Planning and Goals
From wedding planning to business planning, from family planning to town planning. What's the commonality? That's right - Planning! And what do women need to be able to plan properly?
That's right. You need to know what you want to achieve. You have to have a vision of the finishing line, before you can get there. And what are the building blocks to helping you get there? That's right. Goals!
Doesn't that take you back to the 2010 Soccer World Cup? Can you believe that was LAST year already? Every time a team member scored a goal, the stadium would ROAR with excitement! That's the response you should have while setting your goals for your social media marketing campaign. Get excited about it, be passionate about it, look forward to achieving your goals. That kind of energy and enthusiasm will help you in attaining that vision.
I mentioned in a previous blog post that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. So too for achieving your social networking vision - one goal at a time.
Si Ekin, a Goal Coach based in Claremont, Cape Town, tells us to follow GRASS:
G - Goal. Be SMART. Make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Based
R - Reality. Where are you right now in this situation? What's important and relevant?
A - Action Plan. List 2-3 milestones to get you started.
S - Support. Friends, family, business colleagues. If you don't ask you don't get.
S - Stepping Out. Physically making the move to get it done.
For more information and help with setting your goals, go to www.siekin.com.
It's easy to get overwhelmed by a daunting project ahead of you. Here are some simple suggestions to help you reach your goals in social media marketing:
Identify what it is that you want to achieve through social networking. Is it to get more sales? Is it to create awareness of your brand? Is it to do market research? Is it to manage your online reputation? Ask yourself: "Why am I doing this?"
How are you going to measure success? Set specific, quantifiable targets within a given time frame to help you track whether you are on the road to success. For Example,
How many Facebook fans do you want within the first month? How many Twitter followers?
How many comments do you want your posts to generate?
How many people do you want to meet offline as a result of your online networking?
How many sales leads do you want to generate?
Have a plan for content. Do you know what you are going to talk about? What topic will your posts center around? To help you with this, set a theme for every month of the year and write down useful websites to which you can refer for inspiration and information. Check out the form I use to plan my content here...
As well as knowing what to talk about, aim to share a range of dynamic content. Post photos, post videos, share links, share opinions, ask questions. If your content is dynamic, the conversation will become dynamic too.
Manage your time well. Decide on your daily, weekly and monthly activity. What can you handle and what does your schedule allow? By having structure and routine, you are more likely to be successful. Making social media part of your work schedule also legitimizes your efforts. There are also many time saving tools out there, like Tweetdeck, which can help you pre-schedule your posts and tweets.
One of the most important goals, is to be real. Aim to make your social networking voice an extension of you, the person. Take a look introspectively and identify the characteristics of your personality that help you in the successful day to day running of your business. Do your current clients respond well to this? Can you use this to your advantage? As long as you are being authentic and it is relevant to your business, make sure to communicate the best parts of your personality through your online voice. What I'm saying is - aim to be yourself. Not only will your audience trust and connect with you on a deeper level, but it will also make your job of managing your social media campaign SO much easier.
Leverage your network. Connect with the people you already know and already do business with. Then branch out into their network and connect with people you haven't yet met.
Focus on testimonials. Social media networking is like Word of Mouth on Steroids. But you have to plan for it and encourage it. Set up a procedure for asking your current and past clients to post testimonials on your Facebook page or blog page and make it as easy as possible for your clients to do so.
What goals have you set and achieved, whether related to social media or not? How did that make you feel? Isn't it a great feeling when you reach your goal? What a buzz! Aim for that buzz and you will succeed!
Abigail Klopper Photographer & Social Media Facilitator
T: 076 129 7631 F: 086 548 3294
