.
Where do you get ideas for blog posts? And what do you do when you just aren't inspired to create anything remarkable?
Our top inbound marketing article from this past week focuses on the concept of content sources -- places where you can get ideas to help you write quality blog posts -- as well as different types of sources and how to use them strategically and continuously to create remarkable content.
Author: Georgina Laidlaw on Problogger
Regularly sourcing content has a number of benefits: it's a great way to create a constant flow of ideas and inspiration for your blog, it makes life easier, and it can help ensure you're not omitting important information from your content.
Georgina's blog post categorizes content sources in two ways: internal sources, or those that exist within yourself and your audience (e.g. experiences), and external sources, or those outside your own operation, such as other media or other people focused on the same topic. Regularly sourcing content is a challenge, but making it part of your daily routine can help you create a truly compelling blog.
Marketing Takeaway: Incorporate sourcing content into your day-to-day activities to stay inspired and keep blog ideas flowing.
Author: Catherine-Gail Reinhard on Mashable
Are you taking advantage of YouTube's Annotations tool? Annotations are interactive elements that can be added to a video once it's uploaded to YouTube, and they can offer a great way to add a call to action that prompts viewers to subscribe or take a particular action after watching a video.
Catherine's article discusses the four different types of Annotations (speech bubbles, notes, spotlights and video pauses) as well as their value and various ways and examples of how they can be incorporated to make your videos more effective.
Marketing Takeaway: Experiment with YouTube Annotations to enhance the marketing effectiveness of your online videos.
Author: John Paul Titlow of ReadWriteWeb
New to the whole web analytics thing but know it should be an important part of your marketing programs? ReadWriteWeb has published a great overview of five web metrics to which you should be paying attention. Keep an eye on these metrics, and you'll have a better idea of how many people are interacting with your brand and which of your online marketing efforts are effective:
- Conversion Rate
- Referring Sites and Keywords
- Facebook: Daily Active Users
- Twitter: Klout Score
- Email Open and Click-Through Rate
Marketing Takeaway: Pay attention to marketing analytics for valuable insight into the success of your marketing programs.
Author: Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategy
Jeremiah's article highlights some recent research conducted by Altimeter Group to determine success criteria for Facebook page best practices. The results? Eight success criteria for Facebook page marketing that can help brands understand how they should approach their Facebook presence:
- Set community expectations.
- Provide cohesive branding.
- Be up to date.
- Live authenticity.
- Participate in dialog.
- Enable peer-to-peer interactions.
- Foster advocacy.
- Solicit a call to action.
Marketing Takeaway: Align your Facebook page with these best practices to enhance your Facebook marketing.
Author: Jeffrey L. Cohen of Social Media B2B
While LinkedIn is commonly known as a social network for professionals, many people don't recognize the B2B benefits an optimized personal profile can have for their company.
Jeffrey's article emphasizes 12 ways you can leverage LinkedIn to help support and enhance your business' internet marketing efforts. His suggestions include taking advantage of a descriptive headline, search engine optimizing your website links, answering questions, adding third party apps like Slideshare and incorporating keywords.
Marketing Takeaway: Use LinkedIn for more than just personal networking by enhancing your profile for business marketing benefits.
Free Download: 2010 Online Marketing Blueprint