Why are you as a small business or a brand, on social media anyway?

Is it because-

• you want to generate leads for your business
• sell products
• you want to build your brand awareness, or
• anything else

Do you have social media goals in the first place, which reflects and relates to your business goals?

If you really want to understand what social media can do to your business and brand, then you must first understand what is actually possible. With social media presence you can:

1. Build online reputation for your business
2. You can bring in your brand awareness
3. You can build relationship with your prospects by engaging with them and addressing their problems
4. Your direct communication with potential customers can earn you feedback and referrals aiding in further growth and development
5. It can give you huge digital marketing advantage at little expenses
6. You can build community over social media thereby building a sense of trust
7. All these are rationally proportional to sales and profit

While social media can do all of these and more, not all entrepreneurs and business owners share the same goals. Okay, you have your blog up and running fully search engine optimized, you have a Facebook fan page which may have 1000’s of fans and you also have a Twitter account where you also do some sponsored tweets by investing some bucks- but after all these, are you getting the desired business goals converted? Are your current social media activities showing you the money?

It is now high time that you start wondering if you are just wasting your time and money in social media if their is no goal conversion.

Goal setting might look boring and at times scary but it’s important to set the goals either way. It’s next to impossible to climb up to your destination without having the right stair way.

How to meet social media goals to attain your business goals?

Now don’t tell me that you are doing business without having business goals! Assuming that you have business goals in place, here are some tips to set your social media goals that aid in converting business goals:

1. Define your business audience and locate the popular social destination of your category of audience

As a business owner you must first know your target audience i.e. the age, sex, their interests, their background, etc. Now try and locate their social hangout locations and the social platforms where your audience are found the most. Say, your business is related to cameras, then it’s likely that you will find your audience in Instagram the most apart from Twitter or Facebook.

2. Get personal, know your prospects better and get to the root of their current problems and requirements

Study your audiences activities, their favorite hangouts on social media, their engagement interests, their problems related to your brand and products, get feedback from the audience about what they like or dislike, etc. Once you have the required data you can now plan your so that they bring you close to your business goals. You can even

3. Build your fans, engage and leverage

Based on the social data collected- build your audience by attracting them with the help of engaging content, eye catching offers exclusive for your social media fans, showcasing your new product launches, organizing contests, etc. ultimately leveraging your business goals by generating leads and making profit.

4. Prove your mastery and expertise

Content is off course the king. Solve the problems of your customers by means of blog posts (hope you understand the importance of having a business blog!), prove your expertise by providing tips and insights related to your brand, be futuristic and show you’re the master of your trade by being the first in your niche to introduce something fascinating. This will definitely earn you the trust and respect building loyal followers and not just dummy paid fans.

5. Track social media metrics to gauge your performance

Social media management for goal conversion can be tricky. What works for others might not work for you. You must constantly measure your social media metrics and goal conversion statistics to see how well you are performing. You can use social media measuring tools like for simple overview or use sophisticated tools like SimplyMeasured, SumAll, , and you can find more tools on SocialMedia Examiner.

Rinse and repeat the steps discussed above to reach your goals. Experimenting is important to improve your performance. Analyzing the social behavior with tools and apps give you the real picture and understanding of what is going wrong and what is working. By following these steps you’ll actually be able to find an answer if your online marketing goals are being met or you’re just wasting time on social media.