a goal for the show. Yes, going viral is fun, and your company will receive 15 minutes of fame, but what does that do for you? Are you increasing product sales? Are you getting more traffic to your website? Gaining followers? Or did you just get 1 million views? If you are not achieving anything by going viral, but a TikTok got you 30 sales with 100 views, you’re much closer to achieving your goal, even though it is less flashy and cool.

Time-bound:

Time-bound means you give yourself a deadline for your goal. You’re not just saying, “Well, eventually I would like to get 10,000 followers—” you are saying I would like to get 10,000 followers by December 31st. This will help keep you motivated and prioritize your activities.

A SMART Goal in Action:

• Specific: Increase Instagram followers by 300 by posting engaging content.
• Measurable: Track follower count using Instagram Insights.
• Achievable: Given the current following growth, gaining 300 new followers is realistic over three months.
• Relevant: This aligns with the overall goal of expanding market reach.
• Time-bound: Complete this within three months.

Setting SMART goals for your social media strategy will help you create a roadmap to achieving your success and goals. You will be able to know precisely what you plan to do with your strategy to do everything without becoming burnt out by the tight deadlines you gave yourself. You open yourself to the opportunity to achieve results that help you gain what you want from your company’s social media.