Tis the season to be thinking about personal and professional development for the new year (albeit when you work in social media there’s a lot of overlap in these categories). Personally, I’d like to get better at making healthier choices and exercise more. (For those of you who insist upon measurable goals, I have them, don’t worry.) Professionally, I’d like to exercise my creative bone more. It’s that idea (and with some link love from Chris Brogan) that I found this great post about 12 in 12. Jacqueline Carly, a fitness writer, advocates setting a new goal each month – the catch, you must do whatever it is every day of that month. At the end of the month, you can evaluate whether it is something you want to continue or not but whatever you decide, the new month brings a new goal (either as an addition to the good work you’ve already started or as a replacement). Personally, I see the value but what about professionally? Would trying something every day for thirty days be innovative or overkill?
Let’s look at a possible list of social networking/community activities:
January: blogging every day. This one’s a very aggressive goal. Is it possible to make time for a daily blog post? Plenty of bloggers do it. Maybe if I worked on writing and tried to “get by with a little help from my friends” aka guest bloggers.
February: comment on five blogs a day. To add a little sizzle to this goal let’s add “specific” and “meaningful” before comments. No “I liked your post” and leave. Indicate what you liked (or what you didn’t). Ask further questions of the blogger. Use comments to initiate conversation.
March: recognize someone in my community in a public way. Point out the great things I see going on around me in the many social networking sites I’m a part of.
April: minute long podcasts. Another aggressive idea. I could focus these around a topic like building online relationships or tips for ___ . Quick hit video that provides yet another form of media for my audience.
May: post or answer a question on one of the online communities I belong to. Not only will I gain more knowledge in reading these questions, I may “meet” new people.
June: spend each week of this month researching a topic I want to learn more about; going beyond a blog post or a tweet, performing a deep dive on the topic at hand. For instance SEO, a topic we all could use more information about.
July: use information garnered from June’s mini-goal to write four well-researched articles or whitepapers.
August: come up with one innovative/creative idea a day. Some I’ll use, some I won’t but generating them is the goal here. It’s the idea of write first, edit later.
September: send out a note to someone who has influenced me professionally. I know some environmentalists will frown on this one but there is something special about getting a card in the mail.
October:   choose an industry book and read a portion of it each day, finishing it by end of month.
November: locate and participate in four new twitter chats/online communities.
December:Â daily blog posts about this year’s goals, the changes I’ve seen and what I’ve learned.
Looking at my list, it seems aggressive but possible. What are your thoughts on 12 in ’12? What about a member retention goal/activities for your organization involving 12 in 2012?
