Looking for some ideas to simplify your content creation process?

What follows are 26 tips, from A-Z, to help you create optimal blog posts every time you sit down to write.

#1: Anatomically Correct

A blog post contains several areas that require our attention and care. Pamela Seiple refers to six parts of the anatomy of a lead-generating blog post:

• Eye-catching title
• In-text links to landing pages
• Sidebar/banner calls to action
• Social sharing buttons
• Call to action at the bottom
• Relevancy—making sure the post is relevant from top to bottom

Parts of the blog anatomy.

Example of more anatomical parts to include in your blog posts.

#2: Blogging Platform

By knowing the ins and outs of your blogging platform, you’ll ensure that your posts look as good as they can. Take the time to master the visual editor (or raw HTML, if you prefer) so that you know how to format a post, insert an image and embed a video or podcast.

Whether you’re working in platforms such as WordPress, Tumblr or Posterous, it’s good to stay up to date on the features and new versions.

If you’re not comfortable with the more technical aspects of blogging, try to find someone who can be a resource for you to answer questions as they arise.

WordPress' editor where you can toggle between visual and HTML editing functions.

#3: Categories

Whether your new blog post is a stand-alone article or part of a series you’re writing, it should fit into your blog categories as well as your overall corporate content strategy. Meaning that you want to stay on topic and have your posts fit into the categories you’ve established.

For example, HubSpot has nine categories on their blog. Posts are written to fit in with each of these categories. Writing about category topics such as analytics, blogging, email marketing, HubSpot TV, etc., allows both readers and writers to stay focused on what they can expect to see on HubSpot’s blog.

When you choose your categories, ask yourself, do they make sense, and do they fit into the objectives of my business? Having clearly defined blog categories will help you continue generating meaningful content and topics for your blog.

Write posts that fit into your categories.

#4: Description

Most search engines will use a maximum of 160 characters for your post description on their results pages. If you don’t create a meta-description (defined as a “…concise summary of your page’s content”), a search engine will often take the first 160 characters it finds on your page instead.

Note too, that when you create a meta-description that is fewer than 160 characters, you’ll see the full description in the search engine. Otherwise it will be cut off.

An example of a meta-description created within the All-In-One SEO Pack plugin in WordPress.

An example of how a post's description appears in Google search results with and without the meta-description.

#5: Editorial Calendar

Bloggers find editorial calendars helpful for scheduling and organizing topics for posts. Some people use their calendars to track more elaborate details.

Michele Linn suggests using specific tabs in a spreadsheet to track info for each post such as: post date, author, tentative title, keywords, categories, tags, call to action and status. She says “By tracking more than topic and date it will help to make sure the key elements you need for SEO, digital optimization and conversion are accounted for.”

Download a sample editorial calendar worksheet.

An example of a template for a master editorial calendar as shown by Michele Linn.

#6: Fine-Tune and Revise

Like other forms of writing, a blog post is rarely completed in one draft. Many writers find it helpful to take a post through several revisions and fine-tune the post as you go along. Check grammar, spelling and punctuation, and make certain that all of your links are working.

#7: Guidelines for Writing for Search Engines

By following a few tips and best practices, you can increase the chance that your blog post will be found by search engines—by Google in particular.

The State University of New York at Plattsburgh offers these helpful writing tips:

• Google likes text
• Google likes formatting
• Google likes freshness
• Google likes accessibility
• Google likes outbound hyperlinks
• Googlebot isn’t psychic, so remember to link your pages
• Google likes you to tell it where you are
• Google likes experts

#8: Headings

Joost de Valk offers some good suggestions regarding blog headings. He writes, “The heading structure of your pages is one of the very important aspects of on-page SEO. It defines which parts of your content are important, and how they’re interconnected. Because they have different goals, a single post needs another heading structure than your blog’s homepage or your category archives.”

He offers five basic principles about heading structure:

• The most important heading on the page should be the H1
• There is usually only one H1 on any page
• Subheadings should be H2s, sub-subheadings should be H3s, etc.
• Each heading should contain valuable keywords; if not, it’s a wasted heading
• For longer pieces of content, a heading is what helps a reader skip to the parts that he/she finds interesting

Headings should contain valuable keywords.

#9: Images

Blog posts are made up of more than words and headings.

Judy Dunn recommends five ways the right photo can increase readership and blog views:

• Convey the overall feeling or emotion of your post
• Illustrate a metaphor or analogy that is part of your main idea
• Evoke surprise or curiosity
• Complement your headline
• Make your reader smile

Judy points out too that readers are visual learners and images can help people take in and retain information better.

#10: Journalistic Approach

Bloggers can learn a lot from traditional journalists and the ways that they approach their news stories.

Mickie Kennedy offers five things that bloggers can learn from journalists:

• Get your facts straight
• Trust has to be earned
• Give credit to your sources
• The inverted pyramid works (basic overview in first paragraph and then delve into more details in subsequent paragraphs)
• Editing and proofreading are essential

As shown on Wikipedia.org

#11: Killer SEO and Blog Design

Cyrus Shepard makes an important case for having a beautiful blog. He says, “…the overall design of your site is the first thing visitors see and it significantly influences bounce rate, page views and conversions.”

Cyrus suggests that certain elements on the page will add to a blog’s success:

• Search box
• RSS feed
• Breadcrumbs (helping users navigate),
• Flat site architecture by minimizing the number of clicks it takes to reach your content
• Images
• Keep your best content above the fold
• Link to your best content
• Don’t overdo links
• Watch ad space
• Encourage comments
• Add sharing buttons
• Test the blog for speed
• Check your blog in different browsers
• Pick a powerhouse blogging platform (e.g., WordPress, Posterous, Tumblr)

For a resource that will help remind you of these killer SEO suggestions, check out Cyrus’ infographic, Blog Design for Killer Search Engine Optimization.

#12: Lists

Lists have become a very popular type of blog post.

Nate Riggs offers three types for bloggers to consider: brief, detailed and hybrid lists.

The brief list has little description but can entice readers to bookmark the post to use the list as a resource down the road or to share it across their own networks.

In a detailed list, each bullet is a complete thought and serves as a good way to communicate complex information.

The hybrid list combines the elements of short and detailed lists, often with descriptive narratives or explanations in paragraphs between the actual lists.

Nate’s post has a lot of useful information about lists as a powerful content marketing tactic and is a good example of a hybrid list.

#13: Metrics for Blogging

Magdalena Georgieva identifies five metrics to keep an eye on to know how your blogging is going: visitors, leads, subscribers, inbound links and social media shares.

As Magdalena says, “Measure the performance of your business blog regularly to identify weaknesses in the content you’re producing, what topics your audience truly cares about, and what blogging tactics work for you.”

When you find topics and approaches that work particularly well, try to replicate those efforts and be willing to let go of features that aren’t performing well. Magdalena recommends looking at your five most successful blog posts and asking, “What do they have in common?”

#14: Names, Titles and Bio

Not only are readers interested in the content in your blog post, they also want to know who wrote the post and their role at your organization.

Sometimes you’ll come across a thoroughly researched and well-written post only to find an attribution of “admin.” Even if the blog is only written by you and you’re the administrator of the blog, be sure to include your name, title and a way for readers to contact you.

#15: Original vs. Curated Content

The type of post you write can contain completely original content or can consist of content that you’ve curated.

Pamela Seiple addresses the issue of curated content and makes an important point when she says, “There’s a misconception among marketers that curated content is lazy and unoriginal, but we think it’s the complete opposite. It takes time and careful evaluation to create quality curated content and the result is oftentimes a very valuable piece of content that helps people seeking information on a given topic to cut through the clutter on the web and save time.”

The 26 tips series here on Social Media Examiner is an example of curated posts, pulling in the expertise of others who have written on the topic. As a curator of this kind of post, I love the journey of the research and find it especially rewarding to see the content pulled together in a way that hadn’t been previously available. Curated posts can be incredibly gratifying!

#16: Publish and Promote

Kristi Hines speaks about the publishing and promoting stages of creating a successful blog post. Kristi says that one thing you want to do during the publishing stage is to ensure that your post has some kind of call to action. “Think about what you want people to do once they’ve read the post….”

Promoting a blog post can involve a fair amount of thought and strategy, as you’ll see from Kristi’s approach. She has a different plan in place for “averagely awesome posts, awesome posts and killer awesome posts.”

What differs for the three types of posts is how many social networks she shares the posts with, whether she includes the post in her writing portfolio and whether it’s included in her custom RSS feed or utilizes blog commenting promotion and direct messaging partners in social media to see if they’ll help spread the word.

Kristi describes promotion as taking from a few minutes to a few hours, and recommends taking the time to build a good foundation before you expect to execute a successful blog promotion.

#17: Questions

What are you going to write about post after post, week after week, year after year? Sometimes thinking about content for your blog can seem daunting.

Lee Odden offers a great piece of advice: “One particularly effective way to get content ideas for blogging comes from reviewing web analytics for the kinds of questions people type into search engines like Google or Bing that deliver visitors.”

In one example, Lee said that he noticed that numerous visitors each month were typing in the question “What does a community manger do?” and search engines were sending them to one of his posts about that topic. He used it as an opportunity to explore other related questions about social community managers and providing content in the form of answers.

What questions are your web visitors asking before they arrive on your pages? How can you maximize your content to answer readers’ questions?

#18: Research

Well-researched blog posts can differentiate your content from your competitors’. Being known as a go-to source in your industry will help make your blog stand out. Where do you go to research posts?

I find that utilizing a variety of sources helps me gather the information I’m seeking.

For example, while I can often find a lot of useful content via web-based searches, sometimes there’s nothing like a visit to the library or a bookstore where I often will discover a helpful book on the shelf that I wouldn’t have known existed if I hadn’t been standing there physically eyeballing them.

Oli Gardner makes a good case for using social media research for your blog posts. He suggests ten social media research strategies:

• StumbleUpon
• Infographics
• Twitter real-time searches
• Facebook events
• Experts who are using LinkedIn
• Uncovering quotes with Delicious
• Letting users tell you within the comments section of your blog and others
• Creating roundup mega-lists with Delicious and StumbleUpon
• Apps on Facebook
• Delicious and Google Marketplace
• YouTube and the UrbanDictionary

#19: Stand Out

When you’ve been blogging in a competitive marketplace for a while, chances are good that you’ll see other bloggers writing on topics similar to yours. It doesn’t mean that you have to stay away from the topic completely; rather you can use it as an opportunity to see what worked and didn’t work in their post and write yours in a way that will help you to stand out in the topic area.

By reading the comments on similar blog posts, you will get a great view of what questions and thoughts people had after reading the post and you can take a slightly different angle by making sure you cover those areas in your article.

#20: Title

How important is the title of your blog post? Simply put, very important!

Brian Clark writes that the title is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader.

He says, “Without a headline or post title that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist.

But a headline can do more than simply grab attention. A great headline can also communicate a full message to its intended audience, and it absolutely must lure the reader into your body text.”

An example of an eye-catching title from copyblogger.com.

#21: User-Centered Content

Possibly one of the worst mistakes a blog post can make is missing the mark of its readers, forgetting who they are and their needs and interests.

Georgy Cohen goes as far as to say that content can serve as customer service and that to be helpful, content should be user-focused (asking what our users’ problems and priorities are), communicated clearly and presented in succinct language.

#22: Valuable Content

In the perfect blogging world, creating valuable content would be at the top of every blogger’s list for their post objectives.

While our definitions about valuable content may vary, Ahava Leibtag has created a very helpful step-by-step checklist that reminds us to ask five questions:

• Can the user find the content
• Can the user read the content
• Can the user understand the content
• Will the user want to take action
• Will the user share the content

She suggests:

• Findable content includes: an H1 tag; at least two H2 tags; metadata including title, descriptors and keywords; links to other related content; alt tags for images.
• Readable content includes: an inverted-pyramid writing style, chunking, bullets, numbered lists, following the style guide.
• Understandable content includes: an appropriate content type (text, video), indication that you considered the users’ persona, context, respect for the users’ reading level, articulating an old idea in a new way.
• Actionable content includes: a call to action, a place to comment, an invitation to share, links to related content, a direct summary of what to do.
• Shareable content includes: something to provoke an emotional response, a reason to share, a request to share, an easy way to share, personalization.

Download the checklist for future reference.

Ahava Leibtag's Valuable Content Checklist.

#23: Word Count

How many words should you have in your blog post? Some blogs have set parameters for optimal length and put a value on whether a post is short or long.

Corey Eridon has an interesting perspective on word count and suggests that focusing on blog word count might not be as important as you think it is. “Some topics take 100 words to explain, some take 1,000, and that’s okay.”

Corey suggests that writers focus instead on whether posts are optimized for mobile, use effective formatting, communicate in a clear manner and that outlining the points you want to cover may ultimately be a better use of your time and energy.

If you’re restricted to shorter posts by the parameters set up in advance for your blog, then you could also follow Corey’s advice to link to longer-form content you’ve developed around the topic.

Bottom line: Don’t let the quantity of words dictate the quality of your post.

#24: (E)xcerpt

On the heels of our discussion about blog word count, a shorter blog post can also be an excerpt or summary of what readers will find in your longer-form content—e.g., eBook or white paper—but it needn’t be restricted to words.

You can also use an excerpt of the transcript or a brief description to demonstrate what information the users will learn if they watch your video or listen to your podcast.

Mike Stelzner provides great excerpts from his expert interviews on Social Media Examiner.

#25: Your Story

Readers like to get to know how writers tick and often appreciate hearing a few personal details and insights from the person who has taken them on a journey through a post. While business blogs shouldn’t be thought of as personal journal entries, you can tell your readers a little bit about how you operate.

For example, I stated above that writing curated posts like the 26 tips series here on Social Media Examiner is one of my favorite types of posts to write. (Truth be told, curated posts are also some of my favorite types to read.)

In the description of “research” above, I also shared how research is one of my favorite parts of blogging and how I enjoy researching both online and offline by doing the footwork of visiting libraries and bookstores in search of materials.

What parts of yourself are you willing and able to share with your readers?

#26: Zone for Writing

Ideas for blog posts come at all times—when you’re driving in your car, sitting at your desk, and yes, even in the middle of the night!

Chances are good though that the actual writing of the post will happen in multiple drafts and revisions, and depending on how you work, it may take place over a period of days.

What can be helpful is to create a time and place where you can get into the zone for writing and allow yourself to go with it, with as few interruptions as possible.

What do you think? How do you keep your blog posts consistent and dynamic? What tips would you add? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Are you looking for ideas to move people from watchers to clickers? Keep reading to learn how.

Why YouTube for Traffic?

With an impressive three billion daily views, this video-sharing platform stakes its claim as the world’s second-largest search engine (behind Google) and is considered the third most-visited website in the world. Think YouTube is only for Justin Bieber fans? Think again.

As a marketer, there’s an absolutely incredible potential with YouTube if you deploy the right strategy. Imagine each of your videos as “mini websites.”

First, your content can get found from within YouTube itself.

Leverage YouTube's three billion daily views to get found quicker!

Then, your content has the potential to get indexed inside Google’s search engine results pages, embedded on blogs and shared across all of the social networking platforms!

Get even more exposure when your videos get ranked inside Google!

Building brand awareness and creating “celebrity status” are inevitable with the correct strategy, but at the end of the day, there is no “video bank” that you can trade in your views for dollars.

Instead, you need to strategically leverage your videos to perform one very specific function: drive traffic to your website.

Most people think viral video when they think YouTube. Until now, you’ve been under the impression that success on YouTube meant capturing some hilariously comedic moment with your cat or unsuspecting son or daughter on video and sharing it with the world.

You’ll quickly discover that you don’t need millions of views to get results. It’s all about the quality of your visitors, not the quantity.

Your YouTube videos will build rapport with your viewers, so that by the time they end up on your website, they are primed, pumped and ready to take action with you. In short, your conversion rates go up.

It’s my job to show you how to get your audience off of YouTube and onto your website, so they can start taking action with you. Let’s begin.

What’s Your Call to Action?

There are three ways to convert viewers into visitors. However, there’s truly only one strategy for effectively accomplishing this traffic-generation goal: a compelling call to action.

Each of your videos must tell your viewer exactly what to do (e.g., “go to my website”), how to do it (e.g., “click the link below”) and most importantly, why to do it (e.g., “get my free report on 7 Weight-Loss Secrets”).

Here's an example of a specific call to action.

Why should your audience leave YouTube and visit your website? The more compelling the offer, the more you can expect to convert video viewers into website visitors.

“Compelling” usually translates into “Free!” A free report, video, consultation or software application is enough to get people to take action with you.

However, as a savvy marketer, you also need to convey why this “free gift” is a must-have item that is worth getting immediately. What will your “free gift” do? How will it change prospects’ lives and make them better people?

Once you have crafted your compelling call to action, you’re ready to learn the three simple yet powerful ways to effortlessly get your YouTube audience over to your website.

Traffic-Getting Strategy #1: Tell People Exactly What to Do!

This is the easiest yet most often overlooked step. At the end of each and every one of your videos, you need to specifically communicate your compelling call to action and tell people exactly how to get to your website (and the benefits of doing so!).

This step can be completed with a simple line or two of dialog: “Thank you for watching my video! To discover the seven secrets for successfully potty training your puppy, head on over to www.MyPuppyPottyTrainingSecrets.com to get your hands on this powerful, 3-part video series right now.”

Tell people what to do and why they need to do it, and they'll be compelled to take action with you!

Traffic-Getting Strategy #2: The Video Description Box

Every time you upload a new video on YouTube, you have the opportunity to add a description of the content. Most marketers never take advantage of this function.

To turn your video’s description box into a traffic-getting machine, here’s all you need to do: Add a 5-6 word call to action at the beginning with your complete website URL:

“Get More YouTube Traffic: http://www.JamesWedmore.com.”

This URL (don't forget the "http://") will become a clickable link that video viewers will easily see under your video.

Although this is a great start, I also recommend adding a paragraph or two of text to describe the content of your video. This way you can add your website URL again at the end of your description.

Traffic-Getting Strategy #3: The Call-to-Action Overlay

The third and final way to convert video viewers into highly targeted traffic is through a little-known YouTube feature called the Call-to-Action Overlay.

In essence, the Overlay is a simple banner ad that sits on the lower third of your video. You have full control over the copy, thumbnail image and the desired destination you want to send users to. This function takes a few minutes to set up, but failure to add it is simply leaving valuable traffic on the table. James: do you have a video or link that shows how to set this up?

The Overlay will appear as soon as the video begins to play and can be closed by the user.

To activate this little-known feature, you’ll need to start by signing up at ads.YouTube.com.

Get more views and exposure with YouTube Promoted Videos.

For a step-by-step tutorial showing you exactly how to install and activate the Call-to-Action Overlay function on all of your videos, watch the special training video below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDi_qBg9cHg

Final Thoughts…

There are three ways that we can turn our videos into traffic-getting machines: a) Give a call to action in your videos, b) add a URL to your description box and c) add YouTube’s Call-to-Action Overlay function. These three tips can do wonders for increasing your traffic!

Make sure to add all three of these strategies to each of your videos, and remember: it all starts with a creating a compelling call to action! If you have something that people want, they will take the next step to work with you!

What do you think? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Most business owners test the “YouTube waters” by uploading a few videos, then walk away.

They return in a few weeks to notice each video has only a handful of views.

Is that your experience? If so, fret not! All is not lost…

In this article, I’m going to reveal to you five of the most powerful steps that you can put into action today to literally breathe life back into your existing videos, so your YouTube marketing efforts won’t be in vain.

Ready? Here we go!

You can watch this video for a step-by-step of these 5 Ways Your Existing YouTube Videos Can Triple Their Visibility (or keep reading…)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9eO9L8oJ5U

#1 Action-Step: Identify Your Keywords

Reworking keywords is the best place to start when working with your existing videos.

Using Google’s Keyword Research Tool, you can quickly uncover the exact questions, topics and issues your buyers are searching for, and you can market your videos accordingly.

Let’s start by picking just one of your videos. Did you use a highly searched keyword in the title and description? If not, add it to the beginning of your video’s title, your description and your tags. It’s OK to change your video title information at any time if the video has not been “pulling its weight.”

Once you’re logged into YouTube, simply click the “Edit” button above your video and you can change, tweak and improve your video information in seconds!

This video is ranked #1 on YouTube for "Video Salesletter." The keyword is in the title AND description.

Do this properly, and your video will start to get ranked at the top of YouTube and Google for your keyword. And this will obviously result in more targeted views!

#2 Action-Step: 3x Call to Action

If your video does not tell people what to do or where to go after the video ends, your viewers are simply going to move on and forget about you completely. You need to tell people precisely what to do next and exactly how to do it.

Here are three ways you can add a call to action to each of your existing videos to convert each view into highly targeted traffic.

1. Use the Call-to-Action Overlay: This powerful, fully customized banner ad allows you to direct viewers straight to your site by clicking on the button right inside your video. It takes a few minutes to set this up, but it’s totally worth the extra effort!
   

   The call-to-action overlay.

   To add YouTube’s call-to-action overlay to all of your videos, sign up here.

2.  Put your domain in the description: Don’t forget to add your domain name (with the “http://”) at the beginning of your description. It is simply another place people can click to go directly to your website.
   

   Notice the full domain name is at the beginning of the video description.

   To add your URL, simply click the “Edit Video” button at the top of your video’s page once you’re logged into your account.

3.  Add Annotations: Annotations can be extremely beneficial if used properly. They take about 30 seconds to create, and can do wonders for your videos. You can’t turn annotations into clickable links that direct visitors to your website, but you can get people to subscribe, like your video or watch the next one in your playlist.
   

   Use annotations to direct viewers to your next video.

   Adding annotations is fun and easy. Once you’re logged into your YouTube account, simply click the “Edit Annotations” button directly above your video.

#3 Action-Step: Upload Your Transcript

This is one of my favorite strategies, because 99% of video marketers simply fail to do it! Head on over to Fiverr.com or pay 12-year-old Billy down the street to write out a complete transcription of your video and save it as a .txt file.

Then, upload the transcript to YouTube so they can sync it with your video. Once you’re logged into your YouTube account, click the “Edit Captions” button directly above your video and follow YouTube’s instructions for uploading.

Using magical software, YouTube will now index every single word of your transcript (your video’s dialog) and incorporate it into its search algorithms. You’ve just put your video SEO (search engine optimization) on steroids!

Uploading your transcript is as simple as selecting the .txt file and uploading it to YouTube.

Most people will never upload a transcript, and YouTube is forced to determine what a video’s topic is based solely on the video’s headline and description. You’ll have the upper hand with a complete transcript of your entire video!

#4 Action-Step: Get Backlinks

Anyone who has ever had experience with SEO knows that Google loves backlinks to your website. This same concept applies to YouTube and ranking your videos at the top of search results.

Whether you hire someone to do this for you, use a service or do it yourself, adding a few backlinks or inbound links to your video AND your channel URL will make a considerable difference in where your videos will rank, and ultimately how many views you’ll receive.

Getting to the #1 spot in YouTube search results can make a difference of several thousand views!

#5 Action Step: Promote the Video

Once you’ve completed all of the steps above, it’s time to go back to your sphere of influence and share your updated video with your friends and followers.

I like to embed my video on my blog and share the blog post with my email subscribers and my social media followers.

Remember to share your videos on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Make sure to include a simple call to action and ask your friends and fans to share the video with their friends for that extra boost. This is the easiest step, but if you want more views, sometimes you’ve just got to ask!

Final Thoughts…

At the end of the day, the time, effort and energy you put into creating an incredible “video of value” is far more extensive than sending out a quick tweet or updating your Facebook profile.

Your video marketing efforts should never be in vain, and if you spend a little time on the “video aftermath” (everything you need to do AFTER your video is on YouTube), you’ll begin to see your video work for you for a long time to come!

Take the time to revamp all of your existing videos using these five simple action-steps. As long as you have created a “video of value” that is worth seeing and worth sharing, the views will happen!

What do you think? Do you have any tips to share? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Over the past several months, QR codes have inserted themselves squarely into digital media conversation (even appearing on late-night TV).

In this article, I’ll unpack how to get your QR codes to go viral on Facebook.

I’ll start by walking you through the process and an example campaign, and conclude with an analytical discussion examining five need-to-know success factors.

Setting Up a Viral QR Code Campaign

Step #1: Generating the QR code

For the uninitiated, QR codes provide a means to open a URL on a mobile phone.

However, a closer look reveals that most QR code generators provide functionality for executing a host of mobile phone actions, including creating a calendar event, sending an SMS or providing contact information.

Like all things viral, choose a QR code type based on what you think people will want to share.

For the purposes of our example campaign, we used scan-to-SMS. Once generated, keep in mind that saving the QR code in a user-friendly format (e.g., jpeg or png) will be useful when integrating with other applications.

QR codes can execute various phone actions. Scanning the above QR code sends an SMS with message "smexaminer" to phone number 44144.

Step #2: Customizing your Facebook post

The next step is to upload your QR code to a server that can communicate with the Facebook Share API.

Something you share on Facebook contains four components (see graphic below). All of these components are fully customizable for a viral QR code campaign.

A Facebook share has four customizable components: image (1), title (2), source (3) and description (4).

Some important points to keep in mind when customizing these elements:

• Image: This is where you will put your QR code. It should be sufficiently large for people to scan easily.
• Title: This is your headline. Crucial for grabbing attention in crowded Facebook feeds.
• Source: A brand running a campaign should host the QR code on a URL that provides context for the campaign (for those scanning our example campaign, you’ll see a URL connecting to a generic “wmclientservices.com”).
• Description: A great place to provide valuable and pertinent information about your campaign.

Step #3: Taking your campaign live

Once integrated, Facebook provides you with a campaign-specific Facebook share URL.

Use a URL shortener to make it more viral-friendly (trackable and easy to share). To ensure maximum uptake, test your code with multiple QR code readers before deploying into the wild.

Speaking of uptake, here’s the flow for our example campaign (with select screenshots below):

1. Users will see an ad for socialmediaexaminer.com with a QR code.
2. Users then scan the QR code and send the SMS.
3. They will receive two links, one to socialmediaexaminer.com and the second to share on Facebook.
4. When the second link is clicked, Facebook’s share prompt automatically opens.
5. Users can personalize the message and share.
6. The QR code is automatically posted to users’ Facebook wall and news feed.
7. Friends can scan the QR code within Facebook to share with their friends.

After the QR code is scanned and the SMS sent, this is the link delivered to share on Facebook (#3).

After the share link is clicked (or tapped), users can personalize and post to their Facebook wall (#5).

Once posted, others can scan the QR code within Facebook to share to their wall (#7).

The benefit of taking this viral approach to QR codes is easy to imagine: 10,000 people scanning and sharing the original ad equates to (from Facebook stats: 10K x 130 friends) 1.3 million additional pairs of eyes—and that’s before those Facebook users start sharing with their friends, and those friends with their friends, and on and on.

Five Need-to-Know Success Factors

Alas, if only it were that easy. Like everything in social media marketing, the process (sending a tweet, creating a Facebook page) is much easier than the actual execution (doing it well). Viral QR codes are no different.

Here are five factors that bridge the gap between success and failure:

#1: QR code reach

A commonly cited figure is that smartphone market share will reach 50% by the end of 2011. In a different light, that’s a minimum of 150 million people who won’t be able to scan a QR code through the end of 2011.

Maybe you’ve noticed, but our example campaign snuck in an alternative call to action that achieves the same result as someone scanning the QR code.

Alternative call to action included in the Facebook share.

As you can guess, this was intentional. Include an alternative call to action (SMS, for example, is accessible by 99% of phones) to considerably increases the potential of your viral QR code campaign without much additional effort.

#2: Incentives

Let’s say we were to take the above campaign live. At heart, its value proposition is, “Check out our website. It has great content we want you to share with your Facebook friends.”

Now let’s add a couple of phrases. “Check out our website for the chance to win a million dollars. It has great content we will reward you to share with your Facebook friends.”

I’d be willing to bet my winnings that more people will participate in the second campaign than the first due to better incentives. Though often overlooked in technology marketing, incentives shouldn’t be a surprise given that they turn up all the time.

What I think happens is that marketers mistake engagement resulting from “Wow, this is cool technology,” with engagement from people genuinely moved to action by a campaign. Social media marketing, like marketing in general (and maybe even more so), is a two-way street.

#3: QR code design

QR codes grab people’s attention due to their curious design. But assuming QR codes continue turning up in more and more places, the design’s intrigue may start losing its ability to captivate people amidst everything else bombarding them.

That’s why it’s important to make your QR codes unique. By customizing various features of your QR code, you can bring a sense of personality that will increase brand identity and engagement.

Customized QR code linking to a downloadable QR code eBook.

#4: Customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value is simple to understand. Every marketer in the world would rather have a customer who spends $50 every day for the next two weeks than a customer who spends $100 today.

However, whether it’s due to the idea of purchasing television spots or just the word “campaign” itself, marketers have a tendency to adopt a one-off mentality when it comes to tools like QR codes.

The problem is that QR codes at heart are an interactive medium. Failing to develop lifelong, instead of one-time, customers is a missed opportunity.

Luckily, there are a number of ways to achieve this end, the most important being opting someone in to a subscription list. Two viral QR code examples:

• Using a mobile application service provider, you can enhance your scan-to-SMS campaign with an opt-in that captures the mobile phone number.
• For scan-to-URL QR codes, you can use a mobile landing page to add subscribers to a database.

#5: CRM

QR codes are made up of three different types of data. The first—scans—accounts for the number of times a person successfully uses a QR code reader.

The second—phone operations—describes what a user does after scanning (e.g., clicks, downloads, page views). The third—user data—describes the people actually doing the scanning and phone operations (e.g., phone type used, age, gender).

I’ve seen far too many QR code campaigns that solely focus on scans. That’s great for predicting the future of your QR code campaigns, but you miss a key opportunity to gather knowledge of how and what type of people interact with your brand.

Viral QR codes, given their ability to get in front of more people, make it even more mandatory to learn as much as you can about your customers in order to inform your future marketing decisions.

To quote Henry Luce, “Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future.” A QR code campaign that fails to address the entirety of data available misses this point entirely.

More than anything, viral QR codes demonstrate a simple truth. Success in mobile and social marketing requires a database strategy. Not a channel strategy. The reason being that a database strategy is customer-centric, which affords significantly more value creation opportunities. Developing this mindset and working with people who share this mentality will ensure that you see maximum value from your QR code campaigns.

And as a mobile and social CRM aficionado, I’d love to hear what other ways you use to enhance QR codes with a cross-channel approach.

What do you think? Please post your thoughts or comments in the box below.

This article will share six easy ways to turn lurkers into leads.

Some background

A little background starts by evaluating your current lead generation process and whether it’s helping or hurting your efforts.

It’s important to understand the relationship among your lead generation strategies, your social media channels, your blog and your landing pages. Many times when we think of generating leads in social media, we look at the content we’re posting and neglect to look at the surrounding elements that also touch the user.

Every status update about a new blog post has three steps to drive lead generation: the status update, the blog post and the landing page. Each one of these has a different role in the process and offers a unique opportunity to optimize lead conversion. A typical lead conversion process in social media looks like the image below.

Understand your opportunities to convert leads.

You’ll notice there’s a critical component in the middle—the blog post. We spend a lot of time creating relevant content for our readers and promoting it through our social media channels. But many times, we forget to look around the content of the post to see if there is an EASY way for our visitors to become leads.

Karen Rubin, marketing product manager and marketeer for HubSpot, offered these great tips to help you optimize your blog to convert your social media traffic into leads.

#1: Offer an email blog subscription

RSS has become one of the most popular ways to allow readers to subscribe to your blog. However, it has significant limitations for lead generation. There’s no way to message an RSS subscriber directly because you don’t actually have any contact information. Your only point of contact with an RSS subscriber is when you post a new blog article.

Offering an email subscription as your primary blog subscription vehicle allows you to keep your subscribers up to date on the latest content while also sending emails that facilitate your lead generation process. Once the user has opted-in to receive updates from your company, you have the ability to continue to market to them and nurture them throughout the buying process.

Offer an email subscription on your blog.

#2: Add a Welcome pop-up for new visitors to drive email subscribers

I know many of us probably cringe at the idea of having a pop-up when someone comes to our site; however, this has been shown to tremendously increase the number of subscribers to your blog.

Chris Penn from Blue Sky Factory tested this methodology and was able to increase his blog subscribers by 733% in only two months! If you implement this well and establish rules for when the pop-up will show, it can greatly increase your email list.

Drive email subscribers with a Welcome pop-up.

#3: Include RELEVANT calls to action on your blog posts

Every blog post should include a call to action that is relevant to what the post is about. Karen pointed out that “The key is that your call to action be relevant. On the HubSpot blog, if we have a blog post about social media and marketing, we don’t include a call to action to our landing page optimization webinar. We include one to a social media–based webinar.”

Put a call to action on EVERY blog post.

#4: Keep it light and easy

Most of the calls to action we see on websites are all about buying a product or requesting to speak to a sales rep.

Karen describes this as a process of building trust, “just like you don’t ask a girl to your place to spend the night on a first date, you also don’t ask a visitor from social media to sign up for a demo with a sales rep. Someone who has read 140 characters about a blog post on Twitter and clicked through to see what the article was about likely doesn’t know enough about your company to want to dive in head-first and sign up for a trial or a demo.”

Many times our blog has first-time and repeat visitors; therefore, include calls to action that make it super-easy to buy if they’re at that point, but also include the “softer” call to action for those on a first date with your site. You definitely don’t want to force someone to search for how to get more information about your products or turn off a first-time visitor with a sales offer. Balance is the key.

#5: Be your own advertiser

Traditional content creators’ goals are to bring in visitors and then sell ad space to make money. As the world of marketing has changed, marketers are creating content and using social media to drive visitors.

Why not also use your ad space to promote your own offers? Modify traditional banner ad locations into new calls to action for your offers and drive more of your visitors to landing pages where they have the opportunity to convert into leads.

Use traditional advertising spaces to promote your own calls to action.

#6: Optimize your offers with landing pages

Once someone has clicked on one of your calls to action, make sure your landing page is optimized to convert the visitor into a lead. HubSpot recommends you follow the 7 steps outlined here to start converting more leads! For example:

• Keep it simple: keep everything about this page simple, including the number and nature of the questions you ask.
• Keep it short: seeing a massive list of 15-20 questions will make your prospect think hard about the value of his or her time.

At every stage in this process there will be people who fall off and don’t convert. You can maximize your efforts and minimize fall-off by optimizing each step in the process to drive efficient throughput.

Ultimately, the lead conversion process on your blog is just as important as the actual blog post itself. The goal is to create an efficient lead generation process between your social media channels, your status updates, your blog and your landing pages. Don’t let your social media strategies fall flat because you haven’t created an efficient way for them to become a lead.

What do you think? What has worked for driving leads on your blog? Do you have an example of a great blog that is set up to convert leads? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts or questions.

But the real secret is a little deeper. Successful bloggers also know how to use visuals.

In this article, I’ll show you 19 ways to use images that will make your blog appealing to read, keep readers coming back for more and increase your credibility.

Design Essentials

First let’s look at how to use images and design for your blog.

#1: Branding

Your blog header is one of the most important design elements of your blog. In addition to having your logo in your blog header, you can use the design to convey the message you want and strengthen your brand.

The Pioneer Woman does a great job of this in her blog header that changes with the seasons.

#2: Easy Reading

Images in your blog posts make your blog appealing and keep visitors on your site.

Ecoki uses photos in blog posts to make reading easy and entertaining.

The other key places to use images are in the sidebar and in the footer, depending on your overall blog design. Your readers turn naturally to these areas for useful information. This is why the sidebar and the footer are great places to show your readers what you want them to do next.

Notice the images used on this portion of the sidebar on Rise To The Top.

Your Primary Call to Action

You probably have a couple of things you want to accomplish with your blog. But you need to be clear about your main objective. What do you want your visitors to do when they come to your blog? Once you’ve figured that out, use images to direct attention to your primary calls to action.

Notice Social Media Examiner's call to action at the top of the sidebar: Get updates!

These images are usually in a very prominent position above the fold on your blog. This means they’re always in full view at the top of the page, where readers see them immediately when they come to your website.

The right visuals can incite the interaction you want from your blog visitors and play a key role in helping you reach your primary blog objectives.

#3: Social Media Profiles

A blog is considered a social media platform and you want to make it easy for readers to connect with you on the social platforms they feel most comfortable with. This is why many blogs have easy-to-recognize social icons in a prominent position.

It's easy to see what Dan Zarrella is interested in with the prominent position of these social icons on his blog.

#4: Free Incentives

The primary objective for many bloggers is to increase their list of subscribers. And many bloggers give away a free report or other freebie as an incentive. Use a compelling image of your free incentive to get more readers to sign up.

Chris Garrett offers a free ebook to email subscribers. The red image grabs readers' attention easily.

Mari Smith uses an appealing image for readers to sign up for a free webinar.

#5: Books

The primary objective for some bloggers is to promote their book. A well-positioned picture of your book is a great way to increase recognition, highlight your expertise and build your credibility.

Jay Baer makes it very easy to find his book on his blog.

#6: Key Presentations

Many companies choose to embed a key presentation in their sidebar to highlight their particular area of expertise and make a call to action. Pay attention to the visuals you use to make your blog readers want to find out more about what you do.

David Meerman Scott has an image which links to a YouTube video in a prominent position on his blog.

Adam Vincenzini uses a SlideShare widget to share a key presentation in the sidebar of his blog.

Key Information

Depending on your objectives, you might have more key information about your company to share in your sidebar.

#7: Products

Place visually appealing badges about your products in a prominent position to get more sales.

Copyblogger's product badges are appealing.

#8: Blog Author Photos

If you don’t have a photo of yourself or your team in your header, consider putting one in your sidebar. This shows your readers who you are and can make it easier for them to feel a connection with you.

The Smartblog on Social Media shows you who's in their team.

#9: QR Codes

Another type of graphic is a QR code. If this is something your audience can relate to, you might find it useful to have on your blog.

Denise Wakeman has a QR code in the sidebar of her blog.

#10: Navigation for Internal Links

You may want to highlight certain information on your blog that readers may otherwise miss.

Social Media Examiner has a custom badge linking to the Social Media Examiner TV shows to raise awareness of these high-quality videos.

#11: Navigation for External Links

Is there something else you’d like to share with your readers? Make the link appealing with the right image.

Brian Solis has an image linking to his mobile app.

#12: Clients and Sponsors

Consider highlighting the clients you’ve worked with or your blog sponsors. Be sure to check whether you have the right to publish their logos.

Web Advantage shows a selection of their clients in the sidebar of their blog.

#13: Awards and Prizes

Share badges of awards and prizes you’ve won.

Erik Qualman, author of the book Socialnomics, highlights one of the awards he received for his book on his blog.

#14: Social Numbers

Display widgets highlighting the size of your communities. Popular widgets on many blogs show the number of your Twitter followers, your blog subscribers and your fans on Facebook.

Scott Monty has some great social proof next to his "Subscribe" button.

#15: Rating Systems

If there’s a widely recognized ranking tool in your industry with a badge, consider placing this on your blog for social recognition.

Simply Zesty highlights their ranking on the popular Ad Age Power150 list in the sidebar of their blog.

#16: Social Networking Sites

Most social networking sites have widgets you can embed on your blog. This is a great way to grow your communities on social media platforms. It gives your readers the choice of where they want to connect with you. And as the communication styles vary on different social media platforms, it also lets your readers choose how they want to connect with you.

Citrix has a Flickr feed on their blog Workshifting.

#17: Regular Guest Blogging Sites

Many bloggers also publish articles on other websites and blogs. Badges from these blogs can add credibility and social proof.

Kristi Hines shares the badges of the places where she publishes articles regularly in the sidebar of her blog.

#18: Blog Directories

A number of popular blog directories offer badges and widgets for their community to use.

Content Marketing Today has the Alltop logo and widget on their blog to highlight their presence in their industry.

#19: Community Badges

Blogs with active communities can consider using a badge to incite more interaction within their communities.

The business-to-business company Cree uses a badge on their blog to incite readers to join their community.

Identify the Images You Need for Your Blog

You’ll notice that many blogs use a variety of images. But you don’t need to include all of them. Too many images can become a distraction.

Plus, you’ll use most of these images with a link and these links are “site-wide links”—they appear on all of the pages of your blog. Choosing which site-wide links to use is a strategic decision. You want to stay focused on where you want to send your readers.

So try to find the right balance you need to make your blog appealing and the right images to use to get what you want out of your blog.

What are the images and badges you have on your blog and why? Please share them in the comments below.

Then be sure to watch this edition of Social Media Examiner TV with our host Mari Smith.

In this episode, Mari gives you an in-depth look at Facebook Fan Pages, all the recent changes, what they mean to you and lots of new Facebook marketing tips.

Share your feedback and see the show notes below!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzI4hBbDOs

Editor’s note: This video was shot shortly after the big upgrade - so at minute 1:30 where Mari talks about “the big thing people are most up in arms about is that posts are no longer in chronological order” is now no longer accurate. Due to mega pushback from users (as is often the case with Facebook’s changes!), Facebook has since added the ability to have your wall posts as “Top News” (popularity order) and “Most Recent” (chronological order). Also, Admin View has since been replaced with “Hidden Posts” and is basically your spam filter view like it was before. There is no longer an Admin View.

Here’s what you’ll learn from Mari in this video:

The Changes To Your Facebook Page

The last Facebook upgrade included the biggest changes in a long time.  Mari reviews what these changes mean to you and what you need to know:

• How to post comments and updates as a Page on other Pages
• What the new Tab navigation means for you
• How to set keywords to create your own spam filters
• How comments show up when they’re flagged as spam
• How to change your settings to get notifications by email

Mari shares how to manage your photos in the new photo strip at the top of Facebook Pages

How These New Changes Impact The Best Practices On Facebook

Mari covers what you need to be aware of and how these recent changes will impact the best practices for your business networking on Facebook.  Here’s what you’ll discover:

• How to increase engagement when you comment as your Fan Page on other Pages
• What you should do to make sure you come across the right way
• Where you’ll get the best results when networking as your Page

Some Great New Facebook Marketing Tips

The new Facebook upgrade gives businesses some new marketing tools.  Here’s what you’ll discover:

• How to create a call to action visible to all your visitors
• How to reorganize the links in the new navigation
• What you should put at the bottom of your navigation list and why
• How the new iFrame features can help your business
• How to use Facebook Ads to drive readers to specific tabs
• How you can create a free ad for your Fan Page

Mari explains how to upload a custom image to use as a powerful marketing tool.

Listen To Mari’s Hot Marketing Tip

Most of your fans will only see your updates in their News Feeds and not on your Page.  So be sure to listen to Mari’s hot marketing tip on how to increase your visibility in your fans’ News Feeds.

Watch the video to learn more about how you can improve your Facebook marketing on the new Fan Pages!

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Social Media Examiner TV, make sure to tweet about it (use hashtag #SMEtv), share it on Facebook or even embed this episode on your blog.

We want to hear from you! What great Facebook marketing tips do you have to share? Please tell us in the comment box below.

The simple answer is: You have to promote your blog and let people know it exists.

Optimizing your blog for search engines is critical, but just like any website, product, book or service you create, you have to promote the launch of a new blog.

There are a lot of ways to promote a new blog and I’m sharing 14 tactics to help you get the word out about your new baby. Heck, you could use these tactics for an established blog as well if you want a boost in traffic and subscribers.

But before you tell the world your blog exists, make sure you have completed these essential tasks first:

1. Does your masthead (banner) make it easy for new readers to know what your blog is about and if it’s right for them (target audience)?
2. Is your name as author/publisher easy to find?
3. Do you have an About/Contact page?
4. Do you have subscription options (RSS and email)?
5. Do you have a call to action to get more info (join your mailing list, get a free report, etc.)?
6. Do you have social sharing buttons on your posts?
7. Do you have links to your social networking profiles?
8. Do you have comments enabled?
9. Do you have 7 to 10 posts published?

Point #9 is important because you don’t want to send people to a blog with only one or two posts. New readers will want to get a sense of your style, content and expertise before they commit to subscribing. I strongly recommend having a minimum of seven posts published before you start promoting your new blog.

Implement the Obvious First

Before I get to the 14 creative ways to promote your blog, implement the obvious and see #12, 13 and 14 in this article.

• Syndicate your blog content to your Twitter stream.
• Link your blog to your Facebook business page.
• Link your blog to your LinkedIn profile.
• Submit your blog to the appropriate blog directories.
• Write and post a media release.
• Send an email announcement to your list.

The Not-So-Obvious

When I was thinking about this topic, I decided to “tap the wisdom of the crowd” to get the best of the best ideas. I posted the following question on LinkedIn Answers:

Question posted on LinkedIn Answers.

There were 27 responses in 7 days. There were many similar recommendations and a few that stated the obvious (like using social media and writing engaging content). I’ve culled through them and offer you a selection of tips I feel are the most effective for launching your new business blog.

#1: Host a Live Streaming Video Event

When Mike Stelzner launched Social Media Examiner, he created buzz and a lot of traffic by hosting four back-to-back video chats with the initial contributors (me, Mari Smith, Jason Falls and Chris Garrett).

#2: Use Offline Marketing

Boris Mahovac recommends going offline and sending postcards to your existing clients, asking them to promote your new blog to their contacts. Using a unique URL will allow you to track new visitors/signups, and this can be a way for you to reward the one client who sends the most traffic to your new blog. You need to give your clients an incentive to promote your new blog—say a chance to win an iPad, or something more expensive, depending on the business (model).

#3: Create a Video to Promote Your Blog

Apryl Parcher suggested using Animoto.com to create a video about your blog. Post it on your YouTube channel and Facebook page. Send the video link to your email list as well. Several others also mentioned creating videos and with the popularity of video, I encourage you to include it in your launch plan.

#4: Use Remote Blogging Sites to Extend the Reach of Your Content

Brandon Uttley uses Posterous.com to post excerpts from blog posts with links back to his main blog and other social media sites. Remote blogging sites often have high traffic and this puts your content in front of potential new readers.

An excerpt of the original blog post is published on a Posterous blog with a link back to the original post.

#5: Host a Live (In-person) Event for Your Announcement

As Barry Hurd says, “I think a lot of people forget the social part of the media. Launching a new blog is really about reaching through your relationships.” Host a private reception, dinner or cocktail party with industry leaders in your niche. Or, go big and host a meetup or tweetup and cross-promote with a charity. Live events are an opportunity to connect face-to-face, get to know the needs of your target audience and build a lot of goodwill.

#6: Repurpose Your Content

I could relate to Kathi Browne‘s suggestion to submit blog posts on article sites like EzineArticles.com.  There’s more on repurposing your blog posts here.

#7: Feature Experts

It comes as no surprise that Liz Strauss , a master at building community, shares a tip about featuring other people on your blog. Start an interview series that features experts who folks want to know better. Invite a wide range of people to participate in short interviews that ask unusual and insightful questions. Include the expert’s name in the blog title.  Additionally, make heroes of other people who are just starting out. Point out their work as well.

#8: Comment on Other Blogs in Your Niche

This suggestion was offered by quite a few people, and with good reason. As Janet Fouts says, “Commenting on other blogs with useful (not promotional) information and insight can pique the interest of other readers and also build those treasured backlinks.”

#9: Do Some Guest Posting

This idea came up many times as well. There are two sides to this: inviting other bloggers to guest post on your blog and offering to guest post on complementary blogs. Both ways can generate visibility for your blog. The value is in creating connections with colleagues and creating win-win-win for you, other bloggers and your readers. The links and buzz will support your blog launch.

#10: Host a Webinar

Along the lines of a live video chat or an offline event, create a webinar or teleseminar to introduce your blog. Rather than simply announcing your blog, make it a learning experience by teaching or demonstrating an aspect of your expertise. Remind your audience they can continue getting the same great content by subscribing to and reading your blog.

#11: Run a Contest

Dawn Pigoni offered this excellent idea: Run a contest based on the content of the blog. Have an “answer hunt” where the answers to win the prize(s) are found within the blog posts. That will get people reading the quality, content-rich posts while attempting to win a prize. Then use Twitter to post questions and the winner(s).

#12: Host an Online Radio Show

BlogTalkRadio is a popular and free site that provides the tools and foundation for creating your own show. Because of high traffic and the syndication options on Blog Talk Radio, a show focused on your niche could generate an ongoing stream of visitors to your blog. If hosting isn’t for you, most radio hosts are always looking for guests to fill their time slots. No doubt you can find many shows that are in alignment with your blog’s niche.

#13: Create a Related Special Report

Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com shared his secret: Release a valuable piece of “extended content” such as a PDF report or video tutorial (without an opt-in) fairly early after the blog launches. While the content itself is valuable, it also acts as a “sales letter” for subscribing to the blog, due to the promise to keep expanding on the themes presented in the extended content in more detail. This allows you to create a “content event” early. And it’s a natural way to attract long-term subscribers if well done. Just be sure to have the opt-in call to action at the close of the extended content, because that’s the action you want people to take.

#14: Advertise Your Site

Clay Franklin recommends using Craigslist, eBay classifieds and Facebook ads to boost awareness of your new blog. This will depend on your budget. If you do want to spend some advertising dollars, you can test a Google Adwords campaign and see what kind of results you get.

If you were to implement just three or four of these ideas, you would see a boost in visibility, traffic and blog subscribers.  Pick the tactics that fit with your business model, style and intended audience and you’re sure to experience success.

Now it’s your turn. What creative tactics have you used or observed to launch a new blog? Share your ideas in the comments box below.

Early efforts in social media marketing have created a tremendous amount of buzz and interest, but surprisingly few case studies focus on monetization.

A recent study by Ketchum and Nielsen shows the number-one activity of social media users (online or offline) is reading blogs – even above TV!

So it’s clear that social media is here to stay, and accountable programs must be created to deliver performance and ROI. Here are 3 steps to help you get started:

#1: Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Measure Against Them

In order to hold any marketing channel accountable, there first must be a framework of metrics that can be tracked, compared to a benchmark (industry or prior program performance) and analyzed over time.  Social channels are no different.  When looking to assign accountability to social programs, the first step is to define KPIs and measure against them.  The three key components to track are:

Expanded Reach to New Audiences

Reach refers to the additional impressions that social channels provide to a program.  Reach addresses the first value of social media marketing: tapping into the power of the social web to engage previously unreachable prospects to your brand message.  In addition, reach through social channels increases a brand’s credibility as new consumers touched by social programs are being introduced by their peers or other respected “voices” on the social web. For example, the impact of a consumer seeing a friend recommend a brand as a result of a social program is much greater than seeing a static ad from the brand.

Influencer Sharing Behavior

Influencers (a.k.a. customers advocating for your brand) are essential to maximizing the viral impact of your social media programs. In order to leverage them properly, you need to determine the level of engagement between an influencer and the members of their social graph.

All influencers are not created equal. Some are exceptional at sharing a message but offer little in the way of engagement with their peers. Others generate little groundswell or buzz, but the peers they do touch take their advice.  Understanding who your influencers are within your customer base and tracking their sharing behavior are critical to optimizing program performance.

With the rise of social media, consumers are increasingly relying on user-generated content for purchase decisions.

Conversions and Monetization

Every social program must be associated with a call to action. Subscriptions to email lists, product purchases, signing up as a Facebook fan or downloading a free trial are all examples of calls to action.  In order to measure monetary contribution to business goals, the marketer must assign value to the social program’s call to action and then track the conversions.  Too often, social purists take a passive approach to program execution. The call to action need not be a sale. In fact, it could be motivating users to generate content to be added to a brand’s online community.  The point here is that a defensible value for the action must be defined and tracked.

The combination of these three KPIs (reach, sharing behavior and monetization) provides clear program success criteria and can be weighted based on a program’s objectives.  In the case of an awareness campaign, a marketer may place more weight on reach and sharing activity.  In the case of a direct response program, the opposite weighting could be applied.

#2: Create Predictable Results With Targeting

When looking at potential advocates to share a brand message on the social web, the number of friends one has on Facebook or the number of followers one has on Twitter is important, but it’s not the most important factor.  The real key to driving a predictable program is targeting.

Too often, social media programs start on the social web (where customer-specific data is scarce) and not within the CRM databases that companies have developed to provide deeper insight into their customers.   Accountable marketing programs need to be predictable, and predictability can only be driven on the social web once a brand identifies its most engaged customers and who among those are willing to advocate on its behalf.

Consider the current crisis faced by Toyota and how targeting could help drive advocacy, while a lack of targeting could be a disaster!  I am a lifelong, loyal Toyota owner.  I had my first Camry in 1996 and leased my second Camry in 1998.  In the meantime, my wife purchased a Toyota 4Runner in 1999 and another three years later.

We followed these vehicles with a Sienna Minivan, a brief stint with a certified pre-owned Lexus and finally my 2007 Camry.  I have owned no fewer than 6 Toyota vehicles in the last decade.  I love these cars; I stand ready to defend them.

As I mentioned before, marketers need to understand that all customers are not created equal on the social web, and the number of fans and followers the brand has is not the critical data point. It’s how customers feel about the brand and the relative propensity they have to share POSITIVE sentiment with their social graph.  Under the current system without proper social media targeting, Toyota is likely to ask my neighbor to advocate for the brand, who bought his first Camry last year and would love a reason to share his negative sentiment with his over 2,600 followers on Twitter and 700 friends on Facebook.

#3: Foster Viral Sharing With Incentives

Social media purists – take a deep breath before reading on.  Social media marketing is subject to the same rules and limitations as other marketing programs.  Specifically, there’s no way social media can become an accountable channel if it’s reliant on “lighting in a bottle” –type programs.  Viral activity from a set of advocates needs to be predictable. Equally important, marketers must be able to influence the social participation in their programs.  Incentivized sharing provides this level of predictability as well as an opportunity to throttle activity.

Rewarding customers for behavior, once again, is not a new concept.  Airlines, hotels, financial institutions and even coffee shops consistently reward customers for loyal patronage.  Why not apply that same logic to advocacy on the social web?  Marketers need to build bi-directional incentives into social programs. This means they reward the influencer for inviting friends to participate in a brand’s program and then reward the influencer’s friends for acting on the viral invitation.

In other words, both the brand advocate and the advocate’s friend are treated like VIPs for engaging with the brand via the social web.  Programs that include these bi-directional incentives perform two times better than those that rely solely on altruistic motivation for sharing activity. As long as marketers are transparent about the incentivized offers, the integrity of the channel is maintained while the marketer can access a dial to turn KPIs like reach, sharing behavior and monetization up or down.

There’s been real innovation in the last year around social media marketing and many leading brands have taken advantage of the wave.  In order for it to continue, marketers must introduce a program-level discipline to their social marketing efforts. The concepts above are a great place to start. Define KPIs and track at the individual and program level over time, target social programs at your most engaged customers and introduce incentives for social sharing activity.

What are your thoughts? Is your organization holding social media marketing accountable, and if so, how? Please comment in the box below.

Rich content creates a memorable interface that gets people talking, lets a special announcement or contest go viral, improves fans’ engagement and so much more.

To create an important hub to reach out to millions of potential supporters, you need to up your game and optimize your fan page to meet its ultimate purpose.

(Important Update: Facebook no longer supports FBML. Please refer to the articles on Facebook iFrame.) Everything is possible, thanks to the powerful Facebook application known as Static FBML. Many people may be unaware of the advanced functionality FBML gives a fan page, such as creating and naming your tabs or boxes freely. For those who are curious just how powerful Static FBML can get, we’re going to inspect it all here:

#1: Welcome Page

The main purpose of a Welcome tab is to provide an overview of your page—what you can offer to people who like your page and why it should matter to them. Quit force-feeding new visitors a sales pitch; instead convince them with solid reasons to stay as followers.  You have one chance to impress them, so make sure your Welcome tab serves its purpose:  greet with enthusiasm, guide visitors to ‘like’ or have a look at certain tabs.  Mini websites, Flash and webcasts are just some of the advanced methods you can use to create a lively, impactful Welcome page.

Create a strong call to action with eye-catching graphics and clear instructions.

#2: Social Profiles and Contact Information

Have you ever wondered why certain options are not visible in the Info tab? For example, there is no place to include your business hours and location, while other pages have it. You’ve probably selected the wrong type of fan page during the setup process. Because deleting and recreating a fan page with a large number of people who like your pages is not really an option, Static FBML provides you a way to include your business contact details as often as you like.

Use extra information and social buttons to enhance visibility of a contact box.

#3: Testimonial Page

When it comes to service providers and professionals, nothing is more convincing than a testimonial page. You can have a static page with testimonials or have a designer create a catchy layout to attract peoples’ attention. How you decide to showcase your testimonial page is only limited by its relevancy and your creativity. Static FBML allows you to do so much, even placing video testimonials and arranging client reviews in the order you prefer.

Create an attractive Testimonial tab with FBML that draws attention.

#4: Newsletter and Opt-In Form

An opt-in form can be easily placed on either your Welcome tab or as a box on the sidebar of the fan page wall. Regardless where you put it, make sure it’s visible at all times for people to sign up. It’s an added opportunity to build a strong readership and a potential client base with email marketing. Some of the famous services such as Aweber and MailChimp provide HTML code for users to place an opt-in form in any selected tab using static FBML.

To encourage sign-up, place an opt-in form on your Welcome page, as a box on your wall or as a tab.

#5: Secret Membership Area

This is a tricky one to entice visitors to like your fan page.  Prepare several useful resources, backstage passes, anything you can think of that provides value.  It can be a newsletter or any private content with hacks and tips, business guidelines or videos that are available solely to people who like your page.

Encourage visitors to Like by providing a secret resource area only accessible to them.

#6: Contests and Special Events

For fan pages with regular monthly events or contests, a tab can be used as a promotional board for fans to check out the details and deadlines. A sharing button makes it all easy for anyone to share the exciting news with their friends. Try it and see how your information can go viral before your eyes.

Build a special tab consisting of contest details and monthly events that can be shared easily.

#7: Article Links

Ever wonder what you can do for those old, yet timeless, posts on your blog? Why not give them some extra visibility by placing an ‘oldies but goodies’ box next to your fan box? Steal some attention with a slight bit of creativity and occasionally mention them in your announcements. You can rotate the frequency of post links or even post categories so visitors have a wide range of selections, as shown on Social Media Examiner’s fan page.  Most of all, it’s much better than the usual Social RSS feed that only displays the most recent entries.

Include a category box of articles that allows visitors to navigate effortlessly to the main site.

#8: Job Board

People are turning to social media sites for job opportunities. It’s no surprise that even Facebook’s own fan page has a We’re Hiring tab to recruit. There are 200 million active users who log on to Facebook daily. If your company has job opportunities, why not insert a job board on your fan page?

You just never know who might drop in one day.

#9: Analytics

Who would forget the popular Google Analytics post about the magic code we place in the FBML tabs to track page visits? Combining this fantastic method with static FBML, we can now decide which FBML tabs are staying which tabs should go.

Have you been playing with static FBML to enhance your fan page? Feel free to share your experience and success stories with us.