Setting goals is essential to finding success in anything, be it work, school, social media, or even home life. People set goals for all kinds of things, like how many new followers you want on Instagram by next month, or how much you want your business to increase by next year. Whatever that goal is, for you and your business to achieve it you need to know how to set that goal properly. That means setting SMART goals.
First, What Are SMART Goals
SMART is an acronym for what your goal needs to include. That is:
- S – Specific: Make your goals as specific as possible. The more vague, the harder it is to achieve them. Specificity ensures accountability for all the steps needed to reach that goal.
- M – Measurable: You need to know exactly how you’re going to measure your goal so that you can keep track of how quickly you’re achieving it. If your goal is to gain more followers on Instagram by next month then you need to know exactly how many you want so that you can keep track of your progress.
- A – Achievable: You can have big goals, but they can’t be impossible. Having goals that you know for certain you won’t be able to achieve just makes you feel down and less likely to work on new ones since the last seemed so pointless.
- R – Relevant: It is essential that your goals are relevant to what you or your business wants for your future. If not, you’re just wasting your time.
- T – Timely: Your goals need to have a deadline. Without it, nothing will be pushing you hard in the present to achieve it. If you don’t have a deadline, you’ll likely keep pushing it off to do other things for far too long.
“How many of us have abandoned a goal in the past? Probably the majority. And who should we blame? Ourselves. We set ourselves up for failure by being unrealistic. So let’s make a resolution to turn our unrealistic dreams into attainable social media goals.” – Like A Voss
Setting Goals Is Crucial To Success
Goals are the thing that pushes you to succeed, but only if they are set properly (that’s where setting SMART goals comes in). Without them, pushing your business into success, or even starting it at all, becomes next to impossible.
“Did you know that the majority of start-up businesses fail within their first 5 years? This is HUGE! According to experts, a large reason behind this is the fact that many business owners fail to plan ahead.” – The Female Solopreneur
Without planning and goal setting, it’s far too easy to lose direction. For any business, big or small, your path forward needs to be clear. It has to be SMART!
SMART Goals Are More Achievable
If you’ve taken the time to make your goals SMART, you’re going to find that you have a much easier time actually achieving them than if your goal was vague such as “To get more Instagram followers.” With a goal like that, how do you know when you’ve achieved it? How many followers do you want? How are you going to push to get them? When do you want to have them by? With all those questions unanswered, it’s much easier to give up than if your goal was, “To gain 100 followers on Instagram by the beginning of next month.”
“Because SMART goals include a measurable outcome, you’ll have a clear idea of when you achieve your goal and whether you did so on time.” – The Hartford
Success in business requires reaching goals. Reachable goals require them to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. The next goal you write, make sure that it has those five things. Then see how much easier it is to achieve it!
Need help setting SMART goals for your social media? Contact us today to set up a FREE discovery session with our team – we’d love to help!
