Set better social media goals.
By Danielle Mellema, Chief Ghostwriter, Digital Content Manager
Setting goals for your social media engagement is about more than “reaching ___ followers,” “getting x number of likes on each post,” or “posting more.” These types of goals will have you chasing the latest trends and meme fads or riding the waves of changes to the algorithm instead of leveraging social media to help you reach personal and professional goals. You don’t just want engagement for engagement’s sake; you want engagement that will help get you where you want to go.
When setting goals for social media engagement, here are some questions to ask yourself:
What larger goal is your social media engagement supporting?
“Increasing social media followers” or “post more often” are not effective goals by themselves. You first need to gain clarity on what you are using social media to help you do. Maybe that’s making connections in your field to grow your network. It could be that you want to develop a personal brand that will catch the eye of recruiters. Perhaps you desire to share your many decades of hard-earned wisdom with others in your industry. It could even be that social media gives you an avenue to find your unique “voice” for a book project you’re working on. Any social media goal must be in service of an overarching personal or professional goal.
What seems to be working well?
Instead of doom scrolling, use your time on social media to pay attention and make some observations. Ask yourself:
What kind of content resonates with me or with my target audience or colleagues?
What content catches my eye visually or causes me to stop my scroll?
How are others striking that balance between personality that feels accessible and professionalism that builds trust?
What kinds of things have I shared on social media in the past that got high quality engagement?
What do I need in order to create quality content?
If you want your social media presence to do more than add to the noise, you need to offer high quality content.
Now stop right here! What was your reaction or first thought after reading that statement? Maybe it was:
“I don’t have time for that.”
“What counts as ‘quality content’?”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Nothing I could share would be that different than what I’ve already seen a thousand times on my feed.”
Your internal response might give you a clue to what you might be lacking in order to set social media goals and actually meet them in a way that promotes your vision for your career and personal growth. For example, if you feel like you don’t have time to create good content, maybe you need to make an appointment with yourself to work on it each week, hire a ghostwriter or social media manager, or find a frequency of posting and engaging that feels sustainable for this season of your career and life, rather than the posting schedule of someone in a different set of circumstances.
What steps can I take to encourage thoughtful engagement, not just likes?
We have a lot less control over social media engagement than we’d like. At the end of the day, you can’t force people to read what you write (no matter how high-quality it is), comment on posts, or share your work.
But you can do small things to open the door for others to interact with you through the content you are creating.
Ask questions in your posts instead of just making a statement.
Invite people to share stories about leadership lessons learned when you share one of your own.
Share a quotation that resonated with you or a book that you’re reading and enjoying, and encourage others to do the same in the comments (and then take the time to respond to anyone who shares).
Crowd-source wisdom about a challenge you are facing (The challenge doesn’t have to be significant or overly personal.)
Comment or share the things that the people you follow post if you think your audience would benefit from it.
You can’t force engagement, but you can encourage it.