I am measuring success on a personal level, and I am measuring success on a professional level. And, it’s not that different. What’s important is that I am measuring it. A lot of people talk about how hard it is to measure success in social media, the thing is, it’s not that hard.
It all depends on how you define success.
Let me just start by telling you about my new year’s resolutions. This year, they’re a lot different than earlier. I don’t think that I have ever been able to not break them, but I am sure that now, for the first time, I will not break a single one of my resolutions, and I have twelve of them. The reason I believe I’m going to have success with all twelve, is that I am creating small healthy habits, one at a time. I am focusing on a simple change for thirty days. In January, my only goal is to not drink soda (and especially Coca-Cola Zero). That’s what I’m doing for thirty days. It’s not that hard, but it would have been, if I was focusing on many different things; like jogging three times a week and eating healthy, and loosing weight. I’m doing it, one step at a time. It will take more time, but I am sure that I will be successful doing it.
Success in business
Success in business is usually different than personal success. Not many people are focusing on drinking water as part of their business, but I might be different, because I am creating the same small habits for my business. That’s because, I believe that if I would have created big goals for the year, like I am going to earn $200,000 – I would still need to break down the goal into small habits. First, I would have to divide the number by twelve, to see how much I would need to earn each month, then I might turn it into habits of how to get new customers, and then new habits of making my customers happy.
No matter what I end up doing, I need it to be small in order for the end results to be big.
What I have done is this, I have turned personal goals and my professional goals into one and the same. That means that drinking water (not soda) is in fact my personal and my professional goal for the month of January.
I believe that if I can have success in creating small healthy habits, those habits, and the happiness I’ll get from the success, will have a huge impact on my business.
How to measure success in social media
The first thing we need, is to have goals that we can measure. We need to define success, before we start talking about failure. I have heard a lot of people say that they’re spending too much time on social, and that they’re not seeing any results from their blogging.
There are many ways to measure success, here are five ways to measure success:
- traffic
- mentions
- conversations
- sales
- leads
It’s not that hard to measure if, by being social, you get more traffic from Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Set yourself a goal that, traffic will increase by 10% each month, from your social activities. Focus on driving traffic, by being social.
It’s very easy to track how many times you’re being mentioned in social media, and how many conversations you’re having each month. This means that you’re “popular” and that people know about you, and this might eventually lead to more profit for your business.
When I am talking about leads, I am not just defining leads as people who are subscribing to your newsletter. To me, leads are people who are contacting you, via your contact form, via telephone, or whatever. I am defining leads as people who are reaching out to you, because of your activities on social. It’s harder to measure, because now you need to be using services like Google Analytics (free) or Clicky (paid) to find out where your visitors are coming from, and what actions they’re doing on your site. If they end up coming from a social media site, and end up reaching out to you, then you’ll add it as part of your criteria for success.
All of my clients are talking about selling via social media. They understand that it’s not as easy as updating their status with a sales message, and people will visit the store and start buying. They understand that it takes time, and that it’s a lot harder to measure sales via social media. That’s why we need to define success, and what sort of actions we need to add to our social media plans, in order to be able to measure success. I have told them to stop thinking about direct sales as part of their success, and start thinking about the process that leads to sales. For instance, if we get people to walk into the store, from what we’ve been doing on social media, that’s going to count as success. When people are inside the store, for whatever reason, they’re eventually going to talk to the sales people, and that’s how they create relationships.
The habits of success is about to change
I believe that what many businesses should be doing, is to define success as small steps that eventually might turn into big leaps. I know that it doesn’t sound like something your boss would tell you to do, but I am starting out by drinking water for 30 days, and by drinking water, I’ll feel a lot healthier, I’ll have more energy, and I’ll be happier. That’s all part of my business strategy. By focusing on the small habits, and measuring success one step (habit) at a time, I believe that business will be a lot more fun.
Twitter: MayuraDeSilva
Hi Jens,
I’m coming from Adrienne’s place and I remember you with the haircut story
When it comes to Social Media I’m much more focused in personal level and act as a brand too
Mostly I’ve measured success by the rewards of people rather than traffic, but such stats encouraging me too.
I like the idea of small steps forward mate
I’ve done that and it works for me always. I believe it in with the whole theme for year. I’ve started blogging as a way to help people and spread information. But now I’m thinking of integrating it more into my life to offer services and manage an online business 
I’ve made more changes especially from the tips of my friends online
Power of hanging out with right people, no? Looking forward to be more flexible on the way.
Wishing you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year with more success for you Jens
Cheers…
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Twitter: berget
Hey Mayura,
Happy New Year to you too. It’s great that you remember the haircut story
I have been focused on social media on a personal level as well, but now that I am running my own business, and helping my clients on social media, I need to have a different perspective. Measuring success is very important when it’s part of what you do for clients. They won’t pay me unless they understand that it’s working
It’s great that you’re doing the small steps forward too. This is my first time, I have always been taking giant leaps, and it has always been a failure in the long run
Twitter: thejoshuawilner
I am a big believer in using the power of small steps to build big rewards.
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Twitter: berget
I have become a big believer, and it’s working great, even thought it’s only been five days
Twitter: ExtremelyAvg
I’ve always found that I have much more success when I focus on the tiny. Writing a novel is impossible, but writing one chapter of a novel is easy as pie, so I don’t write novels, I write lots of chapters and before I know it I’m done.
I think I’ll drink more water, too.
Twitter: berget
That’s exactly what I was thinking when I wrote my novel. I started out thinking about the project as an impossible task, but I ended up with small tasks every single day, and now I’m finished
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Twitter: jonnalarajkumar
This article tells to schedule our events and approach towards success. Usually Internet techies have a plan for the forth coming years. The plan might include upcoming projects, goals and targets.
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Twitter: berget
It’s important to have clear goals and to define what success is for you, only then will you be able to be successful. I have talked to a lot of people who are not satisfied with their results, but when I ask them what their goals are, they’re not sure. You can’t say that you fail, or that you’re successful, if you haven’t defined success.
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Twitter: PaulineBennett2
Hi Jens
Having goals for the new year is very important as long as they are achievable, like you say it is not good setting goals that you know you are never going to be able to fill, small steps are the best.
I like Brian’s comment about writing chapters instead of a whole novel
I am writing small goals for each month of the year and then breaking them down to each week.
Thanks for sharing
Pauline
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Twitter: berget
Hi Pauline,
That’s exactly what I am doing this year. I haven’t been focusing on the small steps earlier, and that’s why I have been working so hard to reach them. I am certain that it’s easier to be successful if I am creating small habits, one month at a time. And so far, drinking water for January, has showed me that it is working
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Twitter: wonderoftech
Hi Jens, Yes, that is a great goal. Have you been able to stay away from Coke Zero? Is it harder than you think?
You’re right, success comes from small steps but I also was thinking of Adrienne’s blog post this week about how it’s important to spend more time on your own site and less on social media. She pointed out there there were a lot of people who were so busy getting Likes for their Facebook page but they weren’t responding to comments on their own sites or updating articles.
So I would say small steps are great, so long as those steps are in the right direction. Your steps are definitely in the right direction, Jens!
(dofollow)
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Twitter: berget
I have been able to stay away from Coke Zero, and I am so proud. What I have done, is that I have bought a Soda Stream machine, so I am making my own beverage (just sparkling natural water) and this helps me stay away from Coca-Cola
To me, doing the small steps has really been a huge difference. Thank you for always supporting me.
wow a new perspective. i am never considered about success in the social media but this year i really want to have some success in social media.
i am still very new to it but i am very willing to learn from gurus like u and i am grateful for all your selfless sharing !!
wishing u a success in all u do in 2013 !!
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Twitter: berget
I love to measure what I’m doing, and having small goals every month, makes it easier to be successful – and when you’re successful you’re more happy. That’s why I keep creating new healthy habits. When I’m happy, I am more focused, and I have a lot more energy, and I get a lot more done
Thank you.
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Twitter: blogrida
hello Peter,
very unique and attentive measurement you show us in your article,you really use nice thought that very have to concentrate on small step and really at last we found us at the peak point.
nice view,thank u
Twitter: berget
Thank you so much for the feedback
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