Blog- Setting Social Media Goals for 2022

2022 Social Media Marketing Goal Planning

The first step in successfully marketing your business on social media is to know why you are doing it in the first place.

This may sound like a silly statement but many people start marketing on social media.....

Because they feel like they should.
Because everyone is doing it.
Because it is a low cost.

Whatever the reason is - if it didn't start with a specific marketing goal you may be struggling or worse completely wasting your time. So for 2022, I want to help you make an annual marketing plan that has a much better chance of helping you reach your goals.

There are three big-picture goals that social media can help you with.

Building Brand Awareness
Enhancing Community Engagement
Increasing Sales and Leads.

I recommend choosing just one. It is possible that all three are important to you but it is unlikely that you can effectively focus on each of the three.

The good news is that focusing on one will likely result in improvement in the other areas as well.

So which one is best for you and your business? That is a good question. Each goal requires different content and maybe even different platforms.

Increased Brand Awareness

Social media is a very powerful tool in building brand awareness.

Brand awareness itself can help you obtain new clients and make sales however measuring it isn't as easy as tracking sales at all.

As a matter a fact on social media often people see you but don't engage. If they don't like, comment, or share how do you know they are seeing you at all? Often you don't, which is why it can be frustrating for a small business trying to market their business online. It often can feel like a waste of time. That is until someone tells you, "I saw your post on Instagram last week." and you are thinking, 'why didn't you comment on it then?'

Ok maybe it is just me that goes there but still you should feel relieved that your post "likes" don't necessarily equal success or failure.

Before you rule this goal out it might help to know that 70% of marketers say that brand awareness is the primary goal of their social media activity.

Focusing on brand awareness is right for you if.....

You want to show up as an expert in your field.
You are just getting started and need an audience.

Enhancing Community Engagement

Many small businesses have had success building an online community. It is a great way to drive loyalty, can turn your followers into engaged evangelists, and increase your revenue. An online community can be defined as a group of individuals unified by common interests, opinions, and goals who meet in a virtual space.

Depending on your business goals, this may look like your general audience, a private group or an open forum.

Focusing on community engagement is right for you if .....

You have a growing audience and you want to build a better relationship.
You have a niche topic that you can grow a highly engaged audience around.

Increased Sales & Leads

We all want this right? That doesn't mean it is the right focus for your social media marketing though. Being all about sales can sometimes be off-putting to your audience unless that is why they are following you of course.

Focusing on sales and leads is right for you if .....

You have a product that can be showcased
You have a highly engaged audience that is motivated to buy from you.

So which one is best for you?

Whichever goal you choose it will help determine your content, the time you need to invest in social media marketing, and what kind of systems you need to have ready.

My advice is to choose your goal now and then take a step back to see how it supports your overall brand marketing goals and how it fits in with your current or planned sales funnels.

If you are a member of the Plandipity Doers we went over this in the October We Plan Wednesday meeting so be sure to login to your account and check out the replay!

Ready to get started? Be sure you have a way of tracking your chosen goal and associated metrics. Check out the goal tracking tool from my social media marketing toolkit.

Get The Goal Tracker