Any site on the internet requires visitors to be successful. For social networks, this is even more important, because the quality of the site is defined largely by the quality of user interactions and contributions on that site. About 6 weeks ago, I started up a site,
The Free Agents which caters to people between jobs. Its a social network where people can share their experiences and meet others in the same situation.
Over the last several weeks, I've been working hard to promote the site. I have no formal training in marketing, so my efforts have come mainly from trial and error and also from advice from marketing professionals, both through their blogs and from actually speaking with them. There are other guides on the internet about generating buzz for your website, but most of them are long on generalities ("Know your goals") and short on details. This guide is an attempt to nail down some of the strategies that have worked for me, and help others that are getting involved in the social marketing landscape.
Disclaimer: this is a work in progress, so I have inevitable missed some key points or approached some things in an unusual way. I welcome your comments below!
Cover Your Bases With the Social News Sites
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Reddit - catchy, thought-provoking titles are important. The main site gets a huge number of submissions, so posting to a subreddit (a sub-site devoted to a specific topic, like Business or Linux) might increase your chances of making it to the front page.
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Digg - short titles and good descriptions are important. Be sure to choose accurate categories for your site. You'll be best off if you've been using digg for a while and have built up a base of friends, since they're more likely to see the story and vote for it.
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StumbleUpon - tagging your site properly is key, since users see sites based on interests they select.
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Del.icio.us - tagging is very important, since that forms the basis upon which others find your site.
Get the Word Out On Twitter
It's important to create a solid presence for your site on
Twitter, since it is becoming an increasingly important place for users to share links and thoughts about sites and services. Here are the steps:
- Create a Twitter identity for your site. For Free Agents, users can follow @freeagentnet.
- Send out several Tweets relevant to your message to get some good content in your feed so that users have something to see when they first start following you.
- Advertise your Twitter name on your site -- a simple "Follow @freeagentnet on Twitter" will do the trick, and allow users to stay up to date. Also, ask users to add in a hashtag in posts related to the site. For example, if a user Tweets about something unemployment related, they can add #freeagentnet. Hashtags are keywords easily indexed by outside agregators, so you can pull all posts related to your site together on a page.
- Use Twitter search to find users that are talking about topics related to your site. Start following them. This has 2 purposes: first, it keeps you in touch with what people are saying about the area that you're in. Secondly, when you follow people, they are likely to follow you if they see that you've been Tweeting about the same types of things, so you get a larger Twitterbase.
- Tweet often about relevant content, new areas on your site, and other information related to your primary goal.
Things to Avoid on Twitter
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Don't send out too many tweets each day. Aim for 5 or fewer messages every day, with great, compelling content in them. Never use your "business" account to send out messages like "I'm eating breakfast", or followers will quickly drop you.
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Don't try to follow anyone and everyone. Follow those that you think you'll learn good information from, and read their tweets. If you're a follower of the whole world, the information gets diluted
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Keep your links informational, and not overly promotional. Link to relevant content that you post on your site, but limit the number of links to your top level site, since it only takes a few before people start thinking you're a spammer.
Create a Facebook Group to Engage Your Friends
Marketing to your friends is a great way to get the word out, especially if its the kind of product that lends itself well to your own demographic (otherwise, why would you build it?). Creating a
Facebook group dedicated to your concept and inviting your friends to join is a good way to spread the word on Facebook, since each time someone becomes a member, that information shows up in the feed and others see it.
You can only invite 100 people to a group at a time, so be sure to choose carefully who you add to the invitation. On one hand, you want to pick people close enough to you that will join because you're their friend and they want to help you out. If you pick people that you barely know, they are less likely to pay attention to the invitation, which means the invite is "wasted" on them. On the other hand, if you choose your 100 best buddies from college, they might all join, but they probably all know each other, and the benefits from your group appearing on the feed are lessened. By choosing some people that you don't know as well, you lessen the chance that they will join, but if they do, you will likely access a completely separate social circle and your product will hit a more diverse group of users.
Add Meaningful, Relevant Comments to Related Blogs and News Articles
If you run a site devoted to auto repair, you probably are interested in that subject and read related blogs and other sites regularly. If you don't, you definitely need to, for several reasons. First of all, its important to keep your finger on the pulse of your topic online. If some bloggers break news about Callahan Auto's new Brake Pad Division, its important to see what everyone is saying about it so that articles on your site can respond appropriately. Secondly, commenting on related blogs is a good way to reach readers that are interested in your subject area.
Commenting on blogs, like other methods of social marketing, walks the fine line between spamming and contributing to a service by adding helpful information and a link. If you run a blog, you probably receive hundreds of spam comments per day, and most are filled with gibberish and a few links. These are obvious garbage, and most get filtered out anyways. However, other posts contribute a brief snippet of commentary, and a big fat link to another site. They often say something along the lines of "great article. check out Zalinsky Auto Parts [url]". These comments are also garbage, because they don't contribute anything to the discussion, and are obviously there only to promote another site.
A good rule of thumb is if you can't contribute something meaningful to the article through your comment, don't post one. On the other hand, your site may be a great resource to readers of that article. If that's the case, in the comment box, add a unique point of view, and then somewhere in the comment, mention your site. Most blogs moderate their comment posts to avoid spam, so the more you can contribute to the discussion along with your link, the better the chance that the blog author chooses to keep your comment on the page.
Connect with Popular Bloggers in Your Space
Figure out which bloggers are the most influential in your area. There are a variety of ways to do this -- start by Googling for certain keywords associated with your website and see which blogs come up. Add these blogs to your
Google Reader (or other RSS aggregator) and start reading them every day. Pay attention to other sites mentioned in articles, and check out their blogrolls.
Once you've identified some of the important blogs, contact the author and introduce yourself. Tell them a bit about your site and ask them if they'd be willing to help spread the word. Many blogs are happy to help out, especially if they have the first chance to "go public" with a cool concept. Be sure that you don't look overly spammy -- send polite, personalized messages to each author. I often try to respond to an article the blogger has written to break the ice and let them know that I am a reader and that I find their content valuable.
Engage in Discussions on Other Websites
On some sites, the user community is already large and established. If your product is a great complement to such a site, one great way to promote yourself is to become an active and respected user in the well-known community.
For example, if you have a restaurant reservation service, users on a site like
Yelp might be interested in your offerings. One great way to promote your site is to become a very active and trusted member on the "mother site", and rely upon the fact that your credibility will make people naturally interested in learning more about you and your service. To build this following, you need to contribute content to the existing community that others find worthwhile and valuable, and do so in a way that's not overly promotional in nature. For Yelp, you might consider posting several restaurant reviews with thoughtful feedback and commentary. You don't necessarily want to post a link to your site in every review, but definitely have a link in your profile so that when people click on your name to learn more, they see that link and click on it.
You might get fewer impressions by promoting this way (since users will have to see your profile before they see your links), but you'll get more conversions too, since those who visit your site are people who have already decided that they find you interesting and worthwhile enough to click on your profile. By leveraging your credibility in one arena, you are able to apply it to another to increase the impact you have for each visit.
Overview
Creating online buzz about your product takes time and effort. Simply dumping links all over the internet with very little content around them will simply make you a spammer, and there are mechanisms online that will ensure that your links are quickly relegated to the spam heap. On the other hand, if your product is one that people find valuable, and you promote it with thoughtful contributions to a variety of places online, you will eventually meet success and attract visitors.
