As is the case with so many other things in life, launching an effective social media marketing campaign requires that you have a goal in mind. Without knowing what you want to achieve beforehand, your marketing campaign won't be as focused, and your results will not be as good. This guide will discuss some of the most common goals for social media marketing, and it will also include suggestions on how to find your target demographic.

Here are some goals to strive for:

1. More brand awareness. Social media is an ideal way to create and spread content, improving the public's opinion of your brand by setting it apart from its competition. For less-established businesses or websites, more visibility generates familiarity with your brand; social media marketing is a great way to generate "buzz" or word-of-mouth.
2. Managing your reputation- the goal is to have a positive influence on the way your potential customers/audience look at your brand. This work is far less aggressive, and it usually involves the creation of profiles on various social media sites and wikis, pushing your brand higher in search engine rankings. This goal also includes the monitoring of public forums and other feedback outlets, to see what's being said about your site. This could also be construed as social media optimization.
3. Higher rankings in the search engines. Content should be developed creatively, then promoted so that you get links from social media website members. This means that you should focus on sites that have the greatest potential to provide you with links, instead of smaller communities that offer a more targeted traffic. Your site's profile is important, but it doesn't have to be completely relevant to the social media website- it can be created to target a specific audience.
4. More (relevant) traffic. If your focus is to get more users or interested visitors for your site or business, you should spend more time on social sites that are relevant to your topic or niche. For instance, instead of doing your article marketing on an all-inclusive platform like Digg, try a site like Sphinn, because the likelihood that you'll get followers is much higher.
5. Greater service and/or product sales. To increase your sales, you should release your offers and promotions through someone who is trusted and respected in the community, or work with a sponsorship service. It's difficult to sell to a social media site audience through a blatantly commercial profile, because these usually border on "spam". For greatest success, cut your market into segments and concentrate on offering solutions for specific problems that users may encounter.

This isn't a complete list of goals, but it's a great place to start. By having one or more goals in mind before you start, you have a much greater chance of running a successful social media marketing campaign.