What Are Your Social Goals?

How do you use social  media? 

It could be a place to post exciting news or somewhere to release all the thoughts you can’t express. Maybe it’s where you promote your business or a place to lead people to try new things. Perhaps you are an opinion leader or a story teller. You could be there to review a product or place. Or  you could just need a place in the world.

This question is important when beginning your social media quest. It’s as important as asking yourself, “what am I going to do today?” before actually leaving the house. Imagine if you went out into the world aimlessly, nowhere to go and no one to see. As invigorating as that may be, it could lead to a dead end.

Social media works in quite the same way. If you never have direction, then you will soon find yourself falling into an endless circle of meaningless posts. There must be some reason you are social.

I was inspired by an article by Brian Solis entitled “Ten Social Media Strategies to Define a Successful 2012.” His idea in this article is to both encourage and sway an audience of offline business owners to consider using social media in their business plan, much like my thesis is attempting to do. It’s a well-known fact today that social media is helping to boost companies’ reputations and following.

He is dead on when suggesting readers should develop an understanding of topics like social networks, gamification, geo-location, referral based sites,  social commerce and other platforms such as mobile and tablets. This is pretty much where anyone would want to start when learning what social media is and how to use it.

I have a different strategy to defining a successful 2012 though. It involves discovering your social media direction. If you are looking to begin social media for your company or yourself, or you are looking to enhance your profiles, then try this: Ask yourself these 5 questions before setting up any accounts.

1. Why have you decided use social media?
2. What do you want to do with social media? i.e.  attract new customers, build relationships,  reveal your businesses identity, etc.
3. How do you want to use social media? i.e. talk to customers, post pictures, post videos, deliver coupons, etc.
4. What are  your end goals and continuous goals? i.e. financial goals, customer goals, interaction goals, etc.
5. When do you want to reach these goals? (give yourself specific deadlines)

Once you’ve developed your goals and reasoning behind building your social media empire, then you can find the right place for you.

Good Luck!

A.

Side note: I have no idea what “F-commerce” or “m-commerce” are. Why he would include this in an article obviously directed at the non-social business owner is a wonder to me. So, if you have definitions, please share! =] 

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