I spend a lot of time thinking about my goals and the goals for my blog. I do mind maps, create notes on EverNote, heck I have even used such great tools as excel and SpringPad for goal setting. As a matter of fact to be honest, I sometimes love the act of goal setting and planning better than the doing.
Tip from the previous Podcast 39: Making (Just Enough Time for Social Media)
We recommend that you only spend about 15 minutes a day working on your social media. If you do that every day your social media will be effective. Be careful though because social media can and will suck you in and before you know it time has passed and you feel overwhelmed. So it is good to have a plan and clear goals.
Here is a Facebook activity that does not take much time. Log into Facebook as your business (not yourself). Go find other pages where potential clients are, such as geo local pages if you are a local business, then leave comments on those pages. Try and find up to 3 pages a day but make this a time thing. Don’t spend more than a couple of minutes on this.
Remember give compliments and say thank you for sharing their information. Heck, share their post on your page if it makes sense. Don’t forget these are fellow business owners on the other side of that Facebook wall and they could use all of the help that they can get.
A quick SEO Tips from Mysiteauditor.com
I found this tip that I am about to share and really liked it because as the title of their post indicates, 5 Easy SEO Tips Nobody Does, this is something that I rarely hear conversation about. So let me read you their tip now.
2. Image Link Optimization
When you are link building for yourself or a client, build some of those links using images. The popular and common thing to do is to link your targeted key phrase to the web page you are optimizing, but that should only be part of your strategy. When you build links with images, don’t forget to optimize those images. This can be a little tricky because sometimes you don’t have control over someone else’s website. You may have to beg or grovel a bit, but it’s worth it.
Optimizing your image link is very similar to how you optimized your logo above.
- Name the file using your targeted keyword or phrase (remember, no underscores)
- Add an alt tag using your targeted key phrase
- Link to your targeted web page
Now let’s break that down real quick here, basically what they are saying is “instead of just linking to another site in the typical fashion of “keyword phrase that is linked or text links” go ahead and use an image instead. So in my mind you could create an image and that represents the context, brings interest and then provides a well optimized image link. This just really struck my fancy!
When I was a little girl I loved my barbies. I would get all of my barbies out and all of their clothes and accessories. I would spend hours organizing everything and playing with the little hangers. I would spend a tremendous amount of time preparing to play barbie and once everything was well organized I would get bored. Perhaps most people are like me though and they love the idea of what to do more than the doing.
Well now I am a semi-grown up and I must find ways to follow through and get things done and take things to the next step. Of course, when I realized that I needed a better plan than just planning I did some research. I came across the My Strategic Plan website: http://mystrategicplan.com/resources/smart-goal-setting-examples/ and they had some wonderful ideas that I wanted to share with you today. In the post that I am referencing here they are talking about smart goal setting and they provide a great way of thinking about it.
Think S.M.A.R.T. when you create your goal setting worksheet:
Specific:
Goals need to be specific. Try to answer the questions of How much and What kind with each goal you write.
The sprocket department will raise sprocket production by 20% by the end of this year.
Measurable:
Goals must be stated in quantifiable terms, or otherwise they’re only good intentions. Measurable goals facilitate management planning, implementation, and control.
The sprocket department will raise sprocket production by 20% by the end of this year.
Attainable:
Goals must provide a stretch that inspires people to aim higher. Goals must be achievable, or they’re a set-up for failure. Set goals you know you, your company, and employees can realistically reach.
The sprocket department will raise sprocket production by 20% by the end of this year.
Responsible person:
Goals must be assigned to a person or a department. But just because a person is assigned to a goal doesn’t mean that she’s solely responsible for its achievement. See our article on Performance Management for ideas on how to hold your team accountable for goal achievement.
The sprocket department will raise sprocket production by 20% by the end of this year.
Time specific:
With reference to time, your goals must include a timeline of when your goals should be accomplished.
The sprocket department will raise sprocket production by 20% by the end of this year.
It may sound funny but my specific goals that I am currently working on involve creating and curating more content. For the longest time I shied away from curated content, not even sure why, but I realize that I really want to start sharing what I think and learn even more. Every day I read great post and I share them on social media as much as possible but I have things that I want to add and say about other people’s stuff. So that is my current goal.
Do you have any goals that you would like to share? How do you measure your goals success? What goal setting tools do you use?
Image courtesy of suphakit73 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net