[DeLa Doll] Setting and Tracking Goals – Free Tips and Tools for Content Creators, Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my “Free Tips and Tools for Content Creators” series! I…really wish I’d come up with a catchier name, but I digress. Part 1 focused on how to recognize your strengths as a creator through the use of self reflection and social media metrics/analytics data. That data I included a list of where to find and access this data in that article, but I’ll post them here as well:

• Instagram Insights
  • How to Access Instagram Insights
• YouTube Channel Analytics (direct link)
  • How to Access YouTube Channel Analytics
• Twitter Analytics (direct link)
  • Accessible via Twitter profile by tapping your profile and selecting “Analytics” from the dropdown menu OR going to “analytics.twitter.com”
• Facebook Page Insights
  • Accessible via your public Facebook page by clicking “Insights”
• TikTok Insights
  • Accessible via a “Pro” account (you just have to switch your profile settings to pro)
  • Data Available (includes video views, follow demographics data, etc.)
    • Profile overview
    • Content insights
    • Follower insights

Using the data each of these sources provides, you’ll be able to see your growth in terms of followers and engagement (the ways and frequency in which people interact with your content), which will help you keep track of the progress you’re making towards achieving your goals…but how do you set tangible goals?

How to Set Goals

This seems easy enough. Let’s say you want to monetize your cosplay. You say “my goal is to be a professional cosplayer” and your plan is to make really good cosplays. And that’s it. You’re done with your goal setting, right?

via GIPHY

That’s a cool dream, but it’s not specific enough. There’s no real plan to accomplish the goal or measure your progress towards achieving that goal. It’s much easier to work towards your overall dream when you break your overall goal into specific milestones and track your progress with tangible data. I’ll use myself as an example, as I did this last summer as part of a project for school (and my general desire to grow as a content creator). I had to put together a presentation for my class, so I’ll include relevant slides below.

Step 1: State Your Objective

Here’s where you want to start thinking about the specific aspects of your journey. How do you personally define success? In my case, I wanted to grow my social media presence by increasing my following on various platforms, generating support via sponsorships (relevant ones, as opposed to just seeking out “free stuff) and Patreon earnings, and focus on improving the overall quality of my content.

As you can see, I set the specific goals of increasing my overall followership by 10% (which can be tracked via the social media analytics data that I keep mentioning; it matters, people!), and by garnering a sponsorship and more subscribers on Patreon. The important thing is to set goals which have quantifiable results. Just saying “make better cosplay” and “post more on Instagram” aren’t enough.

Step 2: Record Your Starting Point

Once you’ve determined your goal and accompanying measurable objectives, you can record any relevant stats that represent your starting point. In my case, my timeline was determined by the duration of the semester I had to work on my project; your timeline should be whatever you’re comfortable with. Don’t work against yourself by setting unrealistic overly strenuous deadlines, and don’t neglect to set any deadlines at all. It’s all about balance. These were my stats at the start of my project, which were recorded June 7, 2019:

It helps to have a starting point so that you can get a visual and numerical understanding of your growth. Sometimes we can get caught up in thinking that we haven’t made any progress, but that is seldom the case. Things are always changing, and knowing the direction in which things are going can help us determine what steps we should be taking, and what methods we should be using to see the change we desire. That brings me to step 3, which is…

Step 3: Determine Your Plan of Attack via Evaluation and Research

This step involves determining what steps you’re going to take to hit your milestones and achieve your goal. It involves determining your strengths (check part one of this series for more on that!), assessing any points of weakness, addressing any current issues, doing relevant research, and of course, creating content! In my case, my plan of attack was as follows:

Evaluation

Because cosplay is a very visual activity, and because I wanted to start making videos, I knew that I needed to upgrade my equipment and learn to create more aesthetically pleasing content. My pictures were never bad, but I knew my lighting could be better, and I could do more to practice posing. I also knew through research (watching my favorite YouTubers + the videos of creators making the type of content I wanted to make), that I would eventually have to invest in a nicer camera for video recording because my iphone wasn’t going to give me the type of quality I wanted. With that said, don’t stress yourself out if you can’t immediately acquire the tools you want: learn to use what you have to the best of your ability, and eventually you’ll be able to upgrade when the time comes!

Research

As far as research goes, in addition to learning about the equipment needed to improve my content the way I wanted, I also paid attention to trends in the cosplay community and kept up with new ways in which my fellow content creators were increasing their engagement. Part of this involves being active within your respective community and subculture, which is something that comes with sincere interest and enthusiasm. Don’t look at other creators as your competition; they are your peers and can even be your inspiration! Look at what others are doing, but don’t imitate them! Think about the things you enjoy most about your favorite creator, and why what they do works for them. Then, think about your own strengths, and figure out what works best for you. The best creators are passionate and leverage their greatest attributes, and so the key is finding out what your best attributes are, not trying to emulate someone else’s.

The other part of this step involves researching specific things, like googling “how to increase engagement on Instagram 2019,” then reading relevant articles and watching videos with helpful tips. There are tons of free resources available that can keep content creators up to date on the best way to utilize a specific platform at a given time. One YouTuber in particular who I found to be particularly helpful is Vanessa Lau. Vanessa is a self described “Online Business Coach for Millennials.” She makes videos geared towards helping aspiring content creators grow their followings organically, and the methods she described helped me throughout my project, and continue to help me today (her video on how to get a “swipe up” link in your Instagram stories without having 10,000 followers was a godsend).

Step 4: Get to Work!

Now that you know what you want to do and how you’re going to do it, go forth and create! Apply your methods, create content, track your progress, evaluate their effectiveness (via analytics data + personal reflection), adjust as needed, do some more research, and repeat! That’s all there is to it. I even made this cute little infographic that I dubbed “the content creation cycle.”

Some of the specific and most effective things I did throughout my project included:

• Completely overhauling in my Instagram page

• Buying a new recording and lighting equipment

• Designing a new logo + learning to use my Instagram stories and highlights to my advantage

• Regularly using free social media analytics data to track my growth (but not obsessively!)

• Creating content I was proud of, doing my best to improve and be consistent while using my knowledge of the current trends to my advantage

These are just examples of some of the things I did; your methods and journey will be different depending on your goals, personal style, and skill set! I want to stress that it’s all about finding your own identity as a creator, and continually using that knowledge to your advantage to develop and promote your content effectively.

Closing

In the case of my project, my content creation cycle proved to be very effective! I ended up meeting my milestones, getting my first sponsorship, and getting a better sense of who I was as a creator. I continue to use these same methods to this very day. Here are the results of my project, which were recorded on August 14, 2019:

If you check out my social media pages now, you’ll see that I’ve continued to grow since then (even after a brief hiatus). I hope this part of my “Free Tips and Tools for Content Creators” series has inspired you to set and track your own goals, or to make any necessary adjustments or changes necessary to follow your dreams! The next part in this series will be all about working with brands and obtaining sponsorships, so stay tuned!

PS – If you found this article helpful, consider supporting me on Patreon (it’s just $5 for full access to cool content!) or buying me a “coffee” (it’s like a tip jar!) so that I can continue to create content like this, thanks!

~DeLa Doll

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