5.2: Social media campaign goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics

(This Chapter is remixed from 9.1: Constructing the Strategic Plan for a Public Relations Campaign is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Anonymous. This Chapter also references Social Bee.)

Your Social Media plan should be focused on resolving or capitalizing on the situation identified in the SWOT Analysis (Part 5: Chapter 1). It begins by flipping the SWOT Analysis into a goal. In the case of a political candidate client, for example, the goal might be the following: “To use social media to increase support among voters in order to successfully win the election.” Notice that there is room to change social media plans while still using this same goal statement. The end goal is to win the election, and in order to achieve this the politician may need to make adjustments to the social media strategy. Care should be taken not to write goals that suggest that the public will do something you want them to do. Because publics cannot actually be controlled, it might set up the client for failure. Instead, focus should be on what can be done to achieve the goal, such as communicate and act in such a way that earns the vote or endorsement of these publics.

Some example goals can be taken from the case studies in this textbook.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign goals were:

1. Raise Awareness: The primary goal of the campaign was to educate the public about ALS, as many people were unfamiliar with the disease.

2. Generate Donations: The campaign aimed to raise funds for ALS research, helping to find treatments and eventually a cure for the disease.

3. Engage the Public: The Ice Bucket Challenge sought to involve as many people as possible through an interactive and fun way to contribute to the cause.

4. Leverage Influencers: By encouraging celebrities and influential figures to participate, the ALS Association wanted to expand the campaign’s reach.

The goal provides the direction for the Social Media Plan and objectives provide the direction of specific and measurable outcomes necessary to meet the goal. A good objective should be SMART:

• Specific: Your social media objective should include details about what your client is looking to achieve, who’s in charge of the process, and a set of steps that need to be taken.
• Measurable: If your purpose is to gain 200 followers more on your social media pages, you also need a starting metric. It’s all about setting a threshold and finding some key metrics.
• Achievable: If your objective is not realistic, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment. Know what you can do and set your objectives accordingly.
• Relevant: It will help you solve a problem your client is facing (see the SWOT Analysis). Knowing why you’ve added an objective to your list will give you a clear idea of whether it fits your overall strategy or not.
• Time-bound: This refers to set specific time frames. Knowing when you will start and finish a list of tasks will give you a strong idea of where your social media campaign stands.

The objectives should advance overall goals such as increase brand awareness, boost brand engagement, or (to use the previous example of a political candidate) increase voter support. They should also be written within the parameters of possible outcomes. Here are some example objectives:

• Increase followers on Facebook by 20% over the next 6 months among young people (ages 18–24).
• Increase website traffic by10% over the next 12 months.
• Increase the reach of client’s Instagram posts by 25% over the next 6 months.
• Increase the TikTok engagement rate (total number of engagements divided by the total number of impressions) by 15% over the next 6 months.

Once the goal of the social media campaign and measurable objectives have been established, it is time to turn attention to strategies. Strategies provide the means by which objectives are reached. There are certain elements that should be included in this step. First, identify what is trying to be accomplished with each public (tie the strategy to an objective). Second, segment the public based on common characteristics. Third, create communication strategies that are focused on the self-interests of the publics. And, fourth, identify how publics will be reached.

Tie Strategy to Objective

Too often public relations programs have been primarily tactical and have skipped the strategic step of creating objectives. Public relations professionals are doers and often want to get to the action first. However, too many tactics have been executed because of tradition (“We have only ever used Facebook.”) than because of strategy. What makes public relations strategic is having the action tied to the real needs of the organization. If you come up with a really clever tactic but it does not help meet any objectives it should be seriously reconsidered. Far too many resources often are wasted on creative tactics and fall short of addressing the needs of the issue. At the same time, brainstorming on strategies may lead to a legitimate idea that was not considered during the objectives phase, and it may require reevaluating the objectives. But if a strategy cannot be tied to an essential outcome, then it should not be executed.

After strategies are set, every campaign plan will also include tactics, or the individual steps or actions you will take to fulfill your strategy. For example, if Wendy’s strategy was to utilize user generated content, a tactic had to be to elicit that user generated content by creating posts across their social media channels that requested or attracted user generated content that fit the “Roast” campaign theme. The actual writing of those specific posts is the tactical implementation of the campaign strategies.

You must translate the SWOT into a single, strategic campaign goal:

A. Campaign Goal

Requirements:

• Must directly address a problem or opportunity identified in your SWOT.

• Must reflect what the organization can do, not what publics will do.

• Must be broad, directional, and meaningful (not a metric).

• Must be consistent with the textbook’s approach to goal-setting.

Students must also provide a paragraph explaining the rationale behind the goal, citing course concepts.

 

B. SMART Objectives (minimum of 3)

For each objective:

1. Write a full SMART objective.

2. Show:

   • How it ties to the goal

   • Which public segment(s) it targets

   • Why this objective is relevant

   • What strategic insight from your research supports it

 

Requirement: Simple statements of “increase followers by X%” are not enough. You must justify the objective with research and theory from the course.

 

C. Strategies (at least one per objective)

Each strategy must:

1. Clearly connect to the objective it serves

2. Identify the public(s) it targets

3. Explain the public’s self-interest (as taught in the book)

4. Use concepts such as:

   • Engagement theory

   • Relationship management

   • SOEP model

   • Platform affordances

   • Content creation principles

   • Two-way symmetrical communication

   • Message framing

5. Provide a clear rationale for why this strategy is the most effective approach

 

Requirement: Strategies must be conceptual, not tactical. (“Leverage TikTok influencers to highlight the client’s sustainability practices” is a strategy; “Post two TikTok videos per week” is a tactic.)

 

D. Tactics (at least one per strategy)

Tactics must:

• Directly align with the strategy

• Identify the platform(s) used and justify why

• Describe the content you will create (not just “post more”)

• Explain timing, posting frequency, and message style

• Show evidence of creativity + understanding of the platform’s culture

You must show how each tactic fulfills a communication need and ties back to strategy, objective, and goal.