What Are You Doing Here?

So you’re on social media sites and you may even have a blog. Great! But I ask you one simple question: Why?

Why are you here? Why are you using these sites? What is your end goal? What are you doing here?

Sure, you’re posting to Facebook and retweeting others. You’re getting comments, shares, retweets and engagement. You’re reviewing your analytics and giving others updates on your progress. You’re busting your butt at this social media thing and thinking you’re doing a great job. But, I ask again, why?

OK. Enough of the question.

Everything we do in business, we do for a reason. We invest in new software because it will make us more efficient, thereby saving money in the long run. We participate in local charity events because it gives back to our community and generates brand awareness. We provide training to our employees to educate them so that they can do their jobs better. We invest in advertising because it will bring us more clients, thereby making us more money. Whatever the means, there is always an end state. An ultimate goal that the company is trying to achieve.

So what’s your goal with social media? Are you trying to educate people? Are you trying to generate more sales leads? Are you trying to create brand awareness? Are you trying to create brand advocates?

Take a minute, or a day, or a week – whatever it takes to answer this question. Once you know that answer, you can actually start succeeding at social media!

But, wait, you think you’re already succeeding. You get lots of people sharing your posts, lots of comments, and even more likes. People are talking about you more than ever before. What could you possibly be doing wrong?

Let’s look at it this way: How can you succeed if you don’t have a plan? If you’re competing in a race but you don’t know where the finish line is, how do you know you’re winning? Maybe you’re ahead of the pack now, but you’re only 2 miles in. What if the race is 20 miles and you only lead for the first 5 miles? After that you’re losing. If you’d known it was a 20 mile race, you could have trained for endurance, paced yourself initially, and not been fighting so hard to stay ahead, saving your energy for the last leg. Knowing what the goal is will allow you to set a proper strategy for success.

I’ve written a previous post about the absolute importance of having a social media strategy. If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend you do.

Whatever your goal is, plan for it. It can be a short term goal or a long term goal. Just make sure that you’re doing the necessary things to achieve that goal. And, once you’ve gotten close to achieving that goal, step back, reassess and create a new goal. Then realign your strategy to meet this new revised goal.

 

If this post made you think about your goals and strategies, please share it!