Getting More Users
Editor’s Note: We all want to go to the SMX Social Media confab in New York next week. But good conferences don’t come cheap, especially if they’re in the Big Apple. But not to worry. We know people. Like Rand Fishkin, who is giving a talk on Social Media Marketing Essentials. As one of the smarteratti, Rand knows that driving more visits to your site can mean more clicks on your ads from more qualified prospects. Driving more visits is a good thing. Driving more visits for no money is even better. In his SMX conference presentation, Rand will discuss how to get more clicks via Social Media. He offers a preview here (for no money).
The buzz about social media has reached a crescendo. Naturally, this has sparked a good deal of debate and trial and error around the practices of marketing across social media on the web. Results, from successes (which we often don’t hear much about) to failures (which seem to get the most press) dot the landscape of social media marketing and inspire both curiosity and fear in website owners and marketers.
Today, I’d like to act as Sergeant Joe Friday and present, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Social media marketing may be a bit of a minefield, but it’s also an exceptional opportunity for marketers to reach a traditionally tough-to-penetrate demographic—early adopters. This is the fundamental reason that social media marketing is so exciting—those who are active in social networks are powerful people—they’re influencers, bloggers, journalists, thought leaders and publishers. They can help to spread your message, so reaching them can have a remarkable impact.
So… How does social media marketing work? In many, many different ways. You can use social media marketing to:
- Create profiles on social media sites to conduct reputation management and control (You can see what others say about your brand and actively prevent your brand name from being abused—i.e. the John McCain MySpace scandal)
- Participate in social media networks to earn credibility and mindshare from other members of those communities
- Share stories, links and content that the community will find valuable, which sends either a positive branding message or direct traffic to your company
- Build links to your website to help with traffic and organic search rankings by building content on social media sites
Control the search results by using profile pages to fill up the search results (and push down potential negative results)
Distribute viral content you’ve created to help attract links, traffic and attention (see this post on linkbaiting for more)
Each of these unique activities requires considerable effort, know-how and experience. It also requires that you know where to go to engage in social media marketing. These are the top 10 sites we engage with and get value from:
StumbleUpon—With more than three million regular users, StumbleUpon drives terrific traffic and has social options that help to make it even more powerful
Wikipedia—Incredible visibility in search engines and a powerful brand make participation valuable
Yahoo! Answers—with three million users and growing, Answers is a natural fit for any company seeking to build its brand and expose its experts to the curious
Digg—The Digg home page drives tens of thousands of visitors and considerable visibility to the larger blogosphere
Reddit—Similar to Digg, but with an older, somewhat more mature audience focused on politics & offbeat news
del.icio.us—Tag pages, the home page and the popular page are all valuable for driving traffic and branding
Flickr—One of the best sources on the web for sharing images and a highly participatory community as well
Newsvine—Recently picked up by MSNBC, Newsvine allows for unrivaled levels of participation and content generation
Yelp—The current leader in local reviews and listings
YouTube—The powerful, highly visible video site has millions of active users and allows for incredible brand reach when a video becomes popular
The best recommendation I can give is to spend time in these social communities, learn the ins-and-outs of the people and participants and jump in only when you feel comfortable engaging. For many publishers, this may require a social media specialist (either in-house or contracted) or someone who can dedicate the time to learning the landscape of social media. If you’d like to learn more, a good recommendation would be to stop by the SMX Social Conference in New York City next week, and be sure and look in at my presentation on social media marketing essentials as well Patrick McGee’s session on Yahoo! Answers.
Best of luck on all your social media adventures!
Do Want to Know More?
So do we. That’s why we’ve been running an ongoing series on low-cost traffic drivers to help our publishers get more users and help increase qualified clicks. Check out these previous posts:
Read Comments (14) | Post Comment | categories:: Events, Guest Columns, How-to's
October 11th, 2007 at 10:16 am
[...] DK Administror wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptStumbleUpon—With more than three million regular users, StumbleUpon drives terrific traffic and has social options that help to make it even more powerful Wikipedia—Incredible visibility in search engines and a powerful brand make … [...]
October 11th, 2007 at 10:53 am
[...] Clark Getting More Users » This Summary is from an article posted at Yahoo! Publisher Network on Thursday, October 11, 2007 [...]
October 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
[...] Getting More Users, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog [...]
October 11th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Let’s see – how could YPN get more users? Hmmm, come out of beta perhaps?
October 12th, 2007 at 10:17 am
It is probably only my fault, but social media are a total waste for me.
I have been using stumbleupon for a while and I never ever seen such a low profile traffic. 200/300 unique referred daily with 98% bounce rate. Links are “nofollow”. Useless.
Yahoo answer: this one works if you have someone that have nothing else to do but answer questions. Links have nofollow attribute so they are useless for SERP.
Delicious: I have some good bookmarks and a nice network. Never seen a referrals from it.
Flickr: I post pictures there only to show to my buddies. all my photos are public, but again no visitors to my sites.
Digg: I know someone dagg some stories of mine, but I saw one or two visitors a month. If you can’t get the homepage don’t bother.
Wiki: It looks like whatever is the topic, they outrank you in SERP. Now all links are “nofollow”
Why an article of mine on wiki should outrank my site? No thanks.
Just my rants.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Sorry, forgot to say:
You did not mention MyBlogLog.
Actually it’s the only one that works for me. I get a dozen of uniques everyday, and they surf my site nicely. Wow!
October 12th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Guido,
Thanks! These are actually some very good insights. You’re right about MyBlogLog — we did forget to mention it and it works well for me, too. Our mistake.
Would you be interested in reading tips and tricks from the folks at Flickr, del.icio.us & others on better ways to drive traffic using their specific services? That might be useful. Let us know.
Cheers,
- M2
October 12th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
M2,
Tips are always appreciated.
I’m not looking for the “easy way” to rank better and gain more traffic quickly, but at least, I’d like to see some “return” from my efforts and time.
Thank you for your considerations.
Ciao,
Guido
October 15th, 2007 at 5:17 am
[...] Getting More Users, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog [...]
October 25th, 2007 at 5:19 am
guido wrote good comments. I didn’t get much traffic from Digg. However, I did some research on top posts of Digg. Alexa ranking for these sites go up for a day or two then it dies down. After few weeks alexa ranking for some of these sites was in the range 1 million+.
I personally don’t like to spend time on writing comments about news stories in Digg like sites. It’s not just providing the link, you need to write few lines of what the story is about. I really can’t understand how come so many people spend so much time in Digg like sites, when they get nothing in return.
I never tried mybloglog, may be I will just give it a try.
November 7th, 2007 at 1:33 am
[...] Yahoo! Publisher Network » Blog Archive » Getting More Users Says: October 11th, 2007 at 9:17 am […] come cheap, especially if they’re in the Big Apple. But not to worry. We know people. Like Rand Fishkin, who is giving a talk on Social Media Marketing Essentials. As one of the smarteratti, Rand knows […] [...]
November 16th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
[...] the meantime, explore blogging and social media as options to help your company engage with customers and guide the conversation around your [...]
December 13th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
[...] build relationships with their customers and supplement their Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns using social media—not just blogs, but sites and tools like MyBlogLog, Flickr, del.icio.us, MySpace, Facebook [...]
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Why UGG Boot is So Popular?
Ugg boots, also spelled ugh boots and ug boots, are a style of sheepskin boot, with wool as the inner lining and a tanned outer surface worn by both men and women. Ugg boots often have a synthetic sole, although this is not universal. Uggs are popular with the teenage set, worn by girls with mini skirts, leggings, and with jeans tucked into the boots. UGGS Boots are also popular with boys, wearing jeans or tracksuit bottoms inside them most commonly.
UGG UK Sale, In Australia and New Zealand, sheepskin boots have long been popular with people in rural occupations, such as sheep shearers, who have ready access to the raw materials,. Their popularity increased as a result of World War I and World War II, when they were popular with aviators, because of their need to keep warm in non-pressurized planes at high altitudes. An exhibit of a WWI aviator’s outfit in the Canadian War Museum cites the term "fug" boots. UGG Cardy, Ugg Boots have also been popular with surfers and competitive swimmers since at least the 1960s, for keeping warm while out of the water. The terms ugg boots, ugh boots and ug boots have been used as generic terms for sheepskin boots in Australia since 1950s and 1960s, when they first appeared in advertising and other publications.
The natural properties of sheepskin results in thermostatic benefits. Thick fleecy fibres on the inner part of the boots allows air to circulate and keep the feet at body temperature. Synthetic and faux fur boots do not have these properties and sheepskin boots are highly prized for their effectiveness. Ugg boots are designed to be worn without socks in order to maximize the benefits of sheepskin.
What’s more, This Year’s Hottest UGG Boots Style–UGG Bailey Button Boots, is already starting to sell well. UGG UK Sale, it is not a matter of if this style sells out, but how quickly. Every year people procrastinate and then they can’t find the Ugg Boots they want. So, Shop early for the best selection.