The Curious Case of Missing 'Objectives'

A dashboard can tell me that engagement went up by 42%. It can tell me that reels performed better than carousels, that people saved a post more than they shared it, or that our followers grew by ten thousand this month.

Great.

But did any of that solve the actual business problem?
That, in my opinion, is where the conversation around marketing through social media often gets lost. We begin with the platform instead of beginning with the business. We start discussing content pillars, posting frequency and engagement strategies before asking the most important question of all: what are we trying to change?

So, I wore the brand side hat and asked myself: how would I address this curious case of missing objectives? 

I narrowed it down to one simple question:

What is the problem or opportunity at a business level?

Is it that we need more people to know us? → An awareness issue.

Is it that we need more people to remember us? → A recall issue.

Do we need to build more loyalty? → A loyalty issue.

Do we need to change how people perceive us? → A perception issue.

Are we launching something new? → A launch objective.

Do we need to sell more of a particular product? → A business or conversion objective.

Do we need to build a community? → A community building objective.

Do we have a visibility problem?

Do we have a talent attraction problem?

Do we perhaps have an employer branding challenge where great talent simply doesn't consider us as a place worth working for?

The interesting part is that we've become incredibly good at measuring social media, without always being equally good at defining why.

The point is, the problem or opportunity we're trying to solve is almost always there, sometimes subtle, sometimes screaming at us.

And once that becomes clear, social media suddenly becomes much easier to think about.

Because social media is not the objective.

It is the medium.

Just like television, print, outdoor or events, every medium has a role to play depending on what the business needs. Social happens to be one of the most dynamic because it allows brands to build conversations, communities and consistency over time. But that doesn't mean every business problem deserves the same social strategy.

A brand struggling with awareness may optimise for reach and discoverability.

A legacy brand fighting declining relevance may focus on cultural conversations and perception.

A D2C business launching a new category may use creators, education and community to build consideration before conversion.

A company hiring aggressively may invest in employee stories and leadership content to become more attractive to talent.

Different problems. Different approaches.

This is also where social media optimization in digital marketing should actually begin. Optimization is not merely about improving impressions or finding the perfect posting time. True optimization is about aligning content, audience, platform and measurement with the larger business objective. Otherwise, we risk becoming incredibly efficient at achieving numbers that don't really move anything meaningful.

For example, imagine two brands.

One receives a million views on a funny reel.

The other reaches only a fraction of that audience but becomes significantly more memorable among people who are actively considering its product.

Which one performed better?

Without knowing the business objective, there is no right answer.

That is exactly why metrics should always come after intent.

And social media, like any other medium, can come to our rescue in a manner that it is uniquely equipped to.

All of these business objectives can then be deciphered into the appropriate social media metrics: reach, followers, engagement, recall lift, share of voice, shares, saves, comments, website visits, qualified leads, and so on.

Notice how the metrics are different depending on the problem we're solving.

A follower count may be useful for a community building initiative.

Reach may matter immensely during a launch.

Share of voice could become critical when competing in a crowded category.

Recall lift may be far more valuable than engagement for a brand investing heavily in long-term brand building.
And conversion metrics may matter most when the objective is simply to sell.

The metric itself isn't wrong.

Using it as the objective often is.

But those are outputs and measures, not necessarily the objective itself.

Don't define your objectives as social media metrics first. First, define the business problem you want social media to solve.

Don't define your objectives as social media metrics first.

First, define the business problem you want social media to solve.

Then ask: what can social media do best to solve it?

Only after that should you decide what success looks like, how you'll measure it, and which metrics genuinely matter.

Because when objectives become clear, strategy becomes sharper.

And when strategy becomes sharper, social media stops chasing likes—and starts creating business value.