You probably remember being told this when you were a kid: Your eyes are bigger than your stomach. Whether it was your favorite dessert or some other treat, we often grabbed more than we could actually eat. Our plate would overflow with the endless goodness that sat before us. And, inevitably, we'd never be able to actually finish the plate.

It looked so good and the thought that we could take all we wanted was liberating.

So, when it comes to your social media strategy, are your eyes bigger than your stomach?

What do I mean by this? I mean, are your plans so grandiose that the chances of you completing them is almost insurmountable?

So many people jump into a social media strategy (if they even create one) and plan for such extreme results that they set themselves up for failure. Is your goal to get 10,000 Facebook fans? Are you planning to create a video that goes viral with over a million views? Is having 200,000 Twitter followers your end state?

If these are your goals (and you're not a large company with a long-standing social media strategy), you need to check your plan. I'm not saying these goals are unattainable, I'm saying they're currently out of reach. If you're just starting out, you need to set realistic goals. And you can create tiered goals to reach your final end state. But your current, realistic goals should be much smaller.

Set achievable goals that still require action and initiative. If you are easily gaining 10 followers a week, set a goal to reach 75 new followers by the end of the month - that's almost double your "easy" rate. It's challenging and requires you to try new tactics and work on your strategy. But it's not so unrealistic that you can't achieve it.

It's also important to celebrate milestones to keep yourself and your team motivated. Whether it's taken you 3 weeks or 6 months to reach 100 followers, celebrate this milestone. Thank your fans for getting you here and thank your team for reaching this milestone.  Then, focus on the next milestone. Maybe now, the goal is to get to 200 followers in a faster period of time.

No matter which social media platforms you use, keep your social media strategy realistic. Your ultimate goals and dreams may be as big as you can dream (I definitely don't discourage this!). Just make sure that you keep your plan to get there easily attainable. If you create a smooth path and a gentle climb up the mountain, you will reach the peak much faster than if you tried to jump straight to the top!

Setting these realistic goals and putting your team in line with a successful plan will keep everybody moving forward.