Welcome to episode 303 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
Episode 303 today, and we’re talking about social media goals. A lot of times it’s easy to get into this process of executing. We’re on social, we’re doing things, we’re scheduling, we’re curating content, we’re posting our blog posts and our podcasts and whatever, but what’s the point exactly? What are you trying to do? I want to talk a little bit today about setting some social media goals, and more importantly, the 3 things you must know about setting social media goals. Because, especially for us entrepreneur types, we seem to really thrive when we have something to achieve. We tend to work really well when we are looking to accomplish a goal. Sometimes all the difference can be made on social media when you just have a lot of clarity about where you’re going and what you’re doing, and setting goals can certainly help that.
Let’s jump right in with thing number 1, and that’s where are you starting? Here’s the deal, it’s really hard to set goals, or work towards goals if you don’t know where you currently are, you don’t know what you’re currently doing. You can’t say, “I want to be driving a 1000 hits a day from this Facebook ad,” if you don’t know what you’re currently driving. You need some concept of what’s happening now. If you haven’t in a while, and I’m sure there’s a few of you who are shaking your head yes right now, check out your analytics. Check out your likes, and your followers, and things like that, but also dig into your traffic driver. What networks are you using that are driving the most traffic? What kind of traffic are they driving? Look at who makes up those likes and those follows. Pay close attention to the information you have in front of you, and use that information to inform your goals. Because you may see that all along Twitter has been one of your leading traffic drivers, whereas you’re not spending very much attention, and you hadn’t really thought about setting any goals around Twitter.
Then when you find out, “Hey, this is a major traffic driver for me,” you can say with an educated mind, “I want to spend more time driving traffic using this tool. I want to utilize this tool to help build my following some place else.” Whatever it is. First and most importantly, find out what you’re doing now. Figure out what’s happening now with your social media, because it’s really going to be critical in setting those goals, and really achieving those goals. It’s easy to say, “This is what I want to do.” It’s harder to put in the work and do it. Make sure that you check your numbers. That’s something that you’re going to need to do when you’re talking about setting a goal. It’s something that you’re going to make sure you’re doing throughout the working towards the goal.
Set up some milestones so you know this is what we’re checking out in a month, in a week, this is what we’ll check daily, this is what we check quarterly, whatever the length of time your goal sort of is set for. If you want to grow your following by a 100 people in a month, or in a whatever, make sure you’re checking in on those numbers regularly. If you want to be driving a 1000 hits a day from Facebook, you need to be checking in on that daily to see what numbers you’re hitting, what’s increasing those numbers, what’s decreasing those numbers, and figure things out from there.
All right. Let’s jump into the number 2 thing I want you to know, and that is why does whatever your goal is matter? Meaning, what is the larger purpose of gaining a 100 new followers, of driving a 1000 hits per day from a Facebook ad? What is the next step after that? Meaning, are you trying to get a book deal, and so you need to increase your following, because that’s one of those times where follower numbers do matter. Maybe it’s you have a launch coming up in the next 6 months and you want to be driving a certain amount of traffic to a certain landing page. Great, but knowing what the bigger reason behind the goal is will help you stay in the room to do the work to achieve the goal. Actually write that down. Actually where you’re putting this in the strategy together, make a note of what the purpose of this goal is. What is the larger impact, success or failure that this goal has on your business. Noting that is really going to sort of help cement what’s happening.
Also, it’s going to impact the how. If you’re trying to drive traffic to a certain landing page because you have a launch going on, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re driving not just any people to that landing page, but you’re driving the people who you want participating in that launch. Which may be just a subset of your actual niche. Pay attention to the why. If you want to grow your following because you want to get a book deal, you want to grow that following in a targeted way of people who are going to be interested in that book. Also, you want to focus on quantity, you want to really be making sure that everything you’re doing is going towards increasing those numbers. Now, you don’t want to do this in a sleazy way, like going and buying 10,000 Twitter followers. Don’t do that ever. You do want to make sure you’re participating in targeted Twitter chats, and you’re engaging in constant activities that allow you to connect and grow your network. That’s going to be your primary focus, because that’s your goal. Again, it’s easier to stay on track with that when you know very clearly why you’re doing it. You know the reason behind that hustle.
Number 3 to close this out, build a plan. Goals are not going to get you anywhere, they’re really not alone. However, setting a goal and then figuring out how to work towards it, that’s where action happens, that’s where the magic is. Be really, really specific with your goal. Be really, really realistic with your goal. I like to set sometimes 2 goals. I’ll set sort of like a bench mark goal, and then a stretch goal. I kind of like big scary stretchy goals though, something that sounds kind of impossible, I really like those goals. Again, it’s what you’re comfortable with. Then, how does that happen? I want to grow my following by 500 people this month. Great. What am I doing? What are my tasks each day?
Not only am I setting out what those tasks are, but I’m also actually scheduling time to execute those tasks. Meaning, I know that on Tuesdays from 11 to 12 I participate in this Twitter chat, and then from 12 to 12:30 I’m following with people I connected in the Twitter chat, and going through and reviewing new people to follow, checking out who their following, and I spend another half an hour just going in and following and engaging with those people. I know that on Thursdays from 8 to 9 I go in and I follow targeted lists of people, or I go in and I look at my un-followers and clean out whatever I need to clean out. You’re actually going to set on your calendar specific tasks to do each of these things that lead you towards … I can’t talk today, towards your goal. Figure out exactly what it needs to do.
What I want you to really take away from this is that we’re being specific, and that we’re being clear, and that we’re scheduling it. We’re making time to make this happen. We’re not sort of saying, “Okay, I’m going to increase my goal … my Twitter followers by 500, and then I’m going to keep just doing what I’m doing.” Because the actions you’re taking now aren’t getting you to those results, so you need to change those actions. It’s as simple as that. Really take a step back, get really specific about what the goal is, and then break out the steps.
Now, if you don’t know what the steps are to get you to your goal, that’s when it’s a great time to join us at something like Hit the Mic Backstage. Because we have trainings that are going to have you move forward in whatever your goals are for your social media needs. Even better, you have access to the Facebook group to come in and ask me questions to get my opinion, and to get the support of the rest of the community to help you reach those goals. Make sure that you are inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. If you’re not yet, go to hitthemicbackstage.com and join us today. That’s going to be the best way to get the information you need to help move you forward. Okay.
I will see you on Tuesday.
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