Measure your current traction

If you’re already a regular user of your favorite social media network, you have a natural advantage when it comes to reaching goals. But, the channels you’re already using aren’t necessarily the right ones. On the other hand, you may just not be using them correctly to help you reach your goals.‍

For instance, sharing personal updates on Twitter doesn’t help you position yourself as an expert in your field. Similarly, publishing content on LinkedIn without active efforts to connect with more people likely won’t bring any results.

In this step, you will measure the impact of your traction on the channels you already use.

Score your current traction for each channel

You’re probably already using a couple of social channels.

• Your profile is already set up

• You already have some followers

• You know how to use the platform

• You follow other people you are inspired by

But, just because you use a platform already doesn’t mean it’s the best one.

Look back at your scorecard and go through each channel and ask yourself the following questions to see if you’re truly getting traction from a channel:

• Does this channel have the potential to help me with my goals?

• Has this channel brought clients in the past?

• How are other freelancers using it?

• Can it help me with a secondary goal like meeting other freelancers?

• Is my ideal audience using this network professionally?

• Is my ideal target market actively reaching out to me for business purposes via this channel?

In the scorecard in your workbook, head over to the “Traction” column and score each channel based on how much traction you already have there.

1-being none at all (you don’t have an account) to 5-being a lot of traction (thousands of followers on Twitter or Instagram, a deep network on LinkedIn, etc).

If you already have traction on a channel that lines up with your goal, you have a huge advantage. If that’s where you want to invest, you already have followers and have already finished the tough process of getting those first few followers.

Recap

• What traction truly means

• How to tell if you’re getting traction from a channel

• How to start using social media if you don’t yet have traction in your industry