Strategizing For Social Media

Social media is utilized for far more than just posting about your Starbucks iced latte or the cruise you took to the Bahamas during spring break. It's also used to share a message or product with a wide range of people. Therefore, when it comes to creating content, it is important to make S.M.A.R.T. goals to increase engagement. 

S.M.A.R.T. goals are considered to be one of the most optimizable strategies to create effective goals that lead the path to creating great content for various platforms. The acronym S.M.A.R.T. stems from five words: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely, each playing a vital role in developing a great persona for a brand, business, or individual. To better understand how to create these goals, let's take a closer look at each of these individually. 

SPECIFIC: This means to state exactly what needs to be accomplished. It is important to be specific when laying out what needs to be done because this ensures that something will not be disregarded or overlooked. For example, if a business wanted to increase the frequency of how often it's posting content on Instagram, it should state something clear like, "We want to post content four times a week on Instagram. The content should be made up of two posts and two reels."    

MEASURABLE: This means to decide how the action will be measured. In the context of social media, it can be how many people engaged with the content, how many people viewed the profile, etc.

ATTAINABLE: This means that the goal created is challenging yet achievable. For example, if a company wanted to increase how much content is produced for a social media platform each week, the company would want to add a reasonable amount to what they are already creating. They would not want to set a goal of posting fifty times in a week when it was already a bit overwhelming to post ten times. An attainable goal for this instance would be to set a goal to post fifteen times. This goal would be challenging, but not impossible to achieve.

RELEVANT: This means that the goals created are consistent with other goals set aside. For example, a company would not want to create a goal of increasing the engagement between its viewers and the content it produces if the company is concerned with how much money should go to paying for sponsored advertisements. Although an audience's engagement is crucial for businesses on social media platforms, it is irrelevant for this goal.    

TIMELY: This means that there is a timeframe for when goals should be accomplished by. By having a timeframe, this allows progress to be made as well as following a schedule. 

As social media continues to grow and more businesses adopt a presence on platforms, it would be extremely beneficial to follow the S.M.A.R.T. goals outline when it comes to creating content for these platforms.