The Importance of Setting Goals

The social media landscape is littered with casualties, deserted Facebook pages and abandoned Twitter accounts set up to be the savior of a brand.

Walls without posts. Albums without photos. Brands without a fan.

Most often these accounts fail for one reason: They failed to set a goal in the first place.

Goals focus attention, push aside irrelevant actions and force us to work through the inevitable setbacks that are sure to occur. They energize us on the down days and challenge us to achieve something greater.

So often a bright-eyed wanna-be marketer will set up an account without asking the single most important question: “Why are we doing this anyway?”

The solution is to set a goal and stick to it.

Defining a goal

Imagine you could only have one result from a particular platform. What would it be?

Maybe you want to drive applications, increase engagement, or encourage more generous giving. You can’t do it all … at least not well, anyway. It’s the same as saying “Our social strategy is to be on every platform engaging with everyone.” It’s not a sustainable model.

Pick one action and dedicate everything you have to making it happen. This action is your goal.

Defining this goal makes it easier to build — and maintain — social media campaigns in the future. It clears up confusion and allows administrators to turn down suggestions that steer social media away from its intent.

A well-defined goal is the compass that continues to point you in the direction you wish to go. It shouldn’t be ignored or stripped of its importance.

Do or do not. There is no try.

At the end of the day a social media platform has to do something. It has to perform. If it’s going to add value to an institution, it has to generate results. It’s not enough to establish a presence and hope for the best. Goals put hope to bed.

It’s hard to argue with the success of a social media campaign that set measurable goals from Day One and met or exceeded those goals to demonstrate results.

So what’s your goal?