The Call To Action. The Most Important Thing You Need To Do On All Social Media

The Worst Mistake

I was lucky enough this week to be able to spend some time in the beautiful rural setting of Horsham where I presented some workshops on Social Media and related digital media and marketing practices. Through the day I was asked about what I thought the worst mistake you can make on social media might be. 

Now I see a lot of poor decision making in general in my travels but with the possible example of being dishonest and intentionally misrepresenting yourself which I don't believe any serious business does these days, I believe the biggest faux pas that I see consistently in the digital space is the consistent lack of an effective, short sharp and simple call to action at the end of every interaction with your audience on every social media platform you use to promote your business or organisation.

 

Rationale

Perhaps it is that the function of the Call to Action is so obvious that we often forget to put it in but regardless of why it is important to fully understand what it does. Basically the Call to action answers the question 'what next'.  Specifically what is it that you want that individual to do now that have finished with the piece of content they have just finished reading, looking through, watching, etc. and you now require them to go onto the next step.  Now in the ideal world it would be nice to think that everyone engaging with your content would intuitively know what to do and how to do it next. Experience of course shows clearly that they won't always know how to so the simple solution is to tell them simply and clearly by way of short, sharp calls to action.

Types of Calls to Action

As you might expect there are a plethora of popular, proven and appropriate calls to action that will work for any conceivable situation on social media. From a structural point of view it always helps to combine what is needed with what will happen when they do that.

For example:

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In every case the  person receives a single clear instruction that provides the required action and the immediate benefit that answers the all important question of: what's in it for me or WIIFM as the marketers like to refer to it. This is a critical thing to consider as regardless of your market or segment or product offering, everyone out there today in the Google age where we have been conditioned over several years to want and receive additional value frequently, will be looking to get the same from you with minimal effort in the process.

Format

In more recent times as the appreciation for the role of the Call to Action has grown, more attractive and aesthetically appealing formats have become available to use so that it is generally no longer just a few words of content turned into a hyperlink, but more likely to be a stylish button whose size, colour and shape support the other design elements of your web or social media page and as such further support the branding on that page. Buttons like these shown below from Max Buttons are typical of what you can use and adapt on your own corporate website or social media web pages:

 Summary

In the final analysis it is an important strategic function to map out what you are trying to achieve at each customer touch point and by extension what the next step beyond that will be so map it all out first and then check that you have provided all the necessary instruction by way of a well thought out and straightforward series of Calls to Action for your digital audience.

So if you'd like to learn more about PR or any other form of marketing or social media marketing  just sign up for a free workshop through the Digital Enterprise and there you will qualify to earn a free four hour one on one workshop. Just book by clicking on:

www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program

 So until next good, good luck and good marketing.

Regards
Daniele - See more at: http://roadscholarsmarketing.blogspot.com.au/#sthash.hLRVBQgv.dpuf

 Naturally if you would like to learn more about any aspect of social media marketing please feel free to sign up for any of the seven free two our workshops and earn a free four hour coaching session for your business as a reward for attending the workshop by checking out the session times and dates on:


http://www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program/workshops

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

So if you'd like to learn more about PR or any other form of marketing or social media marketing  just sign up for a free workshop through the Digital Enterprise and there you will qualify to earn a free four hour one on one workshop. Just book by clicking on:

www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program

 So until next good, good luck and good marketing.

Regards
Daniele - See more at: http://roadscholarsmarketing.blogspot.com.au/#sthash.hLRVBQgv.dpuf

So if you'd like to learn more about PR or any other form of marketing or social media marketing  just sign up for a free workshop through the Digital Enterprise and there you will qualify to earn a free four hour one on one workshop. Just book by clicking on:

www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program

 So until next good, good luck and good marketing.

Regards
Daniele - See more at: http://roadscholarsmarketing.blogspot.com.au/#sthash.hLRVBQgv.dpuf