Social media solutions to meet your business goals

A Linkedin post here, a Tweet there?

An Instagram story at the latest work event?

Are you just ticking a box when it comes to social media?

For many businesses, their social media use is ad hoc at best. And while this off-the-cuff content certainly has a place, where does it fit in the bigger picture? In fact, have you thought about why you’re on social media at all?

Posting to socials can be seen as something businesses simply have to do in this day and age. Which is true — after all, this is where Millennials (those aged 27 to 42 years old) in particular go to research brands and products.

But if you have to participate on social media, you might as well make it worthwhile.

Think of it this way: how does what you do on social media contribute to achieving your business goals? Getting clear on the purpose — the why — of your business’s social media use is paramount.

Social media has revolutionised the way businesses interact and simply having a social media presence is not enough. To make the most of social media, you need to align your business goals with your social media marketing strategy. So, to help you do this let’s unpack some common business goals and demonstrate the social media goal to pair it with.

Business goal: brand awareness

As a business goal, brand awareness refers to more people knowing who you are and recognising your business or brand.

Social media solution: expanding your reach

The social media goal to support your business goal of brand awareness is expanding your reach. As the word suggests, it’s about reaching more individuals with your brand. Not just any individuals though — ones who are your target audience.

Here your proof points come into play too, providing evidence and validation for the claims you make about your business. Perfect for establishing credibility alongside brand awareness. Proof points can come in the form of portfolio showcases, testimonials, case studies, and more — anything that highlights your business's successes and the positive impact it has had.

TIP: It's important to choose the platforms that are the best fit for your business goals, so focus your energy and efforts on the social media platforms where you know the people you want to connect with are spending their time.

Business goal: thought leadership

Thought leadership as a business goal is about positioning your brand or business as a leader or an expert in your space. This translates to more credibility and value for your target market. Being seen as a thought leader can also be advantageous when it comes to attracting new talent to your business. Everyone wants to work with the best of the best, right?!

Social media solution: engagement

Aiming for more engagement on social media is key to connecting with your audience as a thought leader. You want to be creating engaging, valuable content that gets more shares, comments, messages and likes. These moments of social engagement help you to be seen as an authority in your area of expertise.

Back to proof points again, they become crucial here for reinforcing your industry expertise and showcasing your thought leadership. Share content that demonstrates your deep understanding of your ideal clients and their challenges, as well as the results you can achieve for them.

Business goal: more leads

Gaining more leads is almost always top of the list for business goals. After all, more leads equates to more potential sales and growth.

Social media solution: make contact

Gaining definitive leads via social media can be achieved using social media alone, or through linking back via your call to action on socials. After a number of touchpoints over time achieved through the brand awareness and thought leadership avenues, making contact is what you might aim to see next.

This might be form fills direct on social media, messages to your business pages, contact form fills on your website via socials. These are all incredibly valuable ways to leverage social media and get new leads into your prospect list.

Business goal: more sales

This business goal is an obvious one. Whether it’s booking an appointment, buying your product or becoming a client, sales are almost always the end goal for businesses and brands.

Social media solution: drive sales traffic

To achieve more sales through social media, it’s all about driving traffic to where your consumers are most likely to purchase. If that’s your website, then create content that pushes your audience there.

TIP: It’s important to keep tabs on where this process isn’t working too — sometimes you might think it’s your social media not performing for you, when actually you are getting that traffic but your website is the obstacle.

Create content and measure its success

Once you know what you are trying to achieve, you can start creating the right content to get there.

TIP: Your content should be at least one of the following: relevant, entertaining, inspiring and/or informative. It should also be tailored to the specific platform you are using to show that you know what you’re doing.

To ensure that you are aligning your business goals with your social media marketing strategy, track your progress. Use analytics to measure your success and adjust your strategy as needed. This will help you see what is working and what isn't, and help you make informed decisions about your social media marketing going forward.

Get your business goals playing well with your social media strategy and start getting the result you want.

If you need guidance with your business planning, marketing strategy or social media, reach out to the team here at Kick.