Key goals of social media marketing

  • by

Social media can be a powerful marketing tool for startup organizations – allowing you to connect directly with customers. Building a social media following can allow you to increase engagement with your audience and attract new customers – helping your startup grow. This article explores some goals of social media for small businesses.

Key goals of social media posts

Before getting into social media it is important to consider why you are getting into the area. Just because your competitors have a social media presence, or it seems to be the in-thing to do, is unlikely to be a good reason to justify the significant time investment in the area. For some businesses having a social media presence can be a significant benefit to the firm and its image. Some of the key ways that social media has the potential to improve your business include:

Goal 1: Attracting new customers

One of the most important users of social media is you are able to use the platforms in order to gain new customers and drive sales. Especially for products that are customer-facing, with interesting features that others would want to share with their friends, social media can be a key way of generating interest in your products and offerings.

For startups, attracting customers is one of your primary goals, and publicizing your offerings on social media is a free way of gaining some attention to your products. 

Goal 2: Building brand connections with existing customers

Beyond attracting new customers, social media can also help you maintain the interest of prior customers. Prior customers are important for referrals, while also providing opportunities for prior customers to make additional purchases. A common saying is that it is a lot easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one, and social media helps you generate these repeat sales.  

Goal 3: Make your startup more personal

One of the benefits of a startup relative to a larger organization is that you can make yourself as the founder more directly front and center of the business. Social media allows you to become the face of your organization. Particularly for craft organizations, making yourself a visible face for your firm may help you appear more unique. This is one way that you can make a startup firm stand out from larger competitors. 

Goal 4: Directly address customer questions and concerns

One way that social media can be utilized by companies is to provide a platform for individuals to engage directly with the firm. This is especially powerful for startup organizations – while large firms may not able to respond directly to individual questions, startups are well placed to be able to manage the small volume of social media questions. The small size of startups potentially giving you an edge over larger companies. 

Goal 5: Convey your company's prominence and size

One of the key benefits of a large social media presence is that it provides social proof for new customers. Accounts with thousands or tens of thousands of followers can help illustrate that your firm is legitimate – a company that customers should be willing to trust for making purchases.

For startup organizations, this is both an opportunity and a danger. If you are able to attract a following, this is one way that you can illustrate your size – helping you attract potential investors to your firm. The flip side is that when you are getting going, a small social media presence may actually reinforce the notion that your firm is small.  

Final thoughts: Having a goal, and monitoring performance can help you remain focused

It is easy to lose track with social media – to see it as an end in itself, and spend a lot of time developing content with little benefits to show. Having a purpose for your social media presence, with targets of what you want to achieve can help you ensure that your posts are positively impacting your organization’s performance. 

Related topics: