Jun 20, 2021
The S.M.A.R.T Way to Build Your Social Media Strategy
In order to make the performance of social media used in business run optimally, it is necessary to determine the right and effective strategy in practice. In the midst of the increasingly competitive use of social media as a means of marketing and business, the strategies implemented aim to be able to make profits and produce an impact on the audience who receive them.
Quoting from the Sprout Social Index, a common challenge felt by business people or social media users in maximizing this platform as a business medium is linking social media campaigns with the goals or mission of their company. Therefore, in order for the social media strategy that has been set to be in line with the goals of a business, it is necessary to determine what important points are to be achieved through the social media users.
One strategy that has been known to give positive results to the development of social media owned by a business or company is to use the S.M.A.R.T thinking framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Using the S.MA.R.T method can help social media performance become easier to reach the audience as well as focus the strategies to align with the business goals that are made. Let’s check the details!
Specific — The first method is specific. Specific in this case is to specify what is to be achieved during the specified time period. A specific social media strategy must have a target audience that is according to the campaign program to be carried out, whether organic or paid. By doing a detailed audience specification, we can identify what type of campaign or content is suitable to be applied to social media.
By being more specific and clear on the goals or audiences specified, we can also execute on target effectively, and efficiently in the application.
Measurable — Goals that can be calculated are good forms of goals because they indicate how the goals we set are clear and we can look for appropriate steps that can be calculated to achieve them. The calculation of a successful social media strategy can be done using benchmarks from Key Performance Indicators (KPI). KPIs are very useful for tracking ROI data during the ongoing campaign on our social media.
For example, if the campaign goals are to develop brand awareness, how do we find out whether during the process these goals have been running? This is where KPI has an important position. The social media strategy must set KPIs and specific metrics or measurement measures for each social media goal to be achieved.
The type of KPI used also depends on the overall set of achievements. For example, the achievement of your social media strategy is to increase brand awareness, then the KPIs that need to be considered are the number of followers, the average number of impressions, and brand mentions from customers.
Achievable — A good goal is a goal that can be achieved according to the calculation of the preparation strategy. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether the goals that will be made later are difficult to achieve, then these goals can be difficult to achieve. By using data from the performance of previous social media strategies, one way to find out is whether the new goals are possible to achieve or not. You can start setting goals that are higher than before without compromising the resources of your current social media capabilities. But, always remember that in setting goals, they must be related to each other and in line with the goals of what the business or company wants to achieve.
Relevant — Establishing a relevant social media strategy means conducting a market analysis and competitor analysis if it is relevant to the field of business that you run that describes the target audience more fully and has a high level of engagement. Always make sure the steps taken in the social media strategy are in accordance with the business success you want to achieve so that they can run to support each other.
Time-Bound — The last element in the framework of the S.M.A.R.T strategy method is time-bound, which means setting a time limit for the KPIs that are executed to find out whether the strategy being implemented needs to be completed as quickly as possible or if it needs to be adjusted when it is executed within a certain period of time.
It is important to define the timeframe of the social media strategy in short and long-term levels that are adjusted to KPIs. It is used to help track the progress and performance of the content created.
Applying the S.M.A.R.T method framework can certainly help you to develop a social media strategy that is more concise and specific to the goals set. You can also download the social media goals template based on the S.M.A.R.T template from Sprout Social here. Be sure to keep an eye on the performance of any strategy program you use on social media, and remember that social media without a content strategy is just a piece of stuff, and the world has a lot of stuff.
Written by Melisa Nirmala Dewi
References:
Barnhart, Brent. 2020. How to set (and achieve) meaningful social media goals. [Online]. Tersedia dalam https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-goals/ (Diakses pada 14 Juni 2021)
Cejay Associates. t.t. Use the S.M.A.R.T Goal Method for Your Media Social Marketing Strategy. [Online]. Tersedia dalam https://cejayassoc.com/social-media-promoting-business/smart-goals-method-for-marketing-strategy/ (Diakses pada 14 Juni 2021).
