During a recent Social Media Breakfast Waterloo Region event, I participated as an expert resource for beginners trying to get social. After a few questions, I noticed there were a lot of variations of the same question; how do I get started?

Some of the questions were:

• How do I build a community on Facebook?
• How do I get people to follow me?
• What is the etiquette to sell on Facebook?
• I know I need to be on Facebook and Twitter but what others?

It was obvious to me each of these beginners passed over some of the most fundamental steps for building digital and social strategies for your organization.

What was lacking from each of the conversations was the answer to the question ‘What would success look like for your organization?’

Focus on your business goals by using these questions:

1. What are you trying to achieve? What business goals are you are striving to reach?
2. Who are you trying to reach? Who is your target market?
3. Where is your target audience on social media?

By answering these questions, your organization is able to define who potential customers are and find out where they are spending their time on social media.   With this information, your organization can begin to listen and build a meaningful social presence on the channels where your target people are already active.

Knowing where you are going is always a good starting point!