Perfecting My Craft | 2024 Content Goals
As the New Year rapidly approaches, December is always a popular time to start thinking about resolutions to change bad habits and set goals for the upcoming year. Some people jump into a strict fitness regimen while others buckle down from all the holiday spending to achieve some financial milestones.
Setting goals for the New Year doesn’t just stop on a personal level. Lots of business owners use this time period to align their visions, thoughts, and ideas to create an action plan for the following year. While these goalposts may move, change, and adjust with new information, it’s at least a starting point to get the ball rolling.
Kris and I made a vision board during the summer of 2020 when the pandemic kept us in the house. The last time I looked at it, I was amazed that we literally accomplished almost every single goal except for maybe one. You don’t even realize how far you’ve come until you take a second and look back on everything you’ve been through.
For me, I have some content goals for The Musings of Jessica Marie and Adaptive Marketing, but I don’t have a firm deadline of when I need to achieve them. They aren’t goals that have to be met, but I figured why not start tracking my progress and growth over time. As much as I’d love to ignore numbers, if I want to chase after the stars, it’s going to require leaning on some of the analytics.
My goals definitely differ per social media platform since each requires different strategies to succeed and some are actually easier to attain than others. I’m keeping my numbers realistic so I don’t get swindled into the fairytale of overnight success. I’m working towards:
100 subscribers on YouTube,
100 views on a single YouTube video,
100 followers on Instagram,
50 followers on Pinterest,
50 followers on Facebook, and
50 subscribers to my blog’s newsletter.
The numbers seem relatively small from face value, but they will require some growth to hit the marks. My current numbers are:
34 subscribers on YouTube,
71 views on a single YouTube video,
60 followers on Instagram,
6 followers on Pinterest,
20 followers on Facebook, and
3 subscribers to my blog’s newsletter.
While I’m not starting from ground 0, I definitely have some work to do to grow my platforms. I’ve found the hardest part is getting people to actually care about what you’re posting. I’m producing quality content that aligns with my brand, but certain topics just don’t go up. There are numerous courses out there that can help explain the basics of growing on social media, but sometimes it’s better to get customized help from a consultant who can guide you on exact steps to take for your specific business or social account.
In my experience, Instagram is by far the hardest to gain traction on while surprisingly enough, sometimes my YouTube videos do pretty decent with engagement. My husband is my #1 supporter of everything I post and I can count on him being the one and only person liking my IG posts. I haven’t cracked the secret to actually growing, but every video, post, and graphic created is one step closer to perfecting my craft.
Plus, there’s no rush.
Oftentimes when January comes around, we get into a tizzy of cleaning our homes, setting strict exercise and diet rules, quitting our bad habits cold turkey, starting 20 new business ventures, and effectively trying to completely change our lives in 31 days. Usually all of this change leads to us getting burned out and reverting back to what we’re used to simply because it’s very difficult to break, create, and sustain new habits. Try the following tips to help you start 2024 with long-lasting change.
Break big goals down into specific, bite-sized pieces. While it’s important to dream big and shoot for the stars, it’s also important to have steps to get there. Becoming famous on social media and growing a YouTube following to 10,000 subscribers by posting every week are two very different goals. One is measurable and specific while the other is too subjective to actually accomplish anything.
Be realistic. As much as we all would love to lose 50 pounds by February, it’s just not feasible. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment by setting unrealistic expectations.
Share your goals with family and friends. As you tackle bad habits, it’s important to have people you trust to keep you accountable and on track. Social support is just one critical way to prevent yourself from falling off the wagon.
Mistakes will happen. Don’t let them keep happening. No one is perfect. The question isn’t if you’ll slip up, but when….and what you do afterwards. Don’t give yourself excuses to landslide back into bad habits. Have resilience to pick yourself up and continue striving towards your goals.
While my goals won’t make or break my life next year, it’s hard not to keep pushing to achieve the very best that I possibly can. At the end of the day, nothing in life worth having comes easy.
If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by giving this video a thumbs up, leaving a comment, and subscribing to my channel. I’ll see you in the next episode!
Signed,
Jessica Marie
