Did you set goals for growing a business socially when you first started blogging?
I didn’t. I know now that was silly of me!
I started out with flawed thinking.
I just wanted to learn how to blog and get found.
- Didn’t have a clue how to get noticed, other than studying SEO!
However, in the last several years, I did learn that there is much more to it than that.
This great lesson allowed me to refocus and envision how I could make use of and what I wanted to be doing for growing a business socially with goals and strategies.
Think about this…
It’s the Stroke of Midnight.
Where were you last year when 2014 turned into 2015?
Is that where you wanted to be?
Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution that you’ve kept? Maybe you kept a few of them.
Meanwhile…
I’ve been setting the same New Year’s resolution for growing a business socially for the past 2 years.
These are some of the goals that I’ve set up for myself and my clients…
- Blogging at least once a week. More is better. Consistency is best!
- Update my optin gift every 6 months.
- Participate in great reciprocal groups online.
- Keep working on being a ‘Power User’ on social media. That would be growing myself as an ‘influencer’.
You can discover more on that at “How to Build Traffic Through Social Media With Influencers”
- Share my expertise through free and paid for classes.
My favorite being the “Social Media & Content Mastery Group”
- Set up chats to learn what others are doing and might need that I could offer help with.
- Promote my business and generate leads through my Social Media Marketing Funnel System.
See more on that at “How to Understand the Importance of a Social Media Marketing Funnel”
- Continue being coached by an expert. Learning and implementing more of what I need to do to help my audience.
- Become more intentional in achieving greater successes.
End goal = Increasing sales on social media.
Now this was my personal set of business social goals for 2014-15, and will be similar with more insights for 2016.
These goals have turned out spectacularly successful. So, obviously, I’m planning a repeat resolution.
Plus, I always add areas to explore and expand within the steps of reaching my goals as I continue beyond 2015.
But before I jump into the details, let me say this…
- Think about doing more than writing your end goal. Design an exciting and fun journey.
Create a tangible map for this journey by redefining past goals and implementing new ones
But that’s just part of the story…
After what seemed like years of frustration, I started to approach social media with a purpose.
Meanwhile, I discovered…
Being intentional meant three main things for growing my business in a social way:
- Pay attention to the goals I set and have a strategy.
- Using a workable system and apply it routinely.
- As I work my plan, I can make changes in my strategy and systems for improvement.
- Investing in resources
- Continue being coached by experts.
- Paying for better images.
- Put more thought and money into professional looking platform banners (still in process).
- Continuing with better site protection from hackers.
-
Believing in social media as a tool to achieve my goals of growing a business socially online.
- Set measurement objectives.
- Focus on the metrics that show a shift in the way my audience is viewing or interacting with my brand.
- Growing my followers and engaging more.
It took me awhile…
But, I learned that using social media meant I needed to focus on building and implementing my social media strategy.
Which meant I had to develop goals and objectives for using different tools.
The results were remarkable.
In less than one year, I grew my followers considerably.
From June 2015 to November 20:
- Growing my Twitter followers, for example, from a humble 1000 to 7200. That’s just in 6 months – Or over 1000 new targeted followers a month!
I can help you get started demystifying… Download your free ‘Twitter and Blogging for Business” Mini Course.
Then take a look and click follow me at
- My Facebook Page has grown from 1000 to over 2300
Go ahead and ‘like’ my page and see what’s up at facebook.com/AskCoachDonna and let me know to ‘like’ you back!
- Pinterest went from 360 to 1.6K –
I’m at Pinterest ~ bizcoachdonna – Let’s follow each other here!
These are the main 3 for me – But my Google Plus, LinkedIm along with Instagram, Stumbleupon are growing more quickly than last year!
- But beyond just numbers, I’m achieving something better: I’m listening to what people are saying about their issues.
- Discovering how I can help more of my ideal clients reach their own goals.
- And building relationships as a result.
- Plus, generating more leads for my email list.
End goal = Increasing sales on social media.
What about you?
In undertaking any sort of activity, you need to have a reason for doing it, set strategic goals to achieve and strive for with measurable objectives to track progress.
Using social media without planning, I found, won’t move you ahead as quickly as you’d like, and success doesn’t come just by “doing something.”
Writing out your goals is a great first step towards growing a business socially online.
You don’t have to do it alone.
It is so much easier when you don’t try to tackle it alone.
I provide great resources with my low-cost workshop Social Media and Content Mastery Group.
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This is so helpful! When I first started blogging, I didn’t have any goals – just to enjoy writing. Now, 3 years later, this has become a business and each year I establish one new objective for the year ahead. This year was to work smarter, not harder. That motto helped me see the bigger picture this year. Here’s to 2016!
Thank you, Ashley – Congrats on getting it together! Yes, here’s to 2016 successes 🙂
Love your tips and goals.
I find that participating in the Facebook groups, as you do, brings in a lot of traffic and makes it so much easier to make sure that I visit lots of blogs everyday.
I also like using Triberr to promote my blog on Twitter. It is excellent.
Investing in resources is probably the most important thing for me. I love having a VA and I love having quality resources to put back into my business. Great post!
I agree with you there, Rebecca – Have resources in our planning helps us stay on target 🙂
you did a great job growing last year. Can’t wait to see how much you grow next year. I’m going to take a look at your resources and see what all I can learn.
Thank you, Dina – I am so happy to hear that you’re taking time to look at my resources – and hope to see you on our training calls soon!
These are really great tips! I have a business that’s only 1 year old but it’s going well — and I want it to keep getting better! So tips like these really helps a lot. Thanks!
These are really great tips. It’s always fun to look back over the year to see how your business grew during the year! I can’t wait to see what is up next in 2016 for us.
These are awesome ways of managing a positive business that grows int he next year. Social media is a great way to promote business and you mentioned that. I love this and appreciate the share so much!
Thank you, Crystal – so glad you found this of interest 🙂 There’s a lot to do and preparing for our new year is a huge step.
You have made some great increases in your following. The twitter increase is very impressive. I hope to be more consistent in my blog posting.
I didn’t set goal when I first started either but I have definitely learned that having goals helps me to feel motivated and work harder towards achieving them.
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These are very helpful tips. Participating in reciprocal groups online really help a lot.
I am trying to grow my business socially in 2016. I am really trying to focus in on instagram because I am seeing a lot of growth there.
It is so important for anyone to set goals and to stick by them. These are great tips and goals for any blogger or business person. It is indeed beneficial to research as well as utilize any tools too that can help you achieve the goals you set for your business.
When I first started blogging I had no idea about making goals and growing as a business. Now I have learned a lot more.
That’s great to hear Bonnie – would love to hear more about what you’ve learned – thanks!
That’s one of my goals this year. To update my blog more consistently and grow my blog socially. Thanks for the tips.
Those are great goals to have. It is better to have goals to aspire for year on year. Increasing profit in social media is a feat.
These all sound like great tips to help grow your business socially! It is important to set goals so you have something to strive for.
Thank you, Britni – Would enjoy hearing what goals have helped you 🙂
I am certainly working on creating goals for the new year. There are just SO many things to do!
That’s good to hear, Krystal – I know that there can be a lot of goals to put into place – that’s why a strategy works
I am the last person to ask about setting goals for my blog. This is something I would like to do so that I can enjoy a prosperous beneficial new year with my blog.