Setting Goals and Expectations: Strategic Thinking

It is imperative that you understand the reasons for embarking on this Social media journey so you can set expectations and align your goals with organizational commitment and results achieved. The program can appear daunting but like any other program – keep it simple, start small, measure and continuously improve and evolve. If you stick to these simple rules, success will be yours.

When setting your goals, Be Strategic thinkers and think beyond just the brand presence and community base. The power of social media is that you can create engaging communities and leverage people to drive various aspects of your business from product development, product enhancement and packaging to customer service and sales. Typical value drivers for most organizations fall in one or more of the following 4 categories:
• Revenue Growth
• Customer Relationship
• Cost Savings
• Operational Efficiency

The traditional approach and business objectives apply to the social world too. You are a business and at the end, you do want to leverage social media as a tool to improve your business. Smart and Savvy Social Media is all about using the tools and tricks of social media to apply to age old business best practices and use it to your advantage.




Some considerations for the 4 top of mind categories are listed in the chart above. Lets’ now look at some example case studies
Capture User Information and Establish Repeat Cycles to Up-sell and Cross-sell



“ovenfresh” offered a $1 coupon to watch the video and vote on two different types of dinners in the grocery aisle. Not only did they engage with their community, they understood the facebook user-base preferences as well as generated revenue driving people who may otherwise not have purchased their product. They also used this opportunity to capture the user information such as email, first name, last name and zipcode for future up-sell and cross sell opportunities.

Another great way to use facebook interactions is by “collecting” data on your “champions”. By running a referral campaign, the company below was able to see how many of their facebook fans would “refer” their product/service offering to their friends. Identifying “Champs” helps you use these advocates as an asset to your business.

You could use your followings on facebook and twitter to better understand which geographies and markets would be better fits for trials of new products or even tailor products based on user interaction. A large bookstore we talked to is stocking books based on user interaction in different geographies. Local Merchandising is a big element of today’s retail industry social marketing strategies.

Improve Decisions related to Introducing New Products
The example in Chapter 1 that was used by Smirnhoff to introduce the flavor based on user interaction is a great example of this.

Improve Packaging Types

By setting clear goals and targets upfront, you can work towards these goals and ensure the teams are all aligned with these goals. Measurement is a critical element of the program so by setting goals upfront, metrics can also be defined and articulated clearly. Communication is always easier with numbers that show results. Numbers that cannot be questioned! Numbers speak for themselves!