If you don't plan to succeed, you plan to fail. In today's episode, we share the GOAL POST planning process that will allow you to create a quick start plan for growing your online community in 2019.

Be sure to download a copy of the GOAL POST Planning sheet (located in our show notes) so that you can go through your own planning process for your community outreach.

• If you want to start a community, fill out the GOAL POST Worksheet as a way to outline the overall strategy for your launch.
• If you already have a community, fill out the GOAL POST Worksheet for both 2018 and 2019. If you didn’t do much planning for 2018, recap your accomplishments and strategies for the year.
• If you aren’t ready to start a community yet, you can use the GOAL POST Worksheet to plan out how you will engage with other communities in which you participate.

In the podcast episode, Madalyn and Kami walk through their goals for the Communities That Convert community as an example of how you should use this form.

Planning Topics

• Goal – Large overarching vision for your community. Should be something that people who join your community see themselves being a part of.
  • For 2018, our goal was to create content that is specifically geared to marketers who want to use community building to grow their online influence.
  • For 2019, our goal is deeper strategies, sharing step by step instructions and diving deeper into content from interviews.
• People – Who does your community serve? Boil this down to one person. It will not alienate people, it will make them feel you are talking to them rather than at them.
  • For 2018, our podcast was geared toward online marketers, communication and social media professionals.
  • For 2019, we’re getting more focused on people who are working their way up in social media marketing, who are ambitious and creative, cares about their community and who is a go-getter action taker.
• Objectives – Set some objectives for your community. What do you want to accomplish with it? How will you know you have achieved them?
  • For 2018, our objectives included putting out the podcast consistently, starting a Facebook community and creating Facebook livestream.
  • For 2019, we want to double our podcast downloads per episode, double our CTC Facebook group by March and launch a digital product that will help our community members reach their goals by Q2.
• Strategies – How will you support the people you serve? What services, coaching, webinars, and online training will you offer?
  • For 2018, we focused on the podcast episodes and some Facebook livestream training.
  • For 2019, we want to focus on a coaching or mastermind service or mentoring and bi-weekly livestream training to widen the audience.
• Tactics – What channels of communication will you use to connect with your community? One-on-one conversations, speaking at conferences, online campaigns, social media, etc.
  • For 2018, we used social media promo on Twitter and Facebook, promo on our personal pages, a wide distribution of the podcast and a speaking opportunity – Houston Social Media Day for Blog Elevated.
  • For 2019, we’ll use strategic Facebook Ads with the most helpful content, including worksheets and downloads from email and Messenger and do pop-up free livestream trainings.

Your implementation should include a timeline, budget and allocate the people and other resources to each task. If it isn’t on your calendar, it is not going to happen, so be sure to get everything on a calendar of choice.

Also, make sure you measure your success by looking at your numbers.This measurement should match with your Objectives.

Other Episodes You Might Like

• Episode 67: How to Start a Meetup in Your Local Area 
• Episode 68: Strategies for Staying Connected Through Social Media

Tools, apps, and links mentioned:

• Bonjoro

Take Action

Download the GOAL POST Worksheet and fill it out. It's located in this episode's show notes. And then come and talk about what you are planning to do in 2019 in the Facebook Group! (Secret word is ACTION)