Business objective

Business objectives are the specific and measurable results companies hope to maintain as their organization grows. Entrepreneurs and business leaders must track performance in every part of their business to make sure they’re moving in the right direction.

Business objectives act as a compass for the company, dictating how the organization should allocate strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that may be available. Most of the time, objectives remain the same until the company’s circumstances change.

Examples of a Business Objective

While business goals describe where the company wants to end up, objectives dictate the directions for getting there. Businesses that don’t identify long-term goals and KPIs don’t develop as quickly as their competitors.

Examples of popular business objectives include:

• Revenue objectives: Maintaining consistent profitability is essential for any business. Companies cannot be profitable without consistent profit. Measuring revenue is a great way to track the sustainability of a firm.
• Operational objectives: Operational objectives include making sure that the logistical elements of your business are up to scratch. For instance, it might mean ensuring your supplies will arrive from a manufacturer at the same time each month. These objectives keep the company running smoothly.
• Productivity and performance: Employees are the lifeblood of a business. Making sure that employees remain productive drives revenue and improves customer satisfaction. Measuring employee satisfaction and setting goals for each team ensures efficiency and productivity.
• Customer satisfaction: The customer is always a top priority in any business. Some organizations regularly survey their clients to ensure that they’re making the right impression and driving loyalty.
• Growth: Companies measure growth over the long-term and short-term. Growth appears in the form of website traffic, social media followers, turnover and product sales and much more.

Connecting Business Objectives and Social Media

Often, organizations rely on tools to help them set and track their business goals.

Many modern business goals align with social media. After all, social media channels provide a lot of useful data for companies about traffic, engagement and more.

For instance, if a firm wanted to measure growth by tracking brand awareness, they could use a tool like Vista Social, combined with their social media channel, to look at metrics like:

• Follower count: How many people are interested in and actively following the company
• Mentions, shares, retweets: How many people are engaging with the brand, or talking about the company?
• Social reach: How many customers could you potentially reach on each channel?

With the right tools, it’s easy to align social media KPIs with business objectives.

How to Create Effective Business Objectives

The best way to determine business objectives for any brand is to use the SMART goal setting strategy. Objectives must be:

• Specific: Include details that outline the preferred outcome of the objective and who will be responsible for maintaining these results.
• Measurable: Include a schedule of regular reporting to let everyone know where they stand in achieving their objectives.
• Attainable: While goals should be lofty, employees must believe they’re achievable. Make sure targets aren’t too ambitious.
• Relevant: Each objective must align with specific goals for the company.
• Timely: Objectives need to follow a specific schedule. For instance, sales teams may have a particular sales figure to achieve each month.