Like most people in the world right now, you may be in goal-setting mode for the new year. Or maybe if you are in the US, you are glued to the news and feeling yucky. And then, you probably need a good goal-setting distraction right about now!
There are some things to consider when setting your goals for your online presence this year. I want to talk about those today so you don’t overlook these few super important things!
Review your analytics
Y’all know I’m a numbers girl!! Have you looked at your numbers for 2020?
Here are a few things you should track:
- How many new followers did you have? (side note – this is a vanity metric, but it’s still important to watch that it’s growing and improving)
- Did you get a higher reach?
- What was your engagement rate?
- How often were you posting?
- How often were you using video?
Those are the hard numbers to look at. I track them in spreadsheets (are you surprised??) However, you want to do it, set something up so you are looking at the numbers every single month. If they aren’t going up, then you need to do some digging to figure out why.
Next, look at what worked and what didn’t last year. Maybe you weren’t consistent at posting. Maybe you didn’t use video as much as you wanted to. Or maybe you launched a podcast and that worked really well for you. It’s important to note those things too so you KEEP DOING THEM!
If you aren’t tracking, you don’t know what’s working so you can keep doing it.
What are your cornerstones?
This is something that I train on extensively in the Content Planning Workshop and the monthly membership, but I’m going to give you a shortened version today. This is one of the things that makes our content plans so successful.
When you have defined your cornerstones, you always know what to talk about. You stay in your lane. Your audience knows what to expect from you. You become known in your industry.
So, write down 4-6 topics that your ideal client comes to you for day after day. Then, those are the things that you build your social media and content strategy around.
For example, mine are
- Content Strategy
- Content repurposing
- Social media strategy
- Metrics
- Working from home with littles
So most of what I talk about is about one of those categories.
If you are interested in diving deeper into that, check out the Content Planning Workshop on the 21st of January.
What is your bandwidth?
Something else that often gets overlooked is your bandwidth. We have all these big goals and aspirations – which is fantastic – but do you have the time you need to achieve them?
Have you considered how much time you have to create content?
Let me give you an example.
Last year, I had this big goal to make multiple six figures. It was a big stretch. And one that I was excited and nervous about. But good nervous. One of the goals I had to hit that revenue mark was to start a podcast. When I sat down map out the time I would need to start the podcast, record, edit, all the things – I legit figured out that I didn’t have the time.
You see, I work only a few days a week and a few hours at a time. And I like it that way. I have become accustomed to a certain schedule and I didn’t want to lose that. So for the year, I had to adjust my goals. And it actually worked out because when the world was quarantined last spring, I had even less time than I originally planned.
Another example. I set my goals for January this year. I thought it was a stretch and again, I was excited about it. Then I hit my January goal on January 4th. I obviously set it too low! Which is a good thing too! I have learned how to leverage my time and it’s starting to work really well. And I will be launching the podcast too. More on that later.
So both of those examples are times that I had to adjust to make room for the creating content I needed to reach my goals.
Adjusting is not a bad thing. It means that you are aware of yourself and your boundaries. And you should honor that.
So what is your bandwidth for your goals and content this year? Are you taking time every single week to plan your content? Are you scheduling in your weekly live videos and time to do stories every day??
All of those things are important too.
Let’s Review
So let’s review the 3 things you should be reviewing when setting your goals for 2021.
- Review your numbers. As a side note – this month we are talking about metrics in the monthly membership. We are deep-diving into the platforms and what to look for!
- What are your cornerstones? What are people coming to you for time after time?
- What is your bandwidth? Are you taking time to plan content every week, using video, and does your time match your goals?
If you are interested in the content planning workshop on the 21st, I’ll drop the link below. I hosted one in December and it was amazing, so I’m doing an ENCORE presentation. If you can’t make it live, you’ll have access to the recording.
During the workshop you will:
- plan your content topics for the year
- Discover what platforms are the best for you to play on
- Plan how you are showing up on those platforms consistently
- I’ll share some of my favorite social media tips too
Thank you for joining me. Share your goals with me in the comments. I would love to hear how you are showing up in a bigger way for your people this year.