Social media can be an effective business tool to support your overall marketing goals. But just like you measure the effects for your campaigns, it\u2019s important to regularly review and measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts.<\/p>\n
If you want to achieve more through your social channels, you need to set some goals.<\/p>\n
Without goals, it\u2019s difficult to know if your social media efforts are working. Setting goals allow you to make sure you\u2019re getting as much value as possible from the time and effort you put into your social strategy. You\u2019ll be able to stay focused on your priorities, know what\u2019s working and what isn\u2019t, and keep stay accountable.<\/p>\n
Social media is often seen as unnecessary but by defining goals, you can point to specific actions and results towards meeting your company\u2019s overall goals and justify continuing your work in this channel.<\/p>\n
Now that you know why social media goals matter, let\u2019s talk about how you can set reasonable and achievable social media goals for your team.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll want to know what your company\u2019s overall objectives are and how social media can support them. The metrics you\u2019ll measure will depend on your company\u2019s priorities. The most common metrics fall under these categories: brand awareness, conversion, and engagement. Please note: some metrics may overlap into other categories.<\/p>\n
Increasing brand awareness is one of the top reasons why companies use social media. When homebuyers become aware of and interact with your brand on social media, the more trust you build with them.<\/p>\n
Metrics to measure: <\/strong>Followers count, Reach, Impressions, Shares (including retweets, pins), and Mentions<\/p>\n Getting traffic to your home builder website is key in eventually converting visitors to leads and traffic to your sales offices. The more people you have visiting your website, the more chances they have to learn about your new homes and communities, interact with your virtual tools, read (and potentially share) your blog posts, and more.<\/p>\n Metrics to measure: <\/strong>Traffic from social media, Link clicks, Bounce rate from social media traffic<\/p>\n Converting a website visitor into a lead is the most important website goal. Lead captures are the online lifeblood for home builder websites and a key measure of success for every marketing campaign.<\/p>\n Metrics to measure: <\/strong>Click-throughs, form sign-ups, downloads<\/p>\n Engagement focuses on how your audience is interacting with your content. High engagement rates mean your audience is very active and responsive to the content you\u2019re creating and sharing.<\/p>\n Metrics to measure: <\/strong>Likes, Comments, Replies, Favorites, Mentions<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to set your social media goals. Here\u2019s a three-step process to get started.<\/p>\n Knowing your main objective will guide your social media strategy. Establishing your main objective will let you know what to focus on and to determine the steps needed to achieve it. Your social media goals will serve as a guideline to meet your stated objective.<\/p>\n Now that you know what your main objective will be, conduct a social media audit to see where your efforts currently stand and start thinking about the best way forward. Review each of your social profiles and evaluate performance, noting what\u2019s working and isn\u2019t. Here\u2019s more information on conducting a social media audit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t pull goals that sound good out of thin air. For your goals to be useful, they must be realistic and trackable. Instead, use a goal-setting framework like SMART goals to create relevant and achievable goals that will help support your main objective.<\/p>\n SMART goals are S<\/strong>pecific, M<\/strong>easurable, A<\/strong>ttainable, R<\/strong>elevant, and T<\/strong>ime-bound. You want to create a goal that is clear, can be measured, can be reached, match your objective, and have a set deadline. To learn more about setting SMART goals<\/a>, check out this great resource.<\/p>\n Setting social media goals is not a \u201cset and forget\u201d notion. The social media landscape changes quickly so it’s important to regularly review your goals to make sure they\u2019re still relevant to your overall objective. It\u2019s okay to adjust them if you\u2019ve found you\u2019re exceeding expectations, falling behind, or if they\u2019re no longer relevant because you\u2019ve changed your main objective.<\/p>\n Setting realistic and specific goals is the key to a successful and effective social media strategy. Smart builders know what they want their marketing campaigns to achieve and will figure out the necessary steps to make them happen.\u00a0Don\u2019t leave your social efforts to chance. Your social media goals are your roadmap to social success.<\/p>\nTraffic<\/h4>\n
Conversions<\/h4>\n
Engagement<\/h4>\n
How to set social media goals<\/h3>\n
Set your objective<\/h4>\n
Conduct a social media audit<\/h4>\n
Determine your new social media goals<\/h4>\n
Review and adjust as needed<\/h4>\n
Need help with your social media goals?<\/h3>\n