Many people on social media strive for millions of followers and to hugely monetize their accounts. But often, it can feel overwhelming when you first start out and like you'll never reach this level of success. But remember, only a handful of people wake up one day and find themselves Instagram famous. It often takes years of hard work to build an extensive platform on social media and feel like you've "made it.”

But before you give up on social media because you haven't reached 10 million followers, check out these 5 steps to realistically plan and achieve your social media goals.

1. Make a Plan 

The first step to achieving a goal is to make a plan. A solid plan should be quite detailed and explain exactly how you are going to achieve a realistic goal. Breaking up your plan into sub-goals is also a great way to ensure your plan is actually possible based on your resources and time commitment. For example, instead of having the goal of reaching 10,000 subscribers, break it up and start small. Start by trying to attract 500 new viewers to your profile a week. After you've achieved this, make a plan to send out 5,000 emails with promo codes. 

2. Have time-bound goals 

 In order to stay on top of your goals, and continue chugging away at your to-do list, establish a timeline of when you need to achieve different parts of your plan by, and then stick to it! It's easy to make a plan; the hard part is to actually do it. Giving yourself incremental deadlines will not only hold yourself accountable but also allow you to develop a more realistic understanding of when you will likely meet your overarching goal.

3. Be prepared to make changes

Having a solid plan and a timeline of when you plan to achieve it is a great first step, but be prepared to change it (a lot). As you start embarking on your journey towards your goal, you will undoubtedly run into roadblocks you did not account for in your plan. In this case, it may be necessary to adjust your plan accordingly. This is progress in itself! Use this newfound knowledge to improve your social media strategy and keep excelling forward.

4. Track your performance 

 In order to know how far you've come and how far you have left to go towards achieving your goal, you must track your progress. The best way to do this is to use meaningful tracking metrics and indicators. We suggest relying on analytics, which every social media platform provides to users for free (all you have to do is switch to a business account!) There are also countless outside apps and sources that can develop custom reports. You should track these metrics at a minimum of once a month. Some of the most useful metrics to keep a close eye on across all platforms are your profile visits, reach, and website clicks. Additionally, the number of likes, impressions, views, and comments a post/story gets is also important.

 5. Give yourself time 

Substantial progress takes time, even if you are doing everything right on your social media account. The goal is to connect with real and genuine people, something that cannot be rushed. Having a consistent and high-quality platform is far more beneficial than a rushed and sporadic one. So, give yourself and your goals time to develop into their full potential.

Written By: Leah Ross, AMR Digitial Marketing, Copywriter