For most people, goal setting is a waste of time.
Why? Because they don’t track their progress against those goals. If you’re going to set goals, keep yourself accountable. Here is the recap of my Q2 2022, the good, bad, and ugly.
In my 2022 planning post I said:
I’m focused on building my audience, career, and relationships for Q1 of 2022. This is probably an indication they’re going to be the focus for the year.
In my Q1 recap I said my objectives and priorities for Q2 were:
- (High) Build processes to write and engage on Twitter and LinkedIn daily
- (Med) SEO optimization for 3-5 blog pieces write at least 1 SEO article
- (Low) Define the value proposition of the newsletter; reposition opt-ins around this value prop
What went well? I built out my process to publish daily on Twitter and LinkedIn. I also tested a successful new opt-in for the newsletter.
From a numbers perspective, LinkedIn clicked in June. For the first 2 months, I added 15 followers per week. Then I changed tactics. , Follower growth 10x’ed to 150 per week.
That was a great unlock. But I’m more jazzed about the intangible effects of publishing daily. A lot of people reaching out to say how much the content resonates with them. I can’t put a number or dollar value to the positive feedback, other than it feels amazing.
What could I improve? A lot: I didn’t hit my number goals this quarter. There’s also room for simplification and automation in my processes.
Missing my quantitative goals has 10x’ed my respect for the game of building an online audience. I’ve been writing consistently for 15 years. I’ve worked with some of the best. Yet, I’m still searching for traction.
I expected more frustration. To be honest, I feel oddly calm. Every day, I study the game. Every day, I get a little better, one base hit at a time. One iota more traction today than yesterday.
Success feels inevitable.
For the next quarter, I’ll layer on more goals. Here’s what’s next and the priority:
- (High) Publish 1 thread per week
- (Med) Systematize blog posting processes to speed up my publishing
- (Low) Publish 3 new blog posts about remote work and career navigation
Next, I’ll dig a little more into the details of Q2. Then, I’ll revisit the numbers from last quarter and set targets for Q3.
(How did your quarter go? I’d love to hear about your process and progress! Shoot me a note: chris at christopherming dot com or on Twitter.)
Goal 1: Build processes to publish daily on Twitter and LinkedIn
I hit this goal.
Some tools and processes that moved the needle on this goal:
- Hypefury to schedule Tweets and crosspost to LinkedIn
- BlackMagic to help with engaging on Twitter
- Learning Justin Welsh’s Content OS System
- Tracking metrics with a data-driven approach
- Niching down my content
- Collaborating with peers
- Writing threads weekly
Testing new tactics quickly has helped. If I hear a tool or tactic works, I’ll try adding it to my arsenal right away. For example, a friend told me that cross-posting from Twitter to LinkedIn was easy. Two hours later I upgraded the app and started. I read a newsletter about structuring your LinkedIn hooks to get people to read. The next post I wrote followed that structure.
Speed matters.
What can I improve?
- Simplify my data analysis process
- Simplify and automate my writing process
- Continue declining consulting opportunities to focus on this
Goal 2: SEO optimize 3-5 blog pieces; write 1 SEO article
I missed this goal.
What I managed to do:
- Created a landing page for 1000 Hours Outside Goal Tracker
- Wrote a 1000 Hours Outside SEO article
- Updated two articles for SEO optimization
I shared in my Q1 review:
I saw an SEO opportunity around the 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge my family is following. It seemed very blue ocean in my research. We’re deep into the challenge anyway so it made sense to be opportunistic here.
This bet didn’t gain traction in Q2. Neither has any of the SEO optimization work that I did in Q1. What articles did perform well? Articles on starting remote work and breaking into tech.
What can I improve?
- Write 3 articles about tech and remote work
- Simplify my distribution process
- Simplify the publishing process
Goal 3: Define the value proposition of the newsletter; reposition opt-ins around this value prop
I hit this goal.
What went well:
- Ran 1 test and doubled the opt-in conversion rate
What can I improve?
The action here: take no action. It’s tempting to try to do more. It feels simple to restart the newsletter process. But the daily publishing habit is still nascent, as is weekly thread writing. I don’t have a good process for publishing on the blog yet. In Q3, I’ll consolidate these wins first.
Then in Q4, layer on another channel.
The numbers behind building an audience
Q2 goal: Grow Twitter from 452 followers to 552 followers. At the end of the quarter, I had 500 followers.
Q3 goal: 600 followers. I’ll do this by:
- Publishing daily
- Engaging with others daily
- Publishing one thread per week
Q2 goal: Grow LinkedIn from 1,485 followers to 2,700 followers. At the end of the quarter, I had 2,293 followers.
Q3 goal: 3,900 followers. I’ll do this by:
- Publishing daily
- Publishing one longer post per week
Blog traffic
Q2 goal: Grow blog traffic from 1,562 sessions to 3,200 sessions per week. At the end of the quarter, the blog peaked at 2,477 sessions per week.
Q3 goal: 4,000 sessions per week. I’ll do this by:
- Simplifying the publishing process
- Writing 3 articles about tech and remote work
Newsletter subscribers
Q2 goal: Grow newsletter subscribers from 980 subscribers to 1,155 subscribers. At the end of the quarter, the newsletter had 1,150 subscribers.
Q3 goal: 1,400 subscribers. This should happen with my current set-up. I will not work on the newsletter this quarter to focus on Twitter, LinkedIn, and the blog.
Miscellaneous short updates
- Career. Starting a new role as a principal product manager, growth at Persefoni.
- Relationships. Hosted 2 poker games and a birthday party.
- Training. Weight lifting has been consistent. The only fluctuations happen when kids are sick or I’m traveling. Training BJJ has been less consistent. I need a specific goal to work towards. Still figuring out what that could be.
- Sleep. Still not great. One week at the end of the quarter was particularly bad and led to me getting sick.
- Travel. Traveled to NYC twice, the family visited Ireland for a week, and we had our holiday in Portugal. For Q3 we have a trip planned to Croatia and a few other trips in/around Ireland.
