As a business plan consultant, I routinely talk to small business owners about creating actionable goals.  To achieve these specific  and measurable targets you need to do more than just talk about them. You need to have a plan in place and actually measure your progress as you move toward the goal.  It really helps if you share the goal with others.

So, I am following my own advice!  At Roundpeg, we have a goal.  We want to have 1,000 fans of our Facebook Fan page by Aug 1. I laid out the challenge to my team at our staff meeting on Tuesday.  Together we came up with plan, which included inviting friends, developing a custom landing page, and  an incentive.  If we reach 1,000 fans by Aug 1, we will have a company pool party on Friday, Aug 6.

We are tracking our progress, studying which activities have the greatest impact, and updating our score daily.  While it is not the only thing we are working on ( that would be crazy) everyone knows where we are against the goal, and every member of the team is playing a role.

Interns Dan and Heather collaborated  on our new Welcome Page.  DJ TBreezy ( alias Taylor Brough) has the most Facebook friends, so he is in charge of personal invites.  Jay, Allison and Kelly are working on keeping the conversation going on Twitter and Facebook.  When Emily returns from vacation, she will be in charge of widening the PR circle.

And the good news… it’s working!  On Tuesday morning we had 86 fans.  just a few minutes ago I checked and we have 222 fans.  We still have a long way to go, but we have a plan, a common direction, and a way of measuring the success of our actions.

While this is a great study in goal setting, you may wonder, does it have a business application.  The answer is yes!  I have been researching Facebook as a tool for small business and there are some compelling reasons to get serious about Facebook.  While I personally prefer Twitter, I am seeing more and more postive information about Facebook, if it is used correctly:

  • Studies show the average value of a Facebook fan is $139
  • More than 90% of the business owners responding to our survey have a Facebook profile
  • About 50% consider it their primary social media tool.

So we will be on Facebook.  Look for us there!  Become a fan, check out our blog posts, photos and contests.  But don’t forget to come back here as well.