You’re forging your way into the world of social media, content marketing, inbound marketing, or whatever you want to call it. And you’ve heard that content is king and whatever you publish has to be worth your audience’s time, and good enough for them to share.

But you’re not really sure what that means.

If only there was a basic test you could perform to find out if content is worth posting and sharing.

You’re in luck. Now there is.

STEP ONE

Ask yourself: 

What’s the outlet?

The t...

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“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

“Here’s looking at you, kid.”

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

These famous and familiar film quotes originated from films made in 1939, 1942, 1975 and 1979. Topics run the gamut from a magical land to pre-World War II heartache, from man-eating sharks to the Vietnam War’s effect on the psyche. Yet, no matter how different they are, they all have...

It all comes down to math. Dust off your calculators and let's look at a pretend business that sells widget X.

Keyword: widget X
Cost-per-click (CPC) for "widget X": $1
Average clicks per day: 10
Conversion rate (in this case, the number of people who come to the site and purchase the product): 5%
Profit from each sale of widget X: $10

Let's do the math:
Cost: $10/day = $300/month = 300 clicks
Conversions/month (at 5%) = 15
Profit = $150

YIKES! We spent $300 to make $150! Not a great business model (unless you're the government). 

He...

Most of us use social media for primarily personal reasons – keeping up with old friends and getting better acquainted with new ones. But that’s something that businesses in the social media space tend to forget. They post, comment and interact in a very, well, business-like manner. And when a businessy, impersonal post shows up in the middle of someone’s all-too-human feed, it just feels wrong – and turns your audience off.

That’s why developing a strong voice or persona for your brand is one of the most crucial components when launching your social media initiatives. Tweets, Faceb...