Podcast Goals: How to Set S.M.A.R.T. Ones

James Cunningham, Arthur Miller, and George Doran wrote about SMART goals in the November 1981 issue of Management Review. According to them, there is SMART way to write management objectives and goals.

While the acronym SMART has come to mean different things for different people over the years, for many it now stands for S-pecific, M-easurable, A-ttainable, R-elevant, and T-ime-based goals.

So how do you apply SMART goal setting to podcasting?

Specific

Undoubtedly, it pays to be very specific about what your podcasting goals and objectives are. In other words, figure out exactly what it is that you want to accomplish.

That being said, rather than saying, “I want to grow my audience significantly,” include a specific number. For instance, “I want to grow my audience to 30, 000 people.” You can also come up with other specific objectives like “I want to make $5, 000 a month from my show,” or “I want to snag the top spot in iTunes for a particular topic.”

The bottomline is you have to be specific. If anything, being specific is one of the primary foundations to achieving your podcasting goals and objectives.

Measurable

How will you measure your success as far as achieving a specific goal is concerned? Case in point: if you want to reach 20, 000 listeners, how are you going to measure if you’ve achieved the number you’ve identified?

For podcast stats,LibSyn or Blubrry would be a good place to start as they are not only highly regarded in the podcasting industry, they have also refined their algorithms to impeccable accuracy.

If your goal is monetary, make sure you have a way of tracking your progress. Figure out a specific way to measure your success so you’ll know if you’ve achieved what you are going for.

Attainable

When figuring out what you want, be brutally honest. Are your goals realistic and feasible?

For instance, if you want to snag the number 1 spot in iTunes, it is possible with the current niche content you are providing? Make no mistake about it though. You don’t necessarily have to make do with just easy goals. The point is to come up with goals you have a good chance of achieving given your current circumstances.

As you achieve more and more goals, you’ll eventually move to bigger and bigger ones as you go along in your podcasting journey.

Relevant

Are your current podcasting goals congruent with what you are currently doing? At the very least, make sure your goals connect with your content and your audience.

For instance, if your content deals primarily with video games, you can’t expect people to listen to your for business or marketing advice. At all times, ensure your podcasting goals connect with whatever it is that you are doing. If not, consider making the necessary changes so what you are doing is congruent with whatever it is that you want to achieve.

Time-bound

To help you easily identify actionable steps, setting a deadline for the achievement of your goals is crucial.

For instance, if you want to make a huge money from your podcast, what’s your timeline for achieving said goal? It is in the next 6 months? A year from now? Three years from now?

You may not be able to achieve the goals on the deadlines you’ve set but with practice, you’ll be able to achieve them just in time as you go along.

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