Defining social media strategy.

A social media strategy should start with clear goals. Unless you are a not-for-profit organization, these goals have to be business goals. This will also help you determine the types of people do we want to start conversations with. Start with one goal and then add a couple of more once you have measured the outcome of your efforts. If you are all over the map, your audience will get confused and your message will not get through.

What are your social media goals? I want to reach out to more people is too broad and not the basis of forming your social media strategy, infact it is impossible! Below is a list of goals that might help you define your social marketing strategy.
Research and Learning.

• Lead generation.
• E-commerce sales.
• Store traffic.
• Increase Brand or Issue Awareness.
• Reputation management.
• Get your fans to talk about you (word of mouth).
• Reach a youth audience.
• Promote an event.
• Build excitement prior to an event.
• Get people to take a particular action.
• Draw traffic to a particular online resource.
• Build your email list.
• Solicit donations for your organization.
• Get supporters to solicit donations for you.
• Recruiting volunteers.
• Branding your staff as experts on a cause or issue.
• Getting your constituents to talk to each other.
• Getting feedback from your constituents.
• Keeping your supporters updated on happenings.
• Building a community around an event or topic.
• Increased Relevant Visitor Traffic and Page Rankings.
• Letting supporters publicly support your cause.
• Disseminating information about an issue or topic.
• Recruiting new members, advocates or patrons.
• Supporting a particular group of members, alumni, etc.
• Tell stories about the work you do.
• Get press coverage.
• Connect with other like-minded organizations.
• Changing hearts and minds on a particular topic.
• Gathering photos or videos from supporters.
• Understanding what people are saying about you.
• Keeping up to date with a particular issue.

Coordinating people in an action or a project.
These are some tips for defining your social media marketing strategy. If I have missed any please add them below in the commens section.