The end of the year is quickly approaching, so the ever popular time for renewal and goal setting – the New Year! – is right around the corner. It’s never too early, or too late, to start thinking about your goals for next year.
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The Ultimate Plan
As I dive into the creation of my new and exciting vision for next year, I’m trying to break apart my goals into smaller, more manageable bits. I’d like to share some of the items I’ll be focusing on next year, as I organize my thoughts and plan out my goals and goal bits.
The Ultimate Plan is my week-by-week definition and plan to accomplish my Ultimate Goals. (Ok, so this is the part I haven’t quite broken up yet, but I know what direction I’m headed!)
What’s your Ultimate Plan? Sounds like a huge, grueling task, doesn’t it? Well, it is quite a project, but a worthwhile one, I promise. (Right now, I feel like a mouse in a maze looking for the cheese.) So, the first step is to sit down and figure out exactly how you define success. What major, big picture goals do you want to accomplish next year? Be sure that these goals are specific enough that you know exactly when you’ve reached them. For example, don’t write down I want to have a better brand. Instead, write I will hire a branding expert during the first quarter to reevaluate my brand’s effectiveness. Next, break out all of your big goals into a realistic timeline. And you don’t have to work it out week-by-week if that’s too detailed for you. Shoot for at least one Ultimate Goal per month instead!
Branding Blog Bits
I’ve very much enjoyed writing The Branding Spot Blog for quite some time now and it’s thrilling to see all of the feedback and insights I’ve received here. So, on that note, a big part of my 2012 Ultimate Plan will be improving the blog, piece-by-piece and working with more social media to gain more recognition.
Here are my main focus points:
- Set my editorial calendar
- Reevaluate my target audience
- Review my most popular posts and determine new content based on feedback
- Line up more guest bloggers
- Do more guest blogging on other blogs!
- Evaluate where I can best redistribute my content to reach my target audience
- Use other forms of social media more, and more consistently
- Find the best way to use my favorite forms of social media
- Incorporate Twitter (Follow me @Spot_OnBranding!)
- Start something new! Maybe a podcast? YouTube?
- Focus on drawing more influencers to my blog articles
- Evaluate available tools to optimize and track blog content
What are your blogging and social media goals for the New Year? Like I said, now’s the time to at least start thinking about the direction you want to take your business and your personal brand next year!
Any ideas for The Branding Spot? As always, I enjoy and appreciate your feedback! Please leave a comment with your thoughts and perhaps you’ll spark an idea that makes it into my 2012 Ultimate Plan!