Hey there,
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Let’s play a game today.

Can you spot a mistake new creators are making in the following two examples:

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Example 1: I got on a phone call with a friend who wanted to get started with content creation in the coding (software development) space. He said he has set goals for his IG reels as well.

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What’s the goal? you might ask.

Well, he wanted to hit 30K followers within 6 months.

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Isn’t setting goals a good thing, Areeb?

Of course, it is. We all need goals not just in social media, but in life as well.

But, can you think of what he’s doing wrong?

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Example 2: A few days back, I got messages from a supporter on LinkedIn. He said he started creating content on LinkedIn but was getting poor engagement. (1-2 likes).

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Naturally, it disappointed him and he wanted to give up because of poor engagement.

Now, without giving more context, can you spot a mistake he was doing?

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First of all, it’s great to see people pushing forwards to create content and build their voices on social. But, there’s a small tweak they need to make in their goal setting, to achieve the results they desire.

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If you haven’t guessed it already, both of them were focusing on external metrics.

What are external metrics?

• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Followers
• Impressions
• Views

You get it.

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But Areeb, what’s so bad about achieving these goals? Shouldn’t we strive to gain followers and increase engagement?

Of course, metrics are important.

But making your goals centred around metrics that are beyond your control, is a sure-shot way to keep running on a hamster wheel.

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This is a mistake I was making as a new YouTuber.

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When I reached 100 subscribers, I wish I had 1000.

When I reached 1000, I wish I had 10,000.

When I reached 10,000, I wish I had 50,000.

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Now I currently have 53K+ subscribers and I have learned this lesson the hard way:

Because of two reasons:

1. You can’t control the metrics. If you could, you’d already have 10 Million followers, isn’t it?
2. Since metrics are a number, there’s no end to it. And believe me, you don’t want to keep running on a hamster wheel.

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So, what’s the solution?

Should you stop setting goals altogether and just create content?

Definitely no.

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As I mentioned earlier, goal setting is important.

We just need to change the approach to goal setting.

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Rather than making result-based goals, focus on making action-oriented goals.

Here’s what action-oriented goals look like:

• I will post 3 LinkedIn posts every week
• I will create 5 IG reels every week
• I will create 1 YouTube video every week

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You get it.

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The best part about action-oriented goals is that they are 100% within your control.

You decide a frequency and you get to decide whether you post it or not.

When you focus on action-oriented goals, two things will happen:

1. You will build a routine to create content on a consistent basis
2. Creating content on a consistent basis will give you feedback (in terms of engagement) which in turn allows you to improve and attract followers as a by-product

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So, you would still be able to get the engagement and followers you want.

But that happens as a by-product of creating content that is:

• Valuable
• Informative
• Or Entertaining

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To summarise, set goals that are within your control, and you’d avoid the stress 95% of the creators have.

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Question for you:

What are your goals for social media? And what’s your primary platform of focus?

For those of you who are still on the fence, what’s stopping you from creating content?

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I’d love to know so I can serve you better.

(And I respond to all my emails)

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Enjoy the weekend!

Areeb

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