For many of us, motivation and enthusiasm are at an all time high at the beginning of a new year. This is the perfect time to analyze your live streaming career and decide where you want to take things in the coming months. While people often equate New Year’s with bad habits they want to kick, we suggest looking at things from a goal-setting perspective. This blog post will provide you with ideas for smart, actionable goals that you can actually achieve. First, let’s take a look at what makes a good goal.

What is a SMART Goal?

The SMART Goal model is an incredibly helpful tool that when followed, can mean the difference between a successful goal and a futile one. It’s an acronym that stands for:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bound

Specific

When it comes to goal setting, the more specific and detailed, the better. For example, “Be better at streaming” isn’t a very good goal because it’s too broad. “Better at streaming”—as opposed to what? Your goal may need to be a few sentences long in order to be effective.

Measurable

A goal that is measurable is another vital piece of the goal-making process. If you can’t measure your goal, there’s no way to tell if you’re on the right track to achieving it. “Get more subs” isn’t a good goal because it isn’t specific or measurable. “Gain 50 subs by the end of the year” is a much better alternative.

Attainable

Setting a goal that’s extremely hard to achieve may discourage you in the long run. For example, if you’re currently at zero subs, a goal of 100 subs by the end of the year might be too lofty. While stranger things have happened, it’s better to set a more realistic goal. Remember that goals pertaining to follows, subs, etc. depend on others and are therefore mostly out of your control. 

Relevant

This is perhaps the most self-explanatory of the bunch but it’s still important. A relevant goal should align with your long term plans for streaming. If you want to set a goal to purchase a VTuber model by the end of the year, make sure you have plenty of plans in place for how you plan to use your model to the fullest. If your goal doesn’t have a clear “why” behind it, it might not be worth the time and energy it will take to pursue.

Time-bound

Having a deadline in place is often the biggest factor when it comes to achieving goals. Not only does it make your progress easier to track, it can light a fire under you and give you the motivational push you need to keep at it. If you take away anything from this blog post, let it be: all goals need a deadline. 

Ideas for Resolutions

Now that you know what makes a good goal, let’s talk about some ideas for growing your streaming career. We’ll look at five different categories, each with a ton of possibilities for goal setting.

Channel Goals

Increasing the amount of follows, subs, donations, or bits your channel receives will be the obvious choice for most streamers looking to set goals for the new year. However, there are many other admirable goals you can set for your channel. If you stream on Twitch, you can set a goal of achieving Affiliate or Partner by a certain date. Alternatively, you can plan a big event like a subathon or 24 hour stream. You can aim to improve your brand consistency, set a goal of opening your own merch shop, or increase your average views. 

Personal Performance Goals

Setting goals for yourself as a streamer is one of the best courses of action because success isn’t determined by outside factors (people subbing, following, etc.). You can aspire to be a better streamer, whether it means taking an online course on public speaking, improving your craft with practice (whatever you do on stream—gameplay, crafting, music, etc.), or thinking up creative ways to entertain your audience. Since streamers need to wear many hats (entrepreneur, marketer, social media manager, etc.), there’s plenty of skills you can work to develop.

Monetization Goals

If you’re looking at making streaming your full time career, pursuing goals that are related to increasing your income could be a wise use of your time. While subs, donations, and ad revenue make up a good chunk of a streamer’s income, they can fluctuate wildly depending on outside circumstances. From brand deals, sponsorships, memberships and more, there are a lot of ways to make money through your streaming career. Many streamers diversify their income streams as much as possible to ensure a steady flow. We have an article on how to create a media kit, which you can use to present yourself to brands.

Networking and Relationship Goals

Networking is a vital part of streamer culture and shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to goal setting. When you make an effort to meet like minded streamers, not only will you gain valuable connections and resources, you’ll likely make some dear friends too. Think about goals and activities that will benefit everyone involved, such as co-streams via Collab Cam, regular chats to share ideas or receive advice, and special events. You can also set goals to connect with your viewers more and build a community. Having your own Discord server is a good place to start.

“Branching Out” Goals

Is this the year you’ll try something new? If you’re thinking about switching things up, there are a ton of things you can do. You can try streaming on a different platform, such as Trovo or YouTube, adding a new type of content to your channel, or starting a YouTube channel, podcast, or blog to go along with your live streaming content. Maybe joining a team (or starting your own) is the change you need, or perhaps you’re itching to visit a live stream event for the first time? If you put on your creative thinking cap, odds are you’ll come up with a ton of fresh ideas for your live streaming career.

How You’ll Get There

Every good goal needs a plan of action behind it. A goal without a plan is more like a dream or a wish; neither are likely to get you very far in the competitive world of live streaming. Instead, you’ll need to think about the best way to achieve your goals and set up actionable steps to achieve them. Want to increase your average views? Plan a cross-platform marketing strategy and stick to it. Want to increase your sub count? Do a thorough analysis of rewards offered by similar channels and consider revamping your subscriber rewards. Check out our graphic below for more ideas on how plans of actions work alongside SMART goals. 

New Year’s resolutions can be a great way to set your streaming goals for the coming year. Whether you want to grow your channel, improve your streamer skill set, or build relationships within the streaming sphere, there are plenty of ways for you to learn and grow in 2023. Make the most of your resolutions by setting SMART goals with plans of action behind them. We wish you luck with your creator goals and as always, Streamlabs is here to help and support you however we can.