Developing Your Social Media Strategy: Why Do You Need Goals? (Part 2)

This is the second in a series of posts about how to develop your social media strategy. Here, we will discuss why you should use social media, by helping you figure out your goals.

Stand out from the crowd.

You have the potential to reach more of your audience if you can stand out from the crowd. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WHY Do You Need Goals?

Yes, it’s all about reaching your audience, which is something organizations have been doing for centuries whether it’s through traveling sales people — who tell you great stories about the miracle cure or cleaning products they hope to sell you — snail mail, or other advertising.

The only difference is that we’re now doing this in an online environment where the whole world could potentially be watching. So, in some ways it’s scarier, but you have the potential to reach more of your audience if you can effectively break through that barrage of information people see online every day.

But first, you need to figure out what what goals you want to accomplish. These goals should help you meet your organization’s goals. Here are a few examples, which should be further tailored to your organization.

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Developing Your Social Media Strategy: When Should You Create This? Who is Your Audience? (Part 1)

Do you figure out how you’re going to get somewhere before you know where you’re going? Do you decide you want to drive, then decide on Thailand if you live in the States? Most likely not.

Tools vs. Strategy

So why decide on what social media tools you want to use before you know the when, who, why, what, where, and how of what you’re doing? Why decide on a platform, such as Facebook or Twitter or Google+, before you know what you want to accomplish with these tools? [Tweet “The most important part is coming up with this strategy to figure out how to reach your audience.”] Otherwise you will just be haphazardly posting material with no goal in mind and no way to evaluate what you’re doing.

However, I get it. It’s easy to do! When you have limited resources and you’re always working in a last-minute capacity to promote an event, campaign or fundraiser, it’s stressful. It’s much easier to throw up a one-off page but with no real strategy behind it, but in the long run, that can be more harmful than good.

You don’t want to post too many fundraisers or ask your audience to participate in too many campaigns without providing any useful content, advice, or offering to answer questions. Otherwise, you will alienate your audience. You want to work on understanding what your goals are and what you want to give your audience. If you give to them, they will be more willing to support you.

It’s hard to say without specifically analyzing your organization what strategy will work best for you, but there are some things that will remain constant and questions you should ask to form your strategy.

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