All organisations should have goals for social media. Too many businesses just randomly post to Facebook or Instagram, aware that they should be doing something but with no clear intentions and no big picture thinking. That’s a recipe for disaster (or at least irrelevance).

To help you get clarity on what sort of objectives you could set for social media, here are seven of the most popular goals that organisations choose for their social media activities.

1 Engage With Your Followers

One of the sometimes-overlooked aspects of social media is that it provides an opportunity to create a community between your business and its followers and fans. When people choose to “like” your Facebook business page or Instagram account, in many cases they’re expressing a vote of confidence and support for your organisation, not just hoping to get discounts and special offers.

Return the love. Interact with people, post relevant content, share personal stories, and grow followers. The more engagement you have with your followers, the more that they will feel that they are participating and believe they are a part of something bigger.

There are many different ways that you can use your social media platforms to truly engage with your followers. You can post photos of your most recent product launch or you can write reviews of products that you have tried out recently. The point is just to show people what you are about and form connections with them.

For some businesses, this might be showing behind the scenes information and for others, it might be providing promotional offers or discounts on their products. (But remember, your relationships with your followers are longer-lasting than the quick deals you might offer).

2 Improve Customer Service

Social media has evolved into one of the most popular methods for customer service. In the past, customers would have to call up customer service and wait on hold for a long time. Nowadays, social media is a great way to get in touch with your customers and solve their problems.

Social media platforms provide a platform for companies and customers to communicate on a more personal level. Such platforms make it easier for companies to hear about what their customers need and prioritize those needs accordingly.

Customers love companies’ social media pages because they can comment back and forth with the company about their problems in a relaxed environment. Social Media is not just a tool for customer service, but it can also be used to improve your brand image through interactions with customers.

Many organisations have shifted from responding on email or phone calls to responding through social media posts. These posts serve as the first line of customer support for these organisations, where they can quickly address issues that may arise before they escalate into full-blown crises and lead to more severe consequences than just a few lost sales or irate consumers.

This practice has helped many companies grow their customer base exponentially by making loyal customers out of previously dissatisfied ones.

3 Increase Revenue

In the early days of Facebook, before the company went public, there was a direct correlation between the number of followers your page had and the number of people who were exposed to your posts. A typical post might be seen by 50% or 60% of your page’s followers.

Yeah, nah. These days, your (unpaid) posts will typically be seen by only 1% or 2% of your followers.

In other words, the matter how wonderful your posts might be, very few people see them unless you pay to boost those posts. So if your goal is to increase revenue through your social media posts, you need to factor in what it will cost to advertise those posts. You will find that paying money tends to concentrate your focus, ensuring that you only promote the posts that are most likely to achieve your goals (whether revenue seeking or otherwise).

4 Generate Leads

When it comes to generating leads, social media is a great place to start. However, the goals for generating leads on social media can vary from business to business.

For some businesses, the goal is to generate leads and get them to take an action like purchasing a product or service or signing up for a newsletter. For others, the goal may be more focused on customer acquisition and retention by driving traffic and getting customers engaged with their content.

There are many different ways that you could generate leads with your social media accounts including sponsored posts, lead ads, lead generation contests, advertising in third party groups or pages in your industry niche, posting content with links back to your site/pages with calls-to-action at the end of each post, etc.

5 Increase Brand Awareness

“Increasing brand awareness” is a nice, soft marketing goal. When all else fails, we can claim that our social media activities “increased awareness of our brand”.

If you really DO want to increase brand awareness, perhaps because you are launching a new product or you have a high profile initiative that needs to be exposed to a great many people, then you might use social media (because of the millions of Kiwis who use the social platforms) — but you need to go out of your way to focus on Big Bang events, those that would gain attention in any medium.

If you want people to talk about your brand then your activities need to be worth talking about.

6 Drive traffic to your website

Three out of five marketers use social media to market their content and drive traffic to their website.

Why would people consider leaving Facebook (or Instagram or TikTok or another social medium) and heading off to your website?

Only if there is something valuable and worth their while at the end of the rainbow.

Really focus on developing that item of value. Only if it’s truly worthwhile should you expect to receive traffic in return.

7 Manage your brand reputation

Social media has become an integral part of marketing and branding. It is a place where your company’s reputation and visibility lives 24/7 and it’s also where customers and prospects spend their time. The use of social media for managing brand reputation is that it makes the process much more efficient.

Your brand reputation is crucial. You need to make sure people are saying good things about your company, not bad. The best way to do this is by listening – monitoring relevant conversations on social media platforms and analyzing what people are saying about your business, industry or brand.

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If you’d like to know more about how to use social media to achieve your goals, check out our range of courses:

This is a thirteen-part online training course providing a comprehensive introduction to Social Media Marketing, from the Basics to detailed instructions on how to build and run a Social Media Marketing programme.

For more details of the Social Media Marketing online course, please click here.

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We also have a combined course that will help you master both of New Zealand’s most powerful social media:

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If you want to focus just on Paid Advertising on Instagram and Facebook — a wise idea, given that both networks are restricting organic (unpaid) reach — we have a ten-part course covering exactly that:

What can you do to improve your Facebook & Instagram Advertising activities?

Learn what works, and what doesn’t, through our online training course.

In this ten-part online training course, we will take you step-by-step through what you need to know to understand and master advertising on Facebook & Instagram.

For full online training course details, click here:
Mastering Advertising on Facebook & Instagram

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Facebook Accelerator Programme

So you have a few hundred (or a few thousand) followers on Facebook but now you want to know how to get to the next level? Our Facebook Accelerator seven-part online course will lead you through the steps necessary to supercharge your Facebook presence and get Kiwi consumers engaging with you and your brands.

For more details of the Facebook Accelerator online training course, please click here.

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The Complete Facebook Marketing Course

For those who wish to master Facebook Marketing in its entirety, we’ve created a ten-week online training course which will take you from absolute beginner on Facebook to highly effective Facebook communicator.

For more details of the Complete Facebook Marketing programme, please click here.

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How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief

Even if you don’t intend to become directly involved in social media yourself, you may still need to understand the principles, practices and opportunities of social media — for example, if you need to brief someone about running a social media campaign. This online training course is designed to provide you with the insights necessary to prepare an effective brief.

For more details of the How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief programme, please click here.