Academy / Social media from plan to results

Lesson 1 of 5 · 4 min

A goal you can measure

Turn "grow on social" into one number you can check, pick it from what Postfjord counts, find where you start today and write it down in Strategy.

"Grow on social" is a wish. You can post for a year and never know if you got there. A goal with a number tells you at the end of every month if the plan worked.

Pick what you want

Ask what you want social media to do for the business. The answer is usually one of these:

• more people who know you (followers, people reached)
• more people who talk to you (DM conversations, comments)
• more people who sign up (email subscribers, visits to your landing page)
• more sales or bookings

Pick one. Two goals split your posts in half and you will not learn from either.

Pick a number Postfjord counts

Postfjord counts these for you every morning under Analytics: posts published, likes and comments, people reached, new followers, profile visits, new DM conversations, new email subscribers, landing page views and clicks on your links in DMs. Choose a goal from that list, so you never have to count by hand.

Some examples:

• A coffee roaster that sells beans online: "30 new email subscribers a month."
• A fitness coach: "20 new DM conversations a month."
• A boutique: "Grow from 1,200 to 1,500 followers by the end of March."

Find where you start

A goal needs a starting point. Open Analytics. It opens on Week by week, with one chart for each number. Find the number you picked and look at the last 4 weeks. The dark line is the 4-week average. If you got 8 new email subscribers a week, a goal of 30 a month is a small step. A goal of 200 is a leap.

Aim for a step you can believe in, about a quarter more than today. You can raise it next month.

Write it down

1. Open Strategy in the menu.
2. Press Let Bo write a first draft, or Start with a blank page if you would rather write it yourself.
3. In Goal, write one line with the number, the thing counted and the date. For example: "30 new email subscribers a month by the end of the quarter."
4. Press Save.

Nothing is saved until you press Save. After that, Bo reads your goal before it writes a post or plans a week.

How you know it worked

Your goal is on the Strategy page, with a number you can find in Analytics. A friend could read it and tell you whether you reached it.

In this course

• 1A goal you can measureTurn "grow on social" into one number you can check, pick it from what Postfjord counts, find where you start today and write it down in Strategy. · 4 min
• 2Plan the month from the goalSet how often you post, give each topic its share, and check that every pillar helps the goal before you fill the calendar. · 4 min
• 3Post on a steady rhythmGive each channel its own rhythm, keep to it with the calendar, and leave a note on the weeks something special happens. · 4 min
• 4Read the resultsWhere to look in Analytics, which three numbers matter for your goal, how to read a week against its average, and what the numbers cannot tell you. · 5 min
• 5Change next month's planTurn what you read into one change, shift pillar shares from the numbers, redraft your best post, save a monthly report and start the loop again. · 5 min