If efforts with social media are going to pay off for a business, they each need to contribute value to the bottom line. What value do 250,000 fans on Facebook give a business? While having that man fans may increase the business’ reach, what does that do for the company’s bottom line? How many of those fans are customers? Obviously it would be better for the company to have 250,000 customers on Facebook, so how should the company make sure that all efforts are contributing value to the company?
Business Objectives
When thinking in terms of business objectives, it’s much easier to create social media tactics and campaigns that will contribute value to a company. Instead of setting goals to reach 250,000 fans on Facebook, a goal to reach 25,000 customers on Facebook or $250,000 in sales from Facebook may satisfy business objectives. 250,000 fans may be meaningless, but the business value in 25,000 customers or $250,000 in sales is clear.
Specific, Attainable, Time-delimited Target
Shooting towards $250,000 in sales in Facebook is a admirable goal, but it’s also important to ask whether or not that goal is attainable for your company. For a small business, new to social media, $250,000 may not be possible without a sizeable investment in resources and advertising. For a larger business, $250,000 in sales may be a drop in the hat. If a goal is not attainable (which is different from difficult), it may be pretty meaningless as a target for social media efforts.
Likewise, a target goal needs to be very specific. Getting an increase in sales may be pretty easy to do. Getting an increase of $250,000 in sales may take more planning. The target should be something that everyone in the company understands, so that all decisions that need to be made can work towards the same goal.
Setting a time period for a target is also important to know whether the goal has been achieved. A target to achieve a $250,000 in sales over a year is quite a bit different than increasing sales by $250,000 over a month or a quarter. Different time periods will require different tactics and setting a time limit also creates a sense of urgency for action. Lastly, a time limit sets a point to calibrate measurement against (25% to goal, etc.).
Thinking in Terms of Measurement
Thinking about measurement when creating social media efforts can help connect tactics with business value. With a business objective of increasing sales by $250,000 from Facebook over the next year, it becomes much more obvious what needs to be done, and how it can be measured. Clearly there needs to be a way to measure traffic from Facebook to wherever a purchase happens, as well as how much of that traffic results in a sale. Since an increase in sales is required, knowing what sales were previously is also a must.
Business Strategy Incorporating Social Media
Successful social media strategies are really just business strategies that incorporate social media. When everything starts from the business side, it’s much easier to create a strategy that helps move the business in the right direction. It also becomes more obvious how social media can be used (and measured) to help the business achieve it’s objectives and create value.
How do you generate value for your business with social media?
(photo by bobjudge, on Flickr)