How to Create Social Media OKRs that Work (with Examples)

If you’re looking for a goal-setting method that: 

• Helps break down ambitious social media goals into manageable chunks 
• Connects your social media activity with wider business or marketing goals 
• Motivates your team members to strive for better results 

Then, it’s worth exploring the objective and key results (OKR) reporting method for your social media team. 

Let's show you how to create an inspiring social media OKR and why they're such an effective goal-setting tool. 

In this guide, we'll be covering:

• What are OKRs in social media
• Why use OKRs for social media
• What makes a good OKR & how to set those
• 6 Social media marketing OKR examples
• How to track your social media OKRs

What are OKRs in social media? 

OKRs break down a significant strategic goal into more tangible and measurable sub-goals. We call these actions key results.

For example, a startup might want to grow its LinkedIn presence to help its brand awareness and drive sales. 

Here’s how you might break this strategic goal down with an OKR.

Objective:

Turn the company LinkedIn account into a significant contributor to brand reputation and sales 

Key results:

1.  Maintain an average engagement rate of 5% on all LinkedIn posts 
2.  Drive a 20% increase in booked sales meetings from the LinkedIn company page 
3.  Grow LinkedIn followers to 8,000 (from 5,000 by Q2 2024 

As a result, you know what subgoals to focus on and can devise a concrete plan to achieve them. 

But wait. Aren’t setting key performance indicators (KPIs) enough? If you're looking for a goal-setting method that links metrics to a strategic goal, OKRs might be a better fit.

Key differences between OKRs and KPIs and why it’s worth using both methods

While OKRs and KPIs are related, they have two key differences. 

OKRs are a goal-setting framework, while KPIs are specific metrics used to measure the success of the OKR. In the example above, tracking KPIs like engagement rate, booked meetings, and LinkedIn followers helps measure progress towards this goal.

OKRs can inspire team members, while KPIs measure performance. Teams and organizations set OKRs to reflect specific business goals. Concise objectives encourage team members to set ambitious targets to promote continuous improvement. Conversely, KPIs are solid measurement tools but are less effective at motivating team members or maintaining a strategic focus.

Think of both methods as complementary tools. OKRs provide a structure to align team members, while KPIs help measure progress towards a goal.

Why use OKRs for social media?

OKRs can help end vague goals, motivate team members, and keep the team focused on the business's priorities.

Are OKRs suitable for you? Here are two ways people have benefitted from this goal-setting method.

Keeps team members motivated and focused 

According to a First Round Review interview with product leader Jack Chou, workplace motivation comprises four elements.

1.  A sufficiently staffed team that enjoys working together 
2.  Team members who can assume ownership of their work 
3.  Clear goals to hone a team member’s intuition and sustain motivation
4.  An understanding of how their work benefits the company as a whole

Excluding team dynamics, the OKR method supports the other elements of workplace motivation. You’ll define clear, achievable goals with specific key results and an inspiring objective explaining why these activities matter for the business.

Aligns social media activities with broader business goals

Silos sometimes develop within organizations as they grow. 

In these situations, siloed teams don’t talk to each other and are unsure what the other is working on. 

For example, have you ever felt like you’re working in a vacuum, or does your head of sales not know how social media contributes to the business?

If so, you’re not alone. 

According to research from Sprout Social, nearly half of social media teams feel isolated from other departments despite social insights informing other departments within the business. 

OKRs help prevent silos from forming by promoting inter-departmental communication. For instance, you could share your objectives with your sales, customer service, and executive teams to help them understand your team's priorities.

What makes a good OKR? How to set effective social media OKRs

Good OKR setting comprises three parts: 

1.  An action-oriented and inspiring objective 
2.  Between three to four specific and measurable key results 
3.  A method to evaluate OKR success 

Here, you’ll learn how to set OKRs that excel at all three components. 

1. Identify your social media objective(s)

What’s social media’s role in your marketing strategy?

It helps to get specific here. What do you want to achieve through social media, and how will you measure it? You’ll want to avoid setting vague objectives, as Derek Pankaew of Listening.com recounts: 

These objectives should be no longer than a sentence and be action-oriented. 

Bonus if it’s inspiring. These objectives help team members achieve a specific goal while inspiring them to dream big. 

How ambitious should these objectives be? Like every goal-setting framework, it depends. 

A good rule of thumb is to create quarterly OKRs, as LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner recommended in a First Round Review interview. He says:

Some examples of concise yet practical objectives include: 

•  Boost lead generation through organic and paid efforts on Instagram and TikTok 
•  Improve brand recognition on LinkedIn 
•  Enhance social media reporting and communication efficiency in the marketing team

2. Set measurable key results

If objectives are your opportunity to dream big and think strategically, key results explain how you’ll achieve your aim and track progress.

You’ll want to ensure key results are specific and have a clear deadline. Let’s use an example to illustrate. 

Vague: Improve social engagement. 

Specific: Achieve a 15% increase in Instagram engagement rate by Q2 2024. 

This approach mentions a specific metric to measure progress in and a clear deadline. 

To make your key results even more specific, Janelle Warner of Born Social suggests adopting the SMART framework when creating OKRs. She explains: 

It may be tempting to assign many different key results, but doing so can overwhelm your team members. Aim to keep your goals specific by assigning a maximum of four key results per objective. 

3. Create a process to track and grade your social media OKRs

After creating your OKRs, decide how you're measuring the success of these marketing efforts. Then, define how often you will review your OKRs. 

Example scoring methods include: 

Scale-based: This method grades each key result from 0.0 to 1.0 according to your progress. We calculate an overall score for the objective by averaging the scores of all initiatives. 

Binary yes/no: This straightforward method asks a yes/no question: Did you reach your OKRs? 

Finally, decide how often you’ll review your OKR progress. During these sessions, you can discuss progress, identify challenges, and adjust your approach if needed. 

For example, Matt Little of Festoon House uses quantitative and qualitative data to review their team's OKRs. He says:

Similarly, Derek Pankaew of Listening.com reviews OKRs monthly. He explains:

Putting OKRs into action: 6 social media marketing OKR examples 

Now that we’ve explained how to set a solid OKR, let’s apply this to a few popular goals for social media teams. 

But, these goals could be more specific in their current form. We'll show you how to make them more specific, along with example key results (KR) and metrics.

Example #1: Grow brand awareness

More specific objective: Grow brand awareness within the Canadian digital marketing vertical in Q3 2024

KR #1: Put out 15 press releases with Tier 1 and Tier 2 media outlets in Canada

KR #2: Organize webinars with ten digital marketing agencies to increase direct traffic by 20% to our services page

KR #3: Increase positive brand mentions from our target audience on social by 20% month-on-month

Example #2: Boost social media engagement on LinkedIn

More specific objective: Improve LinkedIn average organic engagement rate from 2% to 5% in Q3 2024 with high-quality content

KR #1: Improve post-click-through rate by 10% every month by refining call-to-action messaging

KR #2: Respond to all comments on the LinkedIn profile within 24 hours 

KR #3: Double LinkedIn reposts from 2 to 4 in Q3 2024 

Example #3: Drive inbound website traffic from content marketing 

More specific objective: Improve website clicks to our product pages by 25% in Q3 2024 

KR #1: Decrease website bounce rate from 40% to 20% by Q3 2024 

KR #2: Improve organic traffic by 30% in Q3 2024 by improving product-related keyword rankings through search engine optimization (SEO) 

KR #3: Achieve a 30% increase in website visitors from social media referrals

Example #4: Increase e-commerce sales from social media ad campaigns

More specific objective: Boost e-commerce sales by 25% with Instagram and TikTok ads

KR #1: Achieve a 15% conversion rate from Instagram ads 

KR #2: Increase average order value by 20% 

KR #3: Keep Instagram ad CTR at 10% 

Example #5: Improve social media content reach

More specific objective: Improve the reach of our LinkedIn and Facebook content to increase brand awareness and engagement by end-2024

KR #1: Boost content reposts and shares by 25% by November 2024

KR #2: Grow LinkedIn and Facebook new followers from 5,000 to 8,000 by December 2024

KR #3: Increase the average reach per post by 30% across LinkedIn and Facebook by the end of Q4 2024.

Example #6: Expand audience demographics

More specific objective: Expand our audience demographics by reaching international Gen Z audiences.

KR #1: Increase the percentage of social media followers from Gen Z by 20% across Instagram and TikTok by end-2024

KR #2: Grow the percentage of audience from international markets by 25% with social media posts by December 2024.

KR #3: Achieve a 30% increase in engagement from new Gen Z audience segments by October 2024

How to track your social media OKRs

Managers often rely on different management tools to track KPIs, such as spreadsheets, OKR progress scorecards, weekly check-ins, and individual reports. 

It’s time-consuming and frustrating, not to mention inefficient. 

DashThis’s all-in-one OKR dashboard simplifies this progress by gathering the social media data you need in one place. 

Step 1: Create your OKR template

First, let’s start creating your OKR reporting template in DashThis! 

1.  Click +New Dashboard
2.  Select a reporting template
3.  Name it and click Next

Step 2: Connect your social media data sources for analysis

DashThis integrates with 20+ marketing tools, including social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and Instagram. 

So, let DashThis handle the manual data import and export for you. Use the Connect button to add the data sources you’re reporting on. 

Once you permit DashThis to access your marketing data in each tool, DashThis will automatically import your latest data from your selected social media platforms. You’ll also be able to update your data in real time without resorting to tedious data exports. 

Step 3: Set up your OKR dashboard 

Now, it’s time to put your dashboard together. 

First, list down what you need from your dashboard. For example, you might want your OKR dashboard to fulfill the following criteria.

•  Monitor key result progress
•  Reflect on an objective’s completion status 
•  Align the marketing team’s social media OKRs to a company’s overarching objectives or social media strategy

Putting this in practice, let’s say you’ve set a goal to boost your LinkedIn engagement rate from 5% to 10% by end-2024. You’re also tracking social interactions and clicks to track progress towards this objective. 

Setting this up in DashThis is simple! Use DashThis’s drag-and-drop interface to select the metrics you're tracking. Place these in a dedicated section for easy monitoring. 

Get this social media report template with your own data!

Pro tip: Gauge charts are effective at visualizing goal progress! For example, visualize scale-based OKR grading by creating your own custom thresholds. 

Step 4: Share and automate your OKR reporting 

With your OKR dashboard in hand, it’s time to ensure it reaches your team members and whoever is reviewing your OKR

We can also automate this to save time in DashThis. 

Click Sharing Options > Share by Email > Frequency to schedule your reports. 

DashThis also offers options to download your report as a PDF for offline viewing. If you’re preparing for an in-person meeting, you could share a specific URL link to meeting attendees. Clients can click on the URL to review your comments and hover over specific data points for more detail. 

Start creating your social media OKRs with DashThis 

OKRs are a practical framework for sharing social media marketing priorities with other teams. It’s perfect for breaking down team silos and aiding communication within departments. 

Remember to keep OKRs short and specific. Review them regularly with your team to get the most out of the OKR method. 

Reporting tools like DashThis can help you save hours per month on OKR reporting.

Sign up for your free 15-day trial of DashThis today to give reporting automation a try.