Okay, here’s your sales goal:  “Increase sales for the year. “

That’s nice, and everyone wants to increase sales, but is that really a goal?

How about “Increase sales by 20% by December 31?”

There’s your attainable goal.

Now, how are you going to achieve that goal?

“Use advertising to increase sales”.

Again, that’s nice but not effective.

Have you kept up with your advertising dollars spent compared to increased traffic and profit margin?  Where is your advertising money going and is it giving you a return on that investment.  Have you kept up with the trends?  Is newspaper really a dying breed?  How about billboards?  Radio?  Television?

And most importantly, have you been keeping up with the social media?  Trends are changing daily and you need to know and keep up with where your target customers are getting their information about what’s hot, what’s new and where the best deals are.

Even if you have always used newspaper as your advertising vehicle, and don’t want to abandon it, you need to know that adding social networking can push those people to your newspaper ad.  Whatever you use to advertise, social media can generate its own advertising plus add to your already intact marketing strategy.

Now back to setting goals.  Just like a marketing goal needs a plan, your social networking needs a plan.    Start with a social network that you think will reach your audience and start providing relevant content that your customers and future customers will appreciate and share.

“Share.”  There’s the optimal word.  That’s the most impressive thing about social media.  When you have something relevant and interesting to post and your customer base likes it, they “Share” it, thus multiplying your customer base.

It reminds me of a shampoo commercial from the ‘70’s that said, “if you tell two friends, they’ll tell two friends and so on, and so on.  The TV screen kept multiplying shots of two people, then 4, then 8, and so on.

When setting a goal for your social media, you should also consider whether you’re going to try to do it on your own or turn it over to a professional.  If you think you’re social networking savvy, then by all means at least try it on your own.  But if you’re new to the whole social networking or don’t have the time, bringing in a professional is well worth the money.

And if you don’t have time for all this sharing, planning and goal making, give us a call.  That’s what we do and we do it best!  Call us!