Social Media Collaboration

Here are four things you should do before starting a blog. These tips and tricks can be applied to someone who has been blogging for years or even days.... The entire concept of blogging may not be rocket science, but there is still a large component that drives a formula for success. If you’re starting a blog and you want your content to spread, you have to do a few things to ensure that the content is worth sharing. You need to focus on creating valuable content and not making the typical content marketing mistakes. Over the last 5 years I’ve learned how to successfully create content for both my personal blog and clients. Furthermore, I’ve learned what not to do and the importance of kick-starting your blogging efforts the right way. If you’re new to blogging or planning to get into it, here are a few things you should do:...

Channeling inner Homer Simpson. As marketers tackle the inbound marketing terrain, here's what's going through their brain.... One of my colleagues recently stumbled across this awesome piece of curated content -- compiled from the random thoughts of a guy named Aaron Karo at ruminations.aaronkaro.com -- and it got me thinking about all the random thoughts that cross my mind when I'm knee deep in inbound marketing. So I tapped into the minds of my fellow inbound marketers to come up with a marketing-themed parody of Aaron's list. Here's what we've all been thinking. I'm willing to bet a few of these have crossed your mind, too. Feel free to share your favorites using the tweet links below and hashtag #mktgthought....

Excerpted from article by Heidi Cohen published on Social Media Examiner:
"Here are seven steps for crafting calls to action to get your social community to do what you’d like them to and transform your social media marketing to get the results you want.

#1: Determine What You Want Prospects to Do:
Your call to action should encourage readers to engage with you further.
Make readers an offer they want. You can consider offering white paper downloads, ebooks, ongoing emails, discount coupons and/or free consultations.

#2: Create a Great Hook:
You’ll need to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” This is what your prospects want to know.
And your request must make sense to them. This means not asking prospects to purchase if they’re still in an information-gathering mode.

#3: Motivate Prospects to Act:
Remember, you want to give your readers a reason to act.
Provide sense of urgency. Make people an offer they can’t refuse. Give them a one-time offer to encourage a response. Realize, however, they may only buy when you provide coupons going forward.

#4: Optimize Your Call to Action:
Like other aspects of your content, formatting matters! Here are some points to consider.
- Use a contextually relevant presentation;
- Make your call to action stand out visually;
- Qualify your offer;
- Limit selection choices;
- Place calls to action in multiple locations on your pages;
- Keep calls to action above the fold;
- Put call-to-action options in order of importance;
- Include social sharing.

#5: Maintain a Consistent Presentation on Landing Pages:
This is one of the biggest reasons calls to action don’t work. Send prospects to the appropriate step in the purchase process.
Make sure you use the same wording and graphics. The goal is to show continuity. Don’t let the reader think that you’ve sent them to the wrong place or they’ll leave.

#6: Test to Maximize Results:
Every element of your call to action can be tested. When testing, only modify one factor at a time or you won’t know what caused the change.

#7: Measure Results:
How can you measure your results? You want to track the impact of your social media calls to action back to your original objectives. Here are some metrics to track:
- Impressions;
- Click-throughs;
- Click-through rate;
- Completions;
- Completion rate..."

Each step is analyzed with detailed information. Read full article here:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-improve-your-social-media-calls-to-action/