Setting social media goals is akin to looking at the top of the mountain and saying, “I will get there!”

It is well known that social media has transformed the way we communicate, interact, and consume content. They are increasingly the bridge between brands and people — or better yet, people and people (since brands are also comprised of people).

However, defining goals for these social media platforms can be a challenge, as it’s not always clear what you intend to achieve with them.

Therefore, in this article, you will learn how to define goals for social media with the following topics:

  1. Analyze the company’s overall goals
  2. Conduct internal and external analysis, and create your social media SWOT matrix
  3. Write your objectives
  4. Carefully analyze your defined objectives
  5. Execute, measure, and make necessary adjustments

Shall we begin this ascent?

1. Analyze the Company’s Overall Objectives

Social media is just one slice of the pie that is your company. Therefore, to carry out the next steps, keep the company’s overall objectives in mind.

Then, understand how social media can contribute to achieving those objectives.

2. Conduct Internal and External Analysis, and Create Your Social Media SWOT Matrix

Before defining objectives, it’s essential to understand the environment you’re in. To do so, you need to evaluate everything around you—literally everything!

Start by analyzing your external environment, such as:

  • Political, economic, social, and technological issues that may impact your goals
  • Your competition, especially your benchmarks
  • Other relevant factors that help define your guiding line

In the internal analysis, we suggest beginning with a social media audit. Then, also assess the resource capacity you can allocate to social media.

And when you finish this analysis, combine everything in the SWOT matrix.

3. Write Your Objectives

It’s not enough to just think about them; you need to write them down!

Now, you should identify your priorities in social media.

Some common ones include:

  • Increasing awareness
  • Improving reputation
  • Driving traffic to the website
  • Enhancing community interaction
  • Increasing conversions or sales
  • Generating leads
  • Attracting new job candidates

But the list is endless. The important thing is to effectively identify what you want to achieve with your presence on social media.

Then, considering the analysis you conducted earlier, start formulating concrete objectives. Vague objectives rarely lead to success. Instead, be specific about what you want to achieve. For example, instead of “increase interaction,” opt for “increase interaction with Instagram content by 2% over the next three months.”

And for this, there are some methodologies. Let’s show you the two most common ones:

SMART objectives format

To aid in this creation, the most common methodology is that of SMART objectives—which, in summary, means setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

The example above is already in this SMART format:

  • It’s Specific: stating “increase interaction with Instagram content by 2%”
  • It’s Measurable: you can measure this interaction through likes, comments, shares, and others
  • It’s Achievable: assuming that the internal and external analysis indicates this is a possible outcome
  • It’s Relevant: especially considering the effort required to achieve it
  • It’s Time-bound: stating “over the next three months”

In this methodology, you should also identify the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will allow you to evaluate the goal’s achievement. In this example, interactions on social media would be the KPIs.

OKR objectives format

The acronym OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results.

In practice, this objective-setting methodology helps you prioritize what you want to achieve and the results you need to obtain to get there.

Transforming the above objective into OKRs, it would look like this:

Objective: Build a close brand-community relationship

Key Result: Increase interaction with Instagram content by 2% over the next three months.

Because in practice, these OKRs are:

  • Objectives (O): The priority the company aims to achieve. A good objective should touch the emotions of those who need to achieve it. This is the main difference from SMART objectives—the objective can (and should) be described in a human way.
  • Key Results (KR): The measurable targets that must be reached to achieve the objective. There might be more than one KR. It’s advisable not to exceed 5 KRs.

This way, you can clearly define what you want to achieve while still considering the human aspect.

4. Carefully analyze the objectives you’ve defined

Sometimes, we want to do everything at once.

Other times, we feel like we can’t do more than this.

At this stage, analyze the objectives you’ve set. Ask yourself:

  • Can I really achieve what I’ve set out to do?
  • Could I accomplish more than what I’m proposing?
  • Are these truly my objectives?

Question yourself, question your team, and everyone involved in the process. If necessary, revise the objectives.

5. Execute, measure, and make necessary adjustments

Now, take action!

With an action plan defined to achieve these objectives, it’s time to execute and measure the results. Measurement should be done in the most convenient way for your team, considering the nature of the objective as well. Weekly measurement is often the norm.

To assist in this measurement, Swonkie provides a reporting tool, where you can easily access your social media data. Try it free for 14 days.

This way, you’ll determine if the objectives you’ve created are suitable for your case. Don’t hesitate to modify and adjust them over time