Do you want to make 2012 a kickass year for your small business? Reach out to newer markets? Tap into your existing customer base? Launch new products? Then, grab a pen and paper and read on.

These 12 social media marketing goals will not only help you set realistic, actionable plans but also spur you to move forward every month:

1. Review Your Work in 2011

Begin by taking a good look at everything you did on social networks in 2011. What worked? What didn’t? Jot things down as you review so that you can revisit them when planning your social media marketing calendar for 2012 (see#6).

 2. Update Your Profiles

Next, look at all your social media profiles. Are they updated and in tune with the changes that social networks often make. Do they look current and fresh or dated and jaded? Also, are they optimized for search engines with the right keywords but aren’t spammy-sounding. Your Twitter profile bio for instance, can have keywords and still be smart and snazzy.

 3. Evaluate Your Current Social Presence

Does your current social presence meet your expectations? Are you on Facebook while your customers are chatting on Twitter? Dig around, do some research and evaluate your presence on social networks. Ditch the ones that aren’t needed so that you can focus on the ones that are.

 4. Check Out New Social Networks

Take a peek at the newer, industry-focused social networking sites that crop up. Do they seem interesting and relevant? Pinterest for instance, has fast found popularity with professionals in the graphic, design, décor and food industries.

 5. Create Your Social Media Strategy

This is key and will impact your social presence through the year. Once you’ll reviewed, evaluated and checked out what’s out there in the social world, it is time to plan your business’ social media strategy. What goals do you have? How would you achieve them? What are the timelines for these?

 6. Create a Marketing Calendar for Social Media

Once you have your strategy in place, take the time to create a marketing calendar for your online networking. What would you be promoting or talking about? How? When?

 7. Put Tracking Systems in Place

All your plans are worthless if you can’t measure their results. If you have a blog, make sure you have Google Analytics installed. For Twitter and Facebook, consider using Hootsuite which makes tracking results much easier. You could also, look at a tool like Crowdbooster to identify best times to tweet/post, people to follow and more.

 8. Have a Social Media Team in Place

Well you don’t really need a team of people but make sure that you have someone who is responsible for managing your business’s social presence once the ball starts rolling…fast. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of business and put social networking on the backburner. Don’t let that happen. Don’t lose the momentum.

 9. Interact and Engage Everyday

Yes. This has to be a goal. Don’t use your social profiles to simply post links to your site or blog. Make sure you ask questions, interact with customers, solve problems and provide solutions. Engagement should be your Number 1 goal for 2012, in fact.

 10. Check out the Competition

Yes, you need to know what your competitors are doing online. Are they giving away freebies? Hosting competitions or contests? Talking more? Keep an eye out and try and replicate what you think would fit your strategy as well.

 11. Make Fans and Followers Come Back for More

Your goal should not be to simply gain more followers and fans. Your goal should be to make them return.again.and.again. How can you do that? By doing #9, everyday. Interact. Engage. Repeat.

12. Take Action…Everyday

Finally, make sure that you take some sort of action everyday to build your social presence, increase engagement, boost numbers and generate leads through your social networking efforts.

 

 

What are your goals for social media marketing in 2012?