Social Media Goal Setting

Setting goals is something we all must do from time to time whether in our personal lives or businesses.

Social media goal setting is something you must do too. But knowing where to start, how to decide what you need to do and when to do it can be pretty intimidating when looking at a graphic like this one which shows a snippet of the social media sites that exist:

With so many social media channels how is one supposed to know where to start?

First let’s go back to the title of the blog and read it backwards: setting goals for social media. Come to think of it I probably should change the blog title to that but for example purposes (and probably to the detriment of search ranking) I will leave it as is.

First you must set goals – then you must choose which medium to use to go after those goals. What kind of goals can be achieved with Social Media? I would like to say right here, right now – any goal that you feel is important to your business can be achieved through Social Media not matter what kind of business you are in.

There, I said it. I promise that I would not say those words if I didn’t believe them 100%.

So what are some goals that your business might want to achieve? Considering that I write this blog primarily for the wine industry I will use examples that are relevant to that crowd but these could surely be attributed to other industries.

Goal: Increase sales in the direct-to-consumer portion of your winery – it can and has been done via facebook, twitter, snooth, and many others.

Goal: Find a quality grower to purchase grapes from for a new wine brand concept you have. Here’s an example of how to do this. Find companies on winebusiness.com that have something for offer, search them out on social media sites, start a conversation, and see what they are offering. I just saw a bulk wine sale offer on Facebook recently for port wine from a really good producer. It’s being done.

Goal: Add value to the relationship you have with existing wine stores around the country. Find them, add them, comment of their pages, make sure they know where they can find valuable information about your wines and be sure to be a resource for their customers.

Goal: Find new, high quality talent for your budding social media department (or even just a single someone). Connect with users on social media sites and pay attention to their interest level in your area of expertise or business plans. Seek out their profile on LinkedIn and beyond. Think about what you have to offer and how it can be not only attractive to them but fit into their own aspirations (by listening closely you should be able to identify what those are to a certain degree). When it feels right to you, strike up a conversation about their goals and desires in the industry and should those match yours then maybe you should extend an offer.

Goal: Find more customers for your retail wine shop. Make sure you are using geo-tagging sites like FourSquare and set up offers for the first 100 people to check-in at your wine store via that site. Promote the opportunity through your other social media sites, email, blog, etc.

So in just a few words I’ve covered how to increase sales, find a reputable vendor of products or services, access quality people for your organization, increase your foot traffic and add new customers, and strengthen your relationship with existing customers.

These are goals. Goals that can be tracked against a return-on-investment chart. Goals that are relevant to your businesses success in general, not just with social media.

The difference being that each can be done via social media. You can bet your bottom dollar that one of your competitors is doing so.

Want more ideas on how to specifically set and go after your goals as well as how to track the ROI? Email me and we can discuss your needs one-on-one. Or better yet, find me on a social media site!

http://www.twitter.com/JC_Milam

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=642062597 or search “J.c. Milam”

http://www.quora.com/J-C-Milam

Search LinkedIn for “J.C. Milam”

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