Happy New Year! Did you set any New Year’s resolutions for yourself? What about for your business? Was social media on the list?

Making social media resolutions is really the same as setting goals. I find that most small businesses don’t set goals around their online marketing efforts, and they typically don’t track what works and what doesn’t. Do you?

Without setting goals, it’s impossible to know if you’re successful or not, to know if social media is actually working for your business. It’s also hard to create strategies and campaigns without knowing what you’re trying to accomplish outside of increasing sales, you’ve got to be more specific.

Below you’ll find a few examples of social media goals, with suggestions on how to reach them. Don’t skip over the action item below 🙂

For a more in-depth look on setting social media goals, check out this month’s training in Social Edge titled, ‘2014 Social Media Marketing Plan’.

Social Media Goals Examples:

Goal: Increase Facebook Likes

More specific: Increase Facebook likes of people who live within 15 miles of our store

Reach this goal by: Telling customers in store to like you, send an email to pre-existing database, run a Facebook Ad targeting people who live within 15 miles of your store (Facebook ad training is February’s training in Social Edge – it’s going to be SO good!)

Goal: Increase Web Traffic

More specific: Increase web traffic from social media profiles, Facebook and Pinterest.

Reach this goal by: For Facebook:

• Post links to your website on your Timeline (promote these links for better exposure and Click Through Rate (CTR))
• Include call to action statements (ex: Shop our new collection now → {website link})
• Post photos on Facebook and include a website link in the description of the photo.

For Pinterest:

• If you’re uploading pictures from your computer or phone, make sure you’re sourcing the picture back to your website, and to the specific product page if you’re featuring a specific product. If you don’t know where the pin is sourced, click on the pin, where does it take you? If it just opens the image in a new window, the Pin is not sourced.
• Pin unique content created by you which links back to your website (note: only 20% of content on Pinterest is unique, this is a site known for Repins/sharing – get your content shared!)
• Pin pictures that you could find in a magazine. Pinterest is a high quality image platform, make sure your images fit in.

Goal: Increase foot traffic

More specific: Get my online network off the computer and into my store!

Reach this goal by: Post *Today Only* deals including a picture of the item that’s on sale or one that has limited quantities available, ask people to come in and enter to win concert tickets/hockey tickets/theater tickets/etc., invite them to an in-store event.

Other social media resolutions to consider:

• Increase brand exposure
• Increase community involvement
• Humanize the brand more
• Increase engagement on posts
• Get featured in local newspaper/magazine

Action Item: Take the next 10 minutes and write down your social media resolutions, and how you’re going to reach them. Then schedule in your calendar when you’re going to work on the needed materials to achieve these resolutions. If you’d like some accountability, post your goals on the Crystal Media Facebook page, I’d love to see what you come up with!

If you’re a Social Edge member, log in to this page https://www.crystalmediaco.com/members-only/social-media-marketing-plan/ to view this month’s training as I get really deep into what your plan should be for this year, including goal setting.