The #1 Goal To Set For Your Social Media Platforms

Most practitioners use one or more social media platforms as part of their business marketing. But often I see pracs using social media without having a clear idea of what they are doing with it!

The easiest mistake to make is to do something without having a clear goal in mind. So let's have a look at the goals you can set for social media, and the #1 focus I recommend for all practitioners.

Why most metrics on social media platforms don't mean much for practitioners

Likes and follows don't mean anything if they aren't your ideal clients

Think that there's a magical number of followers you need to reach online to be successful? Think again.

You don't need 1000 followers on Facebook or Instagram to run an incredibly successful business.

You may not even need 500!

One of my VIP clients has around 270 followers on Facebook, and is constantly booked out for 1-2 weeks in advance.

Another VIP has 700 followers on Instagram, and sees enough clients for her to have a support team (including me!) to outsource everything marketing and admin-related to!

What matters is that the majority of your followers fall into the category of ideal clients. The more ideal clients you have following you, the better.

That being said, sometimes it doesn't hurt to have friends and family following you as well. After all, they might have friends who have health concerns that you work with!

Comments and shares are better goals to aim for, but the quality still matters

A slightly more useful goal to aim for is increased engagement with your posts. This means people who comment on your posts, share them with their own followers, and even tag friends.

However, we still want to make sure that the engagement is high quality. Someone could tag 20 friends on a post, and none of them fall into your ideal client range! This happens a lot with quote posts, memes and funny posts.

Want to boost your engagement? An easy way to encourage people is by asking questions.

And if you do receive comments on a post, make sure you reply to them, even if it's a brief comment or another question!

The most important conversations can occur away from the public eye!

In the majority of cases, what happens directly on your social media feed isn't the best metric. It's the conversations that social media helps to start that is.

In my experience, for every 5-6 times I post on social media, at least one conversation is started by a potential client. These conversations usually start via PM/DM or even a direct email. Only about 20% of my clients come from people who comment on my offers and say 'yes I want this!' or comment on my blog shares with 'this is me, how can I work with you?'

The same goes for many practitioners, particularly those that work with sensitive topics or conditions.

A follower is unlikely to comment about their newly diagnosed bipolar or their infertility struggles. They are much more likely to message you directly or email you to seek support.

When it comes to marketing via social media platforms, my number one goal is to get more conversations with potential clients started. If my posts are attracting 1-2 people to book a free chat each and every week, I don't care if I have 7 likes on my Instagram post that morning!

Likes, follower counts, comments and tags aren't a true measure of success. The purpose of marketing on social media is to bring in more clients. So there's not much point worrying about the vanity metrics as long as the inquiries and conversions are happening.

Your social media platforms can't track your impact in someone's mind

People don't have to visibly interact with your content before becoming clients. For most people, there are a good 10-20% of followers who are lurkers. They don't interact, but that doesn't mean that they're not learning from you. And it doesn't mean that they don't feel like they can trust you.

These people often take time to warm up - my lurkers usually take 6-12 months to contact me. But when they do, it's usually to sign up to a VIP package, not to just ask a question!

Social media metrics can only tell you so much. This is why I always encourage clients to share content that would help an ideal client, even if they think no one is listening.

So what is the point of posting on social media regularly?

So if likes, follows and so on aren't a big priority, why do we even bother using social media platforms in the first place?

There are a few reasons that posting regularly on social media can pay off.

• Understand your ideal clients - by asking them questions and having conversations, you can learn more about your target audience and how to reach them

• Educate your followers about your area of expertise - as pracs, we want to help people understand their body and health, and social media is a tool that allows us to achieve that

• Build up trust with ideal clients - sharing your knowledge and talking about the concerns they face allows people to build trust in you

• Give permission to start a conversation - often, people need to feel like they can approach you, which is easier if you invite them to answer questions or take up offers!

Does juggling social media platforms suck up all your spare time?

Outsourcing your social media content creation and scheduling can free up those precious hours for more enjoyable and essential tasks.

The best part is that outsourcing doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg! In fact, I have brand-new social media management packages that cost as little as $119AUD/week.

For more details of my social media packages, check the options out here.