Social media clutters the web in a variety of happy colors. From the light blue of twitter to the bright orange of blogger, social media has made more than a playground out of the web. We shouldn’t have to say it, but shame on anyone who has neglected their social campaigns. Everyone loves to talk about SEO, but for the intelligent individuals who really understand how to harness the power of social media building links may fall a second priority to “wall posting” and “friending.”
Why is has social networking become so powerful, and more importantly how can you use it to drive massive amounts of traffic? Those are the questions we set out to answer. This is what we discovered.
Social networking started long before myspace, friendster or even my childhood favorite, AIM. It probably began somewhere in the mountains or in a desert where people left hieroglyphs for each other to discover and talk about. Or maybe it started with amoeba organizing themselves into groups and standing for something. Either way it was definitely not invented by hackers at 2 a.m. getting wasted in ivy league dorm rooms.
The value of social media in terms of driving traffic and ultimately profits online has been evident for years, but harnessing the beast is easier than identifying it. In our experience we have realized a few simple things when it comes to social media. Here they are:
1. You should spread yourself across only as many social profiles as you are capable of maintaining.
It can be easy to end up taking on more than you can handle. Each new social networking account can mean hours per week of maintenance. Make sure to get a good system down for updating and maintaining your current profiles before signing up for more. If you don’t have the time or energy to post fresh content to a new youtube page or facebook group at least twice per week, then it’s probably not a good idea to create one.
2. You should try to encourage interaction between your social media patrons.
Holding contests via a blog or “wall” is a good way to build buzz around your social media territories. This could be as simple as allowing entries and then voting with a prize attached. Companies like threadless.com have built entire businesses around this concept.
3. Make good use of messaging within every social media account.
Social media is a great way to open the door for direct communication with potential customers. Most social media services have some sort of direct or mass messaging feature. Use this to extend invitations to users such as visiting your actual website or checking out a partner product.
All of these things have helped us grow throughout the years and social media has certainly become a source of traffic we now depend on.
