Setting Goals (ugh, must we?)

We're setting our social media strategy goals wrong - and here's what I think we should be doing instead.

Hi everyone - I hope you’re doing well! I wanted to hop in today (and more so, in the future) and talk to you about some marketing thoughts and strategies in a way that makes them more tangible and hopefully, motivating - for our book-advertisement purposes.

I’ve been deep in the tank personally, about my various personas and offerings online - who am I, and what is bringing me the most joy to share with others? These feel like artsy, existential questions - but it’s a huge part of how we all show up as brands. And through those same questions, I realized: I think I can be more helpful to you all if I take these kinds of things that I’m chewing on and bring them to the table for everyone to take a look at.

So what’s wrong with my goals?

Well - I’m painting with broad strokes here, but let’s look at two different “goals” that an author might have. I am directly basing these off of my own goals so you can see where I’m coming from - and going.

Goal Set 1:

• I want to get more preorders / sell my book / get more readers

• I want to get more followers - no finite end, but in perpetuity

• I want high engagement - lots of likes, comments, and shares

• I want viral posts - reels or tiktoks in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views

• I want more website visits, link in bio clicks, newsletter sign ups, etc

All of the above goals are valid, to an extent. Writing them like that though… they’re sort of open ended, I think. How many comments? When will the follower count be high enough? Will one viral reel make a difference? How do I know if any of the latter goals connect to the first? When will I feel like I’ve accomplished something? These are more traditional marketing strategy measurements…. not quite goals, and definitely not strategic all by themselves.

Here’s the mindset/goal shift I’m interested in, for myself, for instagram and threads specifically. Yours might look similar and it might look completely different - but if I asked you to write goals like this, what might you ask for? Keep that in mind.

Goal Set 2:

• I want to connect with like-minded people. I want community - folks who love what I do, who will root for my wins and vibe with me in the slow periods. I want a comment section full of familiar faces and to see my attitude reflected back at me. I want quality over quantity.

• I want to connect with readers who feel like they were made for my books - or rather, like my books were made for them. I want to find those readers who delight in every angle of my story, and who will always eagerly await the next installment.

• I want my social media to be a place where I can create posts that convince people to read my books, but that also leave me enough space to be myself - I want to shine through clearly, so that the connections I do make feel authentic.

But Charlie, that sounds ridiculous and impossible! Well okay I mean… yeah. It might be! But it also might not, and I for one, am willing to try - because I want to re-engage with social media in a way that serves me, and not the endless rat-race that’s outlined in goal set one. In fact, I think they work together in a huge way. Let me show you.

Goal Set 3:

• I want quality over quantity - connection and community.

  • I will measure this in all the traditional ways - likes, shares, comments, and follows. I will set smaller monthly goals if it aligns with my advertisement cadence, like increasing my follower count goals before a release, or increasing comments & shares around release day.

• I want to connect with readers who will love every word of my book.

  • I will achieve this through my posting naturally. This is a goal that will guide the spirit of my posts, and the way I show up with authenticity online. It will refocus my feelings of success (on socials) on the readers that are already showing up for me, versus those who I haven’t “captured” yet.

• I want my social media to feel more like a creative outlet, even if I have to use it to advertise my books.

  • I will achieve this by allowing myself room to express myself. My books are a part of me, and I am the brand, the company, and part of the product. Through the goals, measurements, and applications above, and via the community and energy that they build, I will see a cohesion and effectiveness shine through my online efforts. This will then result in more traditional metric success.

Will this actually sell books?

Yeah, I think so! I wouldn’t be saying so otherwise. But I also think this really gets to the crux of why I’m writing this article for you all today though. Everyone is so fucking tired.

There’s so much going on - for all of us individually and personally, but also in the world. There’s this inherent drive to succeed, and a nagging feeling that these creative industries are zero sum. We’re comparing ourselves to our colleagues, and we’re stifling jealousy at our friends’ successes. We are all, in many ways, in a collective burnout and very few people are actually giving themselves permission to heal.

So what do we do? I recognize that taking a break from social media - and therefore advertising and marketing your books - is not a possibility for most. What I can offer instead is a mindset shift that allows you to do the same things, physically, but ideally free you to think about it a little differently.

What if you had fun? What if you made jokes? What if you posted your pet? What if you posted that bar napkin poem you wrote? Who cares about any of it at all, if you’re not able - and allowing yourself - to show up authentically? What if it’s not a miserable job, but another place for you to cherish the incredible work you’ve done and express yourself as an author and artist?

This all sounds like a lot of woo-woo garbage, I do recognize that haha. But I am going through this same change. This article is proof positive of that! I’m breaking my own molds to show up and say what I want to say. I’m reinventing myself and telling nobody (except all 700 of you subscribers, I guess, LOL) because it’s nobody’s business but mine - but it is very important to me that as I heal from this collective creative burnout that I give myself permission to do it my way.

TL;DR -

Unless you have tiktok shop set up, or possibly the instagram shop feature, it is nearly impossible to tell if your individual posts and social media are actively selling your books. It could be word of mouth, some random book club, a post on some old school blog - there’s no way to know, because you cannot track the clicks. So with that in mind, and knowing that we’re stuck here anyway, and also really fucking tired, here’s what we do:

We try switching up our goals. We try a new mindset. We try to give ourselves space to grow and be different or even just be more fully you. I can tell you with 100% confidence and certainty that all people are attracted in a big way to authenticity. And maybe if through redefining your goals into something warm, cherished, and exciting, you can make those connections, your marketing will feel less like marketing and more like YOU. And I think that’s the most winning possible strategy for selling any kind of product, period.