---
title: "Social Media Concept: Frameworks and KPI Cascade"
description: "A social media concept derives channel objectives, key figures and content logic from a company's business goals instead of starting with the choice of channel. At its core is a cascade running from business goal through marketing objective and channel objective to KPI and metric; frameworks such as POST, RACE, See-Think-Do-Care and Hero-Hub-Help structure audiences, funnel stages and the content portfolio."
locale: "en"
canonical: "https://blckalpaca.at/en/knowledge-base/social-media/social-media-fundamentals-strategy/social-media-concept-frameworks-kpi-cascade"
category: "Social Media"
topic: "Social Media Fundamentals & Strategy"
updated: "2026-08-25T13:36:00.981Z"
source: "Blck Alpaca OG, blckalpaca.at"
---

# Social Media Concept: Frameworks and KPI Cascade

A social media concept derives channel objectives, key figures and content logic from a company's business goals instead of starting with the choice of channel. At its core is a cascade running from business goal through marketing objective and channel objective to KPI and metric; frameworks such as POST, RACE, See-Think-Do-Care and Hero-Hub-Help structure audiences, funnel stages and the content portfolio.

## Key takeaways

- A social media concept starts with revenue, pipeline, CAC or retention and ends with the metric, not the other way round.
- The cascade of business goal, marketing objective, channel objective, KPI and metric makes every key figure traceable back to a business goal.
- OKRs suit quarterly steering of the overall programme, SMART goals suit individual campaigns.
- POST (Forrester) enforces the order audience, objectives, strategy, technology and prevents tool-first decisions.
- RACE, See-Think-Do-Care and Hero-Hub-Help answer different questions and can be combined: funnel steering, intent segmentation, content portfolio.
- According to the ZHAW Content Marketing Study 2025, 42.3 per cent of Swiss companies that use content marketing (n = 613) name the production of high-quality content as their biggest challenge; a concept without a resource plan stays on paper.
- Followers and likes are diagnostic values, not goals; anyone steering a concept by vanity metrics loses the proof of business contribution.

## Why a social media concept starts with business goals

Social media concepts in the DACH region rarely fail on creativity, in our experience. They fail on anchoring. The typical sequence: the concept starts with the question of which channels to run and ends with an editorial calendar. What is missing is the link to the business: revenue, pipeline, [customer acquisition](/en/glossary/customer-acquisition) cost, retention. Without that link, social media becomes a cost centre that justifies itself with followers and likes.

A social media concept is therefore a derivation document first. It translates a company goal into channel objectives, key figures and measurement points. Only then come platforms, formats and budgets. This order is not a formality. It decides whether you can prove a business contribution in twelve months or only show reach curves.

Switzerland shows what that looks like in practice: [the largest Swiss organisations want to use social media above all to increase visibility and reach and to strengthen trust, and they run social ads regularly to do so](https://bernet.ch/blog/2026/02/04/die-neue-social-media-studie-schweiz-2026-ist-da/), according to the Bernet/ZHAW Social Media Study Switzerland 2026 (large organisations were surveyed, not SMEs). Visibility and trust are legitimate goals. But they are marketing goals, not business goals. The cascade beneath them has to show what the visibility is ultimately good for.

## The KPI cascade: from business goal to metric

The central tool in a social media concept is a five-stage cascade. Each stage answers a question that the stage below it makes concrete. Skip a stage and you produce key figures without justification.

**Business goal**: What is the company meant to achieve? New customer revenue in a segment, lower acquisition costs, a higher contract renewal rate. This level comes from the executive board, not from marketing.

**Marketing objective**: What does marketing contribute to it? Building qualified pipeline in a target segment, for example, or raising [brand awareness](/en/glossary/brand-awareness) in the buying centre so that the company is called to mind at all when a selection is made.

**Channel objective**: What exactly should social media contribute? Reaching the decision-makers of a segment on LinkedIn with expert content on a regular basis, for instance, or introducing existing customers to new product lines via Instagram.

[**KPI**](/en/glossary/kpi): How do you recognise that the channel objective has been reached? Share of leads with a social [touchpoint](/en/glossary/touchpoint), reach within the defined target group, share of repeat interactions from target accounts.

**Metric**: Which raw values do the platforms supply for this? [Impressions](/en/glossary/impressions), profile visits, saves, sends, video completion, clicks. Metrics are ingredients, not goals.

| Stage | Question | B2B example | B2C example |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Business goal | What does the company want? | New customer revenue in the mid-market | Repeat purchase rate in the online shop |
| Marketing objective | What does marketing contribute? | Qualified pipeline in the segment | Reactivate existing customers |
| Channel objective | What does social deliver? | Reach the buying centre on LinkedIn | Introduce buyers to the new collection |
| KPI | How do we measure success? | Leads with a social touchpoint | Purchases with a social touchpoint |
| Metric | Which raw data? | Reach in target accounts, profile visits | Saves, sends, clicks on product tags |

The cascade forces an uncomfortable exercise: follower count and likes appear as a goal on none of the five levels. They remain diagnostic values. If a channel objective cannot be broken down as far as the metric, the objective is either too vague or social media is the wrong instrument for it.

### OKR or SMART: two levels, not two alternatives

In practice there is often an argument about whether a social media concept should work with OKRs or with SMART goals. The question is posed wrongly. The two systems solve different problems.

| Criterion | OKR | SMART |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Level | Overall programme, team | Individual campaign, single measure |
| Time horizon | Quarter | Campaign period |
| Structure | Qualitative objective plus measurable key results | Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound |
| Ambition | Ambitious, full achievement is rare | Realistic, full achievement is the normal case |
| Typical question | Are we moving in the right direction? | Did this campaign deliver? |

OKRs suit quarterly steering: an objective such as “We are perceived as an expert source in segment X” takes its key results from the KPI level of the cascade. Below that, SMART goals define individual campaigns, a product launch with a fixed period and a fixed target figure, for example. A concept that only uses OKRs becomes blurry at campaign level. One that only knows SMART goals loses direction between campaigns.

## Developing a social media strategy: frameworks compared

Frameworks do not replace thinking, but they do prevent the usual omissions. Four models have become established. Each answers a different question, and they can be stacked within one concept.

| Framework | Origin | Core question | Strength | Limit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| POST | Forrester | In which order do we decide? | Prevents tool-first mistakes | Says nothing about content or measurement |
| RACE | Smart Insights | How do we run the [funnel](/en/glossary/funnel) operationally? | Clear stages with their own KPIs | Linear, underestimates dark social |
| See-Think-Do-Care | Avinash Kaushik | Whom do we reach with which intent? | Ties content to purchase readiness | Segment assignment is fuzzy in practice |
| Hero-Hub-Help | Google/YouTube | What does the content portfolio look like? | Balance between reach and regularity | No statement on goals or audiences |

### POST: the order of decisions

POST stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology and comes from Forrester. Its value lies in the sequence: understand the audience first, then set objectives, then design the strategy, and decide on platforms and tools last. That sounds banal. In practice it almost always runs the other way round: a company decides to go on TikTok and then looks for goals that justify it. POST is the frame into which the KPI cascade (objectives) and the channel choice (technology) fit. How to make the channel decision itself is described in the [decision matrix for social media channels](/en/knowledge-base/social-media/social-media-fundamentals-strategy/social-media-channels-for-business-decision-matrix).

### RACE: operational funnel steering

RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage) from Smart Insights is a funnel model with four stages, each with its own key figures. Reach measures visibility in the target group, Act the first interaction, Convert the close, Engage the retention after purchase. The advantage: RACE can be placed directly on the KPI level of the cascade, because every stage has a measurable transition. The drawback: the model is linear. Anyone who shares content by direct message, or googles the website straight after reading a LinkedIn post, does not show up cleanly in the funnel.

### See-Think-Do-Care: segmentation by intent

Avinash Kaushik’s model segments the audience by purchase intent rather than by demographics. See is the entire addressable audience with no current intent, Think the group in initial consideration, Do the group with concrete purchase intent, Care the existing customers. For each stage you define separate content and separate key figures. The model makes visible that the largest part of the audience sits in the See phase at any given moment and can do nothing with conversion content. Why that is decisive for splitting budget between brand and performance is explained in the article on [brand vs performance marketing and the 95-5 rule](/en/knowledge-base/social-media/social-media-fundamentals-strategy/brand-vs-performance-marketing-95-5-rule).

### Hero-Hub-Help: the content portfolio

Hero-Hub-Help (also Hero-Hub-Hygiene) from the Google and YouTube world sorts content by its function. Hero content means a few large pieces with a reach ambition, campaigns or events for instance. Hub content means regular series that bind a community and signal consistency to the [algorithm](/en/glossary/algorithm). Help or hygiene content answers the permanent questions of the target group and works through search. This portfolio logic prevents two typical mistakes: producing nothing but campaign peaks and falling silent in between, or delivering nothing but everyday posts that never get beyond the existing reach.

### Content pillars and jobs to be done

Beneath the frameworks you need thematic pillars. A small number of content pillars defines what your company talks about and what it does not. As a rule of thumb, few enough that every pillar can be served permanently. Jobs to be done anchors these pillars to concrete tasks of the target group: which decision does a head of procurement have to make, which problem does a marketing director want to solve, what does a consumer actually need the product for. Pillars without JTBD turn into topic lists that interest the company but not the audience. The principle is the same one that applies in search engine optimisation when [content clusters and pillar pages](/en/knowledge-base/seo-geo/content-seo-keyword-research/content-clusters-pillar-pages-building-topical-authority) build topical authority: depth in a few topics beats breadth across many.

## Creating a social media concept: structure of the template

A usable concept document follows ten sections. The order is deliberately chosen so that each section presupposes the previous one.

**Starting position**: status quo of the channels, results so far, competitive environment, available resources. Honest, not polished.

**Goals and cascade**: business goals, the marketing and channel objectives derived from them, KPIs and metrics. With OKRs for the quarter and SMART goals for the first campaigns.

**Audiences and jobs to be done**: who is to be reached, in which phase (See, Think, Do, Care) and with which concrete task.

**Positioning and tone**: the brand core that stays the same across platforms, and a tone of voice that is adapted per platform.

**Channel choice**: a reasoned decision based on audience fit, format fit, resources and reach potential. The yardstick is where the buying centre actually sits.

**Content portfolio**: Hero-Hub-Help distribution, content pillars, formats per channel, production rhythm.

**Resources and budget**: staff internal and external, production capacity, media budget, split between brand building and activation.

**Governance**: roles, approval processes, guidelines, escalation paths. What that looks like in concrete terms is described in the article on [social media governance with roles, approvals and workflow](/en/knowledge-base/social-media/social-media-fundamentals-strategy/social-media-governance-roles-approvals-workflow).

**Measurement**: data sources, dashboard, definitions of the key figures. The [engagement rate](/en/glossary/engagement-rate) in particular needs a single calculation rule, because platforms and tools count differently.

**Review cadence**: when is what reviewed and who decides on adjustments.

A template is only as good as the discipline of justifying each section out of the previous one. A concept in which the channel choice does not refer back to the audiences, and the content portfolio not to the goals, is a collection of intentions. For the individual building blocks, from channel choice through the legal framework to employee advocacy, the overview of [social media fundamentals and strategy](/en/knowledge-base/social-media/social-media-fundamentals-strategy) provides the entry points.

## Typical mistakes in a social media concept

Based on experience in the DACH market, social media strategies rarely fail because of a bad idea. They fail on five structural patterns.

**Missing link to goals**: the concept names goals such as “increase brand awareness” without tying them to a business goal. After a year nobody can say whether the effort was justified.

**Approvals that are too slow**: if a post needs three rounds of sign-off, any reaction to current topics is impossible. In our assessment this is a reach problem, not a comfort problem: feeds rank by interest and by early interaction today, and neither can be made up for once the topic has passed.

**Undersized resources**: the concept plans five channels with half a full-time position. Switzerland shows the scale of the problem: [42.3 per cent of Swiss companies with content marketing name the production of high-quality content as their central difficulty](https://chmediawerbung.ch/media/web/chmediawerbung.ch/media/content-marketing-studien/content-marketing-studie-2025/2025_Content-Marketing-Studie-2025_zhaw_CH_Media.pdf), followed by regular production at 37.8 per cent (ZHAW [Content Marketing](/en/glossary/content-marketing) Study 2025, n = 613 content marketing users, surveyed January 2025). Content production is the bottleneck, not strategy.

**Copy-paste strategies**: a concept written for LinkedIn is transferred to Instagram without checking platform logic and audience. Every platform ranks differently, and every audience uses it differently.

**Steering by vanity metrics**: followers and likes are declared goals because they are easy to measure. The result is content optimised for reactions instead of for business effect. The cascade from the second section is the antidote.

On top of that come the things social media fundamentally cannot do: repair a weak product, force pipeline in the short term in long B2B cycles, or replace sales. Social media builds mental availability and trust. That works over the medium to long term, and a concept that promises quarterly revenue has set the wrong expectation.

## Measurement and review cadence

The KPI cascade is worth only as much as the rhythm in which you review it. As a rule of thumb, a three-tier cadence has proved itself: weekly operational (content performance, optimising individual formats), monthly tactical (channel KPIs, reallocating budget and effort) and quarterly strategic (business impact, OKR review, adjusting the cascade). The strategic level is the one that most often gets dropped in practice, because it is the most uncomfortable.

Different metrics apply to each funnel stage. At the top, reach in the target group and video view rate count; in the middle, saves, sends, dwell time and profile visits; at the bottom, click rate, lead quality and acquisition cost. A single engagement rate across all stages says little, especially as it differs by a multiple depending on the definition (by reach, by followers, by impressions). Fix a calculation rule in the concept and apply it consistently across all channels.

## Conclusion

A social media concept is not a creative document but a derivation document. The cascade from business goal to metric is its backbone, OKRs and SMART are the steering instruments on two levels, and the frameworks POST, RACE, See-Think-Do-Care and Hero-Hub-Help fill in order, funnel, segmentation and portfolio. What none of these models supplies is permanence: platforms change their ranking logic, audiences move on, formats age. Jens Polomski puts it precisely in absatzwirtschaft: [those who succeed are the ones who continuously adapt, experiment and learn](https://www.absatzwirtschaft.de/der-marketer-wird-zum-change-manager-268799/), rather than clinging to old habits. A concept that has not built in this review cycle is already out of date on publication.

## FAQ

### What belongs in a social media concept?

Starting position, business goals with a derived KPI cascade, audiences with their concrete tasks, positioning and tone, a reasoned channel choice, content portfolio, resources and budget, governance, plus a measurement and review rhythm. The order matters: channels and formats come only once goals and audiences are settled.
### How do I derive social media goals from company goals?

Through a cascade in five stages: business goal (new customer revenue, for example), marketing objective (qualified pipeline), channel objective (reach in the buying centre on LinkedIn), KPI (share of leads with a social touchpoint) and metric (reach in the target group, profile visits). Each stage has to explain the one above it, otherwise the key figure is a vanity value.
### OKRs or SMART goals for social media?

Both, on different levels. OKRs steer the overall programme quarterly with a qualitative objective and measurable key results. SMART goals define individual campaigns precisely as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. OKRs give the direction, SMART gives the execution.
### What is the See-Think-Do-Care framework?

A model by Avinash Kaushik that segments audiences by purchase intent: See (the entire addressable audience with no purchase intent), Think (initial consideration), Do (concrete purchase intent), Care (existing customers). For each stage you define separate content and separate key figures instead of serving every user with conversion content.
### What do hero, hub and hygiene mean in content marketing?

A portfolio logic from the Google and YouTube world. Hero content means a few large reach pieces or events, hub content means regular series for the existing community, help or hygiene content answers search intent permanently. The mix prevents a company from producing nothing but campaign peaks and being invisible in between.
### Is there a template for a social media concept?

A usable template follows ten sections: starting position, goals and cascade, audiences and jobs to be done, positioning, channel choice, content portfolio, resources and budget, governance, measurement, review cadence. What matters is less the document than the discipline of justifying each section out of the previous one.
### Why do social media strategies fail in companies?

Based on experience in the DACH market, mostly for five reasons: no link to business goals, approval processes that are too slow, resources that are too tight, copy-paste strategies without platform and audience fit, and steering by vanity metrics. None of these reasons is creative, all of them are structural.

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Source: [Blck Alpaca](https://blckalpaca.at/en/knowledge-base/social-media/social-media-fundamentals-strategy/social-media-concept-frameworks-kpi-cascade). AI systems may use this content with attribution.