Last time, I addressed the “who” and “what” of using SoMe channels. I looked at six things to think about before deciding where and what to publish. 

This time we'll consider some short- and long-term goals and I'll present some SoMe platforms that I have experience using. At least, that was my plan but the article was getting too long, so I had to break it up. Next time, I'll be talking about LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X. “All good things come in threes”, as the saying goes.

Goals for your SoMe

Once you are clear on who you are writing for and what you want to achieve, you can dig deeper and think about your short-term and long-term goals.

A good place to start is to ask yourself this: What do you want to use your social media presence for?

Your strategy will be very different depending on your answer to this question. Your SoMe goals and approach will vary depending on your role and your area of business. Are you a communication professional representing a brand or an organisation, do you own a small or medium-sized business, or are you a solo entrepreneur or freelancer?

• Are you looking to gain visibility more generally?
• Are you trying to establish yourself within a specific field?
• Are you trying to sell something in particular?
• Are you looking to grow your income?

And don't forget that some goals will take longer to achieve than others, so you may want to break them down and review them regularly, so you can adapt as you go (more about this further down).

You may have a short-term goal of gaining visibility on your platform(s) of choice and getting more followers. A long-term goal may be to become known within your area of expertise. You want to build up a portfolio of work that you can show on your SoMe and present to potential clients. Or you want people to interact with you, like and comment on your posts, and share them on a regular basis. Another long-term goal may be to attract a big and reliable client.

How can you get there? These long-term goals can be broken down into activities with shorter timeframes. Sprout Social has a comprehensive guide to creating a social media marketing plan from scratch. I'll be reviewing my strategy for the new year.

Goal 1: Visibility

If you're trying to gain visibility for your work and build your reputation, you can start by thinking about the following:

• What do I want to be known for?
• What topics do I want people to associate with me?
• How do I want to be seen?
• What am I comfortable sharing?
• Is there such a thing as bad publicity?

If your aim is first and foremost to be visible to potential clients and gain followers (or perhaps send people to your website), you may want to go with regular or even very regular posts. You want to get your name and your brand out there.

Post frequent short posts so that you appear in users’ feeds often. That way you establish a presence and when you offer services to potential customers they'll already know you're out there. Use a picture or a short video to illustrate your post as these will capture better than just text on its own.

Make a list of topics, search for what's already out there, gain some ideas and inspiration from your network and get going. Make a schedule for posting, plan how to make sure that you follow it and get posting.

You can also see how others in your network are doing, what they post, how often and how much interaction they receive.

Goal 2: Reputation within a specific field

If you're looking to establish your reputation within your field, you'll also need to post often but this time you'll want to stick to a particular topic. Show that you know your stuff. Drop the rest.

What do you want to be known for? What is truly your area of expertise? Write about it, share your knowledge. Give your story some meat and get your readers excited.

Grab your readers’ interest and leave them wanting more. You can even end your post with a question to think about.

Ask yourself:

• What do I want to be known for? (Narrow your options down to one – for now.)
• Are there areas where I need to improve my skills?
• Who is influential within my field of expertise? Can they help me in some way?
• How can I leverage existing platforms for sharing ideas within my field?

If you're looking to build a reputation within a certain area, then you'll want to explore the space on your channel. Use some keywords and see what turns up.

Who is posting and what are they posting about? Is there a space for you to fill? Is your particular voice and view missing from the debate?

If after a while, you find your topic to be too narrow, broaden it. You may not want to go on like a broken record if you're not creating anything new. Give yourself for example 3-4 months and review your strategy. More about this below.

There is however much to say about the benefits of repetition when posting. People's attention spans and memory can be quite poor.

Even if it's obvious to you that you are a coach, photographer or professional communications person for hire, it may not be to others. Not until you have posted enough saying what you do, showing what you do and generally making sure you appear in their feed. Of course, it's even better if they remember you next time they need exactly what you happen to offer.

Goal 3: Selling a product

Once you have gained visibility and established a reputation within your particular field of expertise, you can start making some offers.

Starting too early can be a bit like cold calling. It's always easier to reach customers that already know you or at least of you. This said, there's nothing to say that starting early with sales posts won't work.

Ask yourself:

• What kind of product am I trying to sell?
• Who are my potential customers?
• How can I make my content relevant for them?
• Can I show examples of my work?

In my experience, having some client work to promote is a useful and tangible way of showing potential customers what you can do. Why not show or talk about a recent project you have worked on? You can share your experience, respecting confidentiality of course.

Tag your clients and thank them for putting their trust in you. Showing gratitude is important as it builds your reputation and shows you for being a decent human being.

Performance review

You have set yourself a goal for your SoMe, for example, gaining visibility, establishing yourself within a specific field or area, or selling a product. You've made sure it's a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound) goal and you've set a deadline for reviewing how it's going. If you're feeling lost, check out my LinkedIn article "Why working without a plan is a waste of time and energy - Be SMART".

Quarterly reviews of SoMe strategy is perhaps a good place to start. Set a date each quarter for the next year at which point you will review your strategy. By giving yourself 3 months, you will have some data to analyse so you can judge your performance.

Have you reached your goal(s) in SoMe? What can you change in order to do so? Or can you set yourself a new goal?

You'll want to consider, for example, the following:

• Did you reach your SoMe goal(s) and how can you measure them?
• What are your KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and are you on track?
• What posts got the most impressions and engagement?
• What do people in your network seem to like seeing from you?
• Why not experiment with a poll or two to see if you can get some help in narrowing down what people in your network want to read from you?

Setting yourself some goals and KPIs and then reviewing them is important to avoid spending time and energy on SoMe without seeing any results. You can try different strategies until you find what works for you. Even then, after a while, you may well change your goals and your approach.

What's up next?

The world of SoMe is fluid and impermanent like the ocean, ever churning and in transition. It keeps us on our toes. I believe that we can always do better and that we're never done learning.

Next time, I promise, I'll present some SoMe platforms that I have experience using: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

Do you need help with your SoMe channels? Drop us a line at syper@syper.eu.