Most people have the same response to their goals on Instagram. Everyone wants more followers! I’ve been working with small businesses and entrepreneurs on their social media for almost 9 years. I always start a new contract by asking their goal for social media. 75% of people will just say “more followers”, “more fans”, “more, more, more!” But that overarching goal doesn’t help me craft a strategic approach to their accounts.
To make the most of an Instagram account I need to to get very specific about goals. Do you want to drive website traffic, reach 10,000 followers so you can add links to stories, sell directly through your Instagram account, or drive foot traffic to a brick and mortar store? Each of those goals will require a different approach and will be measured in different ways.
Why You Need To Set Goals On Instagram
Getting “more followers” is a completely respectable goal, but take a step back and consider what you hope that giant follower number will mean for you and your business.
I’m a big believer in goal setting and I’ve tried out several different methods to help me set goals and stay accountable to them. One is the Chalkboard Method that you can read about on the Being Boss website. Right off the bat they tell you that, “You won’t know that you’ve met your goals until you set your goals.”
For the Chalkboard Method I keep track of my blogging and business goals for each quarter on a whiteboard behind my desk. I draw out lines for how many sponsored posts I want to get and how many coaching clients I want to work with. There’s something about drawing out those lines that makes the goals seem less scary and more likely to happen. Part of it is that the lines require me to get specific about my goals.
For example, you might say that your goal for this year is to do more sponsored posts on my Instagram account. That’s a great goal, but writing that out on your whiteboard isn’t going to get you anywhere! I believe that you need to get very specific. I might write out that I want to secure three sponsored posts in April. Now that’s a goal that has a clearly defined end point and I can work backwards to figure out how to achieve it.
Setting Goals Helps You Create Systems
I found a really great blog post about creating systems to achieve your goals. The author, James Clear, talks about why you need to forget about goals and focus on your systems. In the example I give above, my system would be the steps that I take to reach out to potential sponsors, secure a collaboration with them, publish the content and report on it. James has found that, “goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.”
When you break down your goals and get very specific about what you want to achieve and know the WHY behind it all, then you can lay out your systems to knock your goals out of the park!
What if you’ve already set really specific goals for your account but can’t seem to reach them? You might need to take a step back and make sure that your actual account is specific enough. Read my post about setting the focus of your account and learn how getting specific has helped me grow.
