3. Define your goals

This is part Three of my series ’65 Social Media Strategies for Performing Artists’

What do you hope to achieve with social media? Who would you like to meet? Without goals, you will be floundering around not really making any impact. You will also have no idea if the time you are spending on it is valuable or not.

Some of the ways that you can use social media to grow your performing business include:

• to research people, companies and opportunities
• to network and meet new industry people
• to nurture your existing network of friends and colleagues
• to build your fan base
• to promote yourself and your projects
• to prospect or look for new work
• to showcase your work
• to sell products (CDs, concerts, shows, films)
• to look busy and active within your field (even when you have no work)

You might decide that you want to achieve all, or most of these things, with social media, but you need clearer guidelines so you know what you are working towards. Set quantifiable (measurable) goals that you can work towards such as:
-to connect with X number of new, industry contacts by next year
-to attract X number of fans for my band/music/theatre group
-to sell X number of CDs/books/concerts/gigs
-have consistent quarterly contact with all my existing network
-X number of new auditions from social media within the next year

You get the idea. Set some real, specific goals for yourself. What outcome could social media provide you with that would be useful for your performing career? Set those goals. Then you can go about planning (with the help of this ebook) how you will achieve that. Without goals you are simply waving your arms around in the social media darkness hoping you will stumble across something good. That’s not a very good strategy. Instead, be clear of what you are hoping to achieve and set out a plan of how you will do so.

Once a year you should revisit your goals and see how you are doing with achieving them. Do you have new goals to add to the list? Are some of your existing goals no longer relevant? Have you achieved your goals already and is it time to set some new ones? Goals will keep you on track and make you approach social media with a professional mindset.