Setting Goals for Social Media

Written by Acme Mag

Ask yourself this: would you rather show hundreds of people through an open home, none who have any interest in making an offer, or show just 10 people through, all of whom are in a position to make an offer?  Imagine you’re presenting to a stadium full of people but none of them care about what you’re saying. They’ve tuned out, talking to each other, walking out as you speak. Now imagine presenting to just 50 people who are actually interested in what you have to say? They actively attend every event, ask questions and recommend you to others. We know which we’d prefer.

It’s time to think of your social media in the same way. You wouldn’t want 50k followers who never look at what you post. You want 1,000 people who actually join your live videos, reply to your stories, tag their friends on your posts and most of all, value your service offering.

It’s important to not get caught up on an overarching number of your account – it doesn’t define you or how good your product or service is. Once you shift your attention from just ‘getting more followers’ to putting together a solid strategy, your focus will change to creating engaging content that actually matters to your target audience. An increase in followers will then happen naturally.

Don’t Take Shortcuts

It’s a rarity to go viral overnight. Growing a strong following takes time and effort.  While it can be tempting to purchase followers, we strongly recommend against it. Not only is it misleading, but people are getting better at spotting it as soon as they land on your page. Alarm bells go off when people see an account with 1M followers but barely any interactions on posts. It’s suspicious (and rightly so).

Not only could it seriously tarnish your brand, it’s also against Instagram’s terms of service. They have systems in place to clear our fake profiles and bots. It’s better not to risk looking questionable when you could lose thousands of followers overnight, or your account even being deactivated.

Your Personal Brand IS Important

So now you know the key to using social media to your advantage isn’t about gaining millions of followers, how can you utilise it to grow your own personal brand? In 2023, on average 55% of the world’s population will spend two and half hours per day on social media. If you’re not tapping into this, whether you work for yourself or for someone else, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to engage with potential customers all through a device that’s likely glued to your hand every day.

It’s Not Too Late to Make an Impact

It’s common to put off your social media. ‘I don’t have time’, ‘no one will care about what I do’, or ‘it’s too late, other people are years ahead with thousands of followers’ usually being the most common complaints . As we said before, followers are not how to measure success, and you need to start somewhere. Crush your worries and start thinking about how you can use your feed to actually add joy and value to your audience’s day.

How To Cut Through on Social Media

Think about the last account you followed on social media outside of friends and family. What made you follow that account? Let’s say you followed Nike. Was it because they posted a great workout or recipe that you wanted to use, or interviewed your favourite athlete? Would you have followed them if they just posted about how many shoes they’d sold that month?

Now apply this to yourself. Think about who your audience is and what they care about. How can you create content that actually matters to them? There may be a place for your own stats to be featured, but keep social media personal. It’s the place to create emotional meaning, be inspiring, be genuine and get creative. A chance to genuinely connect with people.