Setting Your PR and Social Media Goals

The first step to ensuring the success of your public relations efforts is to develop a comprehensive assessment of your measurable goals. Attainable PR and social media goals must be specific and relevant to your business, as well as the time that you’re going to be investing in the program. Creating your goals will help you and your team to decide which strategies, objectives and tactics will support you in reaching them.

The combination of public relations and social media play a significant role; for example, social media can be used to extend the value of PR efforts. Examples of PR and social media program goals include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, and optimizing consumer engagement. To set your PR and social media goals, begin with a performance audit of the past year. Assess the media progress you’ve made and areas where you’d like to improve. How much of your media success can be attributed to social outreach? Which strategies worked, and which didn’t? Where is there still room to focus, improve, and grow?

For your social media approach, first, determine the platforms for reaching your target audience. Consider whether you’re going to stay on the platforms you have active, reduce to fewer platforms, or add new accounts on platforms that could add value. Keep in mind, each platform has a different audience. Facebook is typically where you’ll reach your consumer base, so you’ll want to use Facebook to entertain, educate, and engage with your customers. Twitter can be used to interact and establishing relationships with the media and B2B customers, as well as LinkedIn, which can be used to establish thought leadership. Or, consider other platforms like Houzz, Instagram, and Pinterest for sharing photos and ideas. Your goals will be determined by what you think you’re able to accomplish – focus your efforts on a few targeted platforms for your brand. There’s no reason to have a profile on all social media platforms, and you’ll have a better chance of reaching your goals if you start small.

In determining your public relations goals, be as specific as possible. Some examples include media targets that you’d like to build a relationship with, trade shows you want to attend, or awards you’d like to enter your company, employees, or products/services. PR goals are trickier to determine at the start of the year because roadmaps and news can change quickly. Identify a few top targets to start and you can build up more awards and other goals as these opportunities arise throughout the year.

Once you’ve decided on your goals, begin creating your plan for how you intend to achieve these goals. This could start with researching new opportunities and media publications to target, awards that pertain to you, and etc. Begin by setting initial PR goals in anticipation for the year ahead, but prepare to revise as announcements, initiatives, and etc. will change naturally throughout the year. PR plans require flexibility, it is never too late in the year to re-evaluate your goals. Since public relations and social media initiatives are always subject to change, make sure to also shift your goals to hit your moving target.

Learn more about how you can develop your social media and PR strategy to reach your goals in Caster Academy online courses. Or reach out to me and the Caster team on Twitter to chat more!