Solution of Traffic (part-2)

 Chapter 3

Social Networking—Get Out and Mingle!

Social networking is not just fun and “in” for 2012—it is also a guaranteed way to get

free traffic. After all, social networking is free and it means hours and hours of free

publicity for your company…that is, if you can get the lingo and the “culture” (if you will)

of sites like Facebook and Twitter.

This first point to understand is that social networking is not at all like sales, or even

anything like your official website. When someone visits your website they want to read

sales information and content about your industry and your services. However, when

people are in the mood to socialize, they simply want to chat, goof off, share

information, share links and stories and generally have fun.

In fact, coming across as a “company” or speaking only about things that concern you

and your great products is probably going to rub people the wrong way. This is against

the very nature of social networking—a place that is more like a playground or like a

lunch break room than an “office.”

So, how can you use social networking to increase traffic? This is an issue that still

confuses many business owners, as their pages may only receive a handful of likes and

never stimulate conversation. Inevitably, the site owner wonders, what did I do wrong?

Here’s the secret: you must learn each individual social networking site, and use its

unique features to draw in traffic. You must become not just part of the crowd, but part

of the Facebook crowd, part of the Twitter crowd. Let’s take Facebook as an example..

Facebook’s Features

Facebook is a website that capitalizes on personal user relationships. Facebook is the

place that boldly brings together friends, family members and acquaintances from all

walks of life. In fact, many people actually avoid talking or even listing their business

and instead just enjoy time off with their friends. We can blame a series of well publicized

Facebook “Fails” for this…you know the boss is always watching when you

make fun of the company in a public forum.

So yeah, that and the fact that no one wants to swear in front of grandma, just keeps

Facebook a very work-less environment. The moment you start mentioning work,

people become annoyed. (Unless of course, you’re complaining about work!)

On the other hand, no one really cares what you say on your profile, because it’s

perfectly fine to say who you are, what you do and where you work. It’s the sort of

conversation you would have at a bar, right? Besides, people do actually want to know

who you are…they want to know of what “use” you are to them. For example, if you say

you’re a doctor, everyone will definitely take note of that and call you up the next time

they have a question.

It’s the same principle with anything you do - as soon as you say that you work in a

certain field, you are deemed the expert and your associates identify you with your

products and your business. No, they don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to

hear you rattle off catchphrases and talk about great deals. However, if an issue comes

up they will definitely click your profile and visit your website. They will be seeking you

out, looking help with their customer needs.

This is the secret to social networking, and quite frankly, the secret to all sales in the

new millennium. Do not try to sell on Facebook. Attract your customers. Besides the

ability to create a detailed profile full of links, Facebook also has these other

advantages:

• The Ability to Share Photos and Videos:   

  Facebook allows you to share photos and videos among friends, which can be funny, touching, motivational or controversial. These are great at stirring reaction, and the more people you have chatting, the more your brand is getting around. After all, your goal is to be the brand. So, not talking about business is not really a big deal if you are using your personal time to promote your company’s values.

• The Ability to Connect with New People:

Facebook lets you connect with old friends (who it actually seeks out according to your personal Internet logs… creepy, huh?), reply to messages and send private messages. It also has various forms of communication, from direct conversation to status updates, to

highlighting articles you have read, which others might be interested in. The

point is, you can engage your audience on a social page and earn their respect

as a friend, long before you ever bring up business. Creating a long list of

contacts is the first step to using social networking, as you are building a large

and personally invested audience. Remember to make your page public if you

hope to get extra publicity. You can also like or share pages that are not only

interesting to you—but reflect the values of your company. In essence, your

behavior is part of your brand. Out of curiosity, people will “stalk” you just to see

what you like, what you say and what you believe. It’s all great for publicity!

• Facebook Groups and Pages: 

Another example of Facebook’s unique environment is the fact that you can create your own groups and pages and unite people (and secretly build an audience) to promote something you believe in.

Now, you cannot convince them all to “join” your company. True, you can ask

people to “like” your company and bribe them to do so as well—but it’s not as

effective as drawing their attention away from business and towards a free group

or fan page. Instead of trying to break down their resistance, distract them from

business talk by focusing on another common agenda. Like a group of people

united by a common interest, or a group of people who gather together locally to

discuss issues. Creating a community away from business can actually draw

people to your business, as they will soon realize you’re a natural born leader

and know a great deal about your industry (and how it affects them). Start by

searching for existing groups and taking part in that discussion. The great thing

about Facebook is that you never have to sign up to new groups. You simply use

the same ID and can converse freely in a variety of connected “worlds.” If your

niche interest (which is also your business) doesn’t exist, be sure to create it.

You can also create movie pages, celebrity pages and product pages just to get

attention from the mainstream world—all of which may take an interest in your

life and career. Be sure to research the keywords and determine what your

group name should be called in order to drive more traffic to you. Keyword

research tools or even Facebook searching tools can be of help here.

• Facebook Places:   See Chapter 6 under Local and Mobile Marketing.

• Facebook Events:   Users can create events and gatherings and invite all of their

friends to join them. Even if all the VIPs cannot RSVP, they can still comment on

the event and offer moral support. Little events (whether a night out at dinner or

a huge festival in town) sponsored by your company are a great way to get a

dialogue going with others, or even to brand your name as an official sponsor of

a "meet up" in person. For even better traffic generation, provide the details of

your involvement at your official website.

Twitter’s Tips

Twitter is the abbreviated version of Facebook, and while its options are not as complex,

many people find it simplicity very useful. One great thing about Twitter is that it allows

you to develop more professional and casual relationships, not necessarily “friends” but

followers. In fact, Twitter is far more often used as a means of advertising new pages of

content, recruiting employees and clients, answering customer service concerns and

other business concerns.

• The Real Time Search:   This option allows you to search topics on what people

are talking about and is a great to discern trendy new subjects and other market

research. In fact, one of the latest rumors is that Google will buy Twitter, and

incorporate an even more effective means of searching the entire web and

matching keyword content. Twitter and other social networks are arguably more

popular than email services, since users can check their messages from any

location (including mobile devices), and thus are easier to contact.

• Interact with the Latest News:   You have a choice of interacting with the latest

news stories or commenting on the website’s most popular keyword searches.

You can click the Discover or the Connect tabs to explore your options. You can find more friends or even surf the new categories option for a Yahoo-like

approach to various channels in the Twitter zone.

• Followers:   The key to earning traffic through Twitter is to create a huge list of followers. The best way to do this is to focus on writing excellent niche content. 

Give serious thought to your tweets and try to make all of your microblog posts informative or entertaining. Some individuals (not celebrities!) have actually earned millions of followers just because they kept a running journal of thoughts and stay in touch with their circle. One way to earn bigger traffic is to take a look at other users who are operating in your “niche”. Find them and look at their followers. Follow them and correspond with them about the subjects they find interesting. In this respect, you can use Twitter like a blog site, and build your own community of users.

Just remember to keep tweets regular (there are actually programs that help you

schedule tweets) and—once again—to avoid repetitive company promotion and actually

hold a conversation with your followers. You can gain more traffic by reposting good

tweets, by linking to excellent resources, and replying to all tweets sent to you, thereby

building online relationships. (And these sources may eventually become your

customers)

LinkedIn’s Linking

LinkedIn is not as popular as Facebook or Twitter but it is quickly gaining a reputation as a serious business site. And when you first log in to LinkedIn, you may be alarmed at its setup, which is far more complicated than your typical Twitter or Facebook page.

LinkedIn, although it has been following some of Facebook’s new layout designs, is

actually more interested in creating connections with business associates than

socializing with friends.

The question is: How can you boost traffic to the site since you won’t be relying on your

old Facebook- eques “look at me!” tricks and tips? Notice some of LinkedIn’s best

features:

• Questions and Answers:  While Yahoo Answers may be a top rated site for questions and answers, the LinkedIn Q&A section actually is taken far more seriously, and thus has better quality answers to pertinent questions. These are questions asked by professionals and answered by professionals, all parties eager to represent their brand with class and intelligence. By showcasing your knowledge, in this rare instance, a case where people actually .

 DO want to talk about business concepts, you can draw people to your profile which contains all of your social media links and website URL. Another idea to consider: carefully choose the questions you answer, knowing that “big name” company spokespersons will be among the first to reply. Rest assured, they all read the comments, and will notice your name (and company representation) if you impress them. LinkedIn is special in that it’s a great place to meet new customers and new clients at the same time. Just be sure to avoid giving the same answers to all new questions.

• Profile Stats:   You can actually see trends and statistics on who viewed your

profile, a great way of finding potential new business links or customers.

• Find Jobs:    You can search for jobs directly using the jobs tab and can post jobs,

apply for jobs or post a resume online, which could lead searches to you.

• Find Companies:   You can search for individuals as well as company-grouped

profiles, or follow companies you find relevant to your industry.

• See News:    Check out the latest news from the “news” section and see how

various companies relate to it. Follow influential people and their actions. You

may even link with them, which will work wonders for your traffic if a big name

ever blurbs you.

Google+ ’s Extras

Google Plus, to some, seems like a bit of overkill—or at least it did when it first debuted.

It’s not as sociable as Facebook or as simple to use as Twitter. However, some of the

newest features of Google + are making the site extremely competitive—perhaps even

more so than before, since Google is buying up so many companies and dominating the

entire Internet when it comes to searches.

Like Yahoo, Google gives credence to its own sub-company links. Therefore, being

friends with Google, by integrating its technology, is a win-win situation for everyone.

Google Plus also boasts the following traffic generating features:

• Video chat (ideal for conferencing or hosting video Q and As);

• Easy integration with file storage, thanks to Google Drive;

• Sparks is a trending content option that lets you find inspiration or lets you

monitor how people search for you or link to you searches;

• The Circles option lets you group your followers so that you can better target

pitches and status updates. This may go a long way in helping you to effectively

target certain groups for certain messages, and thus not upset the entire

association of your followers with niche type postings; and

• The +1 feature is the Google equivalent of a like button, but it promises more

search friendly options, as “popular sites” will inevitably be the ones with

hundreds or thousands of +1 links.

Pinterest

A relatively new phenomenon in social networking is Pinterest, a website that

exclusively uses pictures—art, photography and motivational imagery—in the creation

of its social network. Pinterest is all about branding and it has to be as subtle as

possible, since no blatant advertising is going to work. Instead, users concentrate on

creating communities, inspiring responses and photo shares (or re-pins in its own

terminology) and in finding mutual interests in relationships.

Most experts state that the secret to gaining traffic with Pinterest is to be yourself, to be

real and true to you and your company’s values—and to let the pictures tell the stories.

Pinterest doesn’t have much in the way of advanced interaction features, but it does have an easy setup, and a simple process that allows users to “pin” images of the same

size.

All of these images can include a link back, available upon a double click. Statistics

show that Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing social networking sites, and all the

more so when it comes to generating external traffic. Make sure that all of the photos

and images you post match your business, which is a key point in integrating all of your

different pages.

Like any site, be sure to update the content regularly and launch daily pin themes.

Don’t limit yourself to products…use Facebook style multitasking and post images of

tidbits, tips, and even products of other users. Last but not least, use the key phrases

on the board to reach out for those targeted viewers.

Forum Feats

Forums don’t have the clout that they used to have. After all, before there was such a

thing as My Space (the first big social media site that slowly died over time) there was

the Internet forum, or in archaic terms, the “chat room” or the bulletin board system.

These applications were the predecessors of social networking and helped bring people

of highly varied niche interests together long before there was a universal network that

connected everybody together.

Well, guess what? They haven’t gone out of style. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are

actually so big that many people avoid them, figuring that aside from friends and family,

it is too difficult to find people that actually share their most important interests.

However, web forums still have the capacity to bring niche audiences together,

especially if you create forums that cater to keyword interests, and visit other forums to

post as a guest (or even a part time moderator). When you join a forum, you discuss all

of the niches that really matter to people—the type of topics that bring you devoted

followers, not just casual surfers. Forums also give you:

• Special tools like polls;
• Easy cross platform logging in abilities thanks to Facebook and Twitter
integration;
• A chance to find your target market and interact with them;
• A chance to build community trust; and
• A signature, which is basically a link back to your company, and an opportunity to
make a statement about your credentials and your company’s values.

When focusing your efforts on forums, try doing some keyword research to target the

best audience to work with, and don’t forget to actually add the phrase “forums” to your

search so you can filter out all the social network pages and content mills.

Last but not least, remember that all social networking—regardless of which site you

use—is useful to you as the medium is a form of free advertising. The only rules of

thumb are:

(A)You cannot be lazy about it—you have to update consistently.

(B)You cannot blatantly promote…try to be creative and sociable above all else.

(C)You cannot be boring. Even if you’re just giving free stuff away, try to be fun and interesting.

Social networking sites have two great traffic advantages: first, they create quality links

for your site. In fact, with the latest search algorithm updates, social media pages

actually showed an increase in traffic, whereas content mills and even article directories

showed significant decreases. Second, social networks create a great quantity of links

leading back to your site - the more that your content or links are shared amongst the

community.

The biggest mistake new business owners make is clear: they do nothing with their

page rather than going out and recruiting people by befriending them, sharing with them

and (gasp) yes, even promoting their business. It’s the cyber equivalent of hosting an event. So by all means, invite people…mingle and have fun with the latest trend in free

online marketing.

What about email marketing? Some say email marketing may be a thing of the past…

especially since instant messaging and social networking sites are stealing the thunder.

Gee, I wonder…have you received any SPAM email offers lately? Of course! The

medium is not dead. However, you must take an assertive and smart approach to email

marketing if you want to generate serious traffic.

Let’s consider how to find traffic through email in our next chapter.

Chapter 4

Email Marketing—Making “Friends” with Your Customers

Email marketing is vastly misunderstood by many business owners, who either loathe

SPAM (and don’t we all?) or by business owners who want to use SPAM to get cheap

traffic and attention. Sure, SPAM is a great way to get people to look. Virtually

screaming about cheap drugs, sexy products or “books that will change your life” do get

noticed quickly.

However, the huge proliferation of SPAM ever since the Internet first launched in the

public eye has destroyed the reputation of legitimate email marketing. (SPAM is

essentially, cold-emailing people with a business proposal…and especially with

hyperbolic text promising the world) SPAM is also associated with overseas scam

operations. Luckily, most of us are too smart to respond to these sneaky emails.

Now if you can look past the SPAM approach, and convince your audience that you are

not “one of them”, you will be able to generate traffic. The hard part comes in

establishing a stellar reputation.

The Difference between Real Email Marketing and SPAM

SPAM is not necessarily an unheard of concept. After all, it’s a slightly less targeted

means of direct mail marketing, a long-time tactic used by local companies. The only

difference is that it is online. The broad mail marketing approach is comparable to a

banner ad or a commercial on TV. 

You’re taking a big chance by cold-contacting your

audience with a “personalized form” pitch. Mail marketing has the advantage of the mail

presentation; people have to open the letter and then read the headline. Something

that a TV or radio ad does not offer. Usually, research is only limited to neighborhood

segmentation; i.e. targeting the poor or the wealthy, or according to rural or urban areas.

However, the online version of direct marketing clearly has some superior technology

working for and against it. Online email can be automatically arranged. No real return

contact information is required, since fake email addresses can be easily created and IPs can be faked. This has led to many unsavory users creating scam companies and

launching huge email campaigns to sell their faux products.

Why is SPAM illegal in some areas? Why is it banned by virtually all webhosts? Why

do ISPs go through great pains to separate your SPAM from personal email messages?

For that matter, is it really unethical to SPAM somebody?

SPAM suffers from bad associations, having been “pioneered” by scam artists and poor

marketers. What truly offends people about SPAM is the robotic nature of the

campaign. Messages that are sent are practically soulless, even if they use a

customer’s name.

Therefore, if you want to use email marketing to gain traffic, your first order of business

is to separate yourself from the rabble of the profession. What is the ultimate customer

complaint about SPAM? That these guys are emailing them non-stop all without any

consent or the slightest hint of permission!

So, step one is to get that all important consent form, and the best way to do that is to

use an opt-in form. True, you can actually cold-email companies and ask for consent.

This is a 50/50 proposal, and you may be ignored, or you may be replied to, based on

your proposal idea. Before trying the direct approach, be sure to scout the company

and make the introduction letter sound as professional and yet as personalized as

possible.

Otherwise, the only way to go about serious email marketing for traffic generation is to

go the opt-in route. Simply put, you get consent to send email messages to your

audience on a regular basis. This has three advantages:

• Your audience is less likely to unsubscribe if they have willingly opted in;

• The fact that they have opted in convinces them that they are interested in the product; they are more likely to buy; and

• You separate yourself from spammers who send messages indiscriminately.

When it comes to opting in, some campaign managers are happy with one opt-in form

(usually an email signup box) while others elect for double opt-in signups, which may

require clicking a link inside of an email message after signing up, or checking a box

before submitting an email address.

Once you have permission to send emails, and actually have their FULL attention

(meaning no instantly deleting emails or a software program automatically sending it to

a spam folder) then you can focus attention on creating an intricate email campaign that

communicates on a personal level with your customers.

Many Internet users actually prefer email communication when it comes to sealing a

deal or making a sale. They want that one on one attention if they are to spend their

money…they prefer the assurance of a human being rather than a robot auto

responding to their purchase. 

So in lieu of this, though you are going to be using auto responding tools, do not make your email content seem like a form. Instead, take advantage of this secure and private connection and make an attempt to personalize letters and personalize responses to questions if you have the time. After all, many purchases still go through email (using PayPal, or freelancer sites like Elance.com or auction sites like E bay) rather than social networks or even home websites.

Mailing Lists

The next step is to create a mailing list so you can email all of your customers (or

perhaps just a segment of your total leads) by simply clicking a few buttons. This is

sure more convenient than drafting 1,000 individual email posts! You have two options:

you can assemble a mailing list on your own, or you can use software that automatically

stores all of your new leads’ email addresses for you. You can manually enter the email

addresses in a database, or install a CMS site plug-in that stores info for you, or you

can use a freeware auto responder program which stores lead information and also

helps you organize multiple email campaigns.

Auto Responders

Auto Responders are computer programs that answer emails sent automatically. While

they are a form of artificial intelligence, they can be personalized and designed to mimic

one on one conversation. They can be used to manage new email campaigns,

welcome new members to a newsletter, advertise new products or highlight company

announcements, or confirm subscriptions (the double opt-in).

These email-marketing tools can be either installed on a user’s own server (a more

complex option) or can be outsourced and actually operate on the provider’s

infrastructure. That way, users simply access the application from an easy to use

control panel.

When choosing an Auto Responder, it is important to choose not only a free product, but

also an operational one—one that protects against SPAM and bad SPAM associations.

For instance, some outdated autoresponder applications can generate email

backscatter, which will instantly label real messages as SPAM, sending it straight into

the junk folder.

AWeber is one of many autoresponder programs and lets you access email signup

forms (which you can easily install as HTML on your site), auto response mechanisms

(meaning your customers will always be contacted quickly after taking an action) and

provides easy ways to create and manage multiple mailing lists for various projects.

Users can also choose between various HTML templates, customize signup forms, use

RSS to email, and even analyze email analytics. Yes, you can actually track the

behavior of your users to see which messages are opened, which campaigns are the

most successful, and which campaigns did less than stellar.

Creating Newsletters

Now comes the tricky part. How do you make such an automated approach to business

SEEM personal? The personal connection is key…yet, we insist on using automated

software to save time and money, don’t we? There is a solution.

You can customize your email messages to fit your target audience, to seem personal

and more importantly, to address the customer’s needs.

Your customers are pretty smart…they are not going to think that you are emailing them

personally. It doesn’t really matter if you use a personal name or just a generic title.

What matters to customers is how you make the personal connection and if you

address their shopping needs.

In discovering ideas for traffic generation through email, it is essential that you do three

things:

• Arouse the reader’s interest with a great title, one that speaks to his or her targeted needs;

• Keep the person reading by making the information focused and of excellent quality; and

• Direct them to a specific homepage or a landing page on your website to continue the intimate conversation.

True, your website presentation probably won’t be as informal as your email messages,

especially the “newsletter”, the personal pitch that comes month after month (or

sometimes week after week) advertising the latest news from the company. However,

you should aim for a smooth transition from the familiar email marketing message (the

pitch that arouses and holds interest and then addresses the need) to website sales

(the call to action stage).

Besides directing traffic to your website, it also helps to include a signature or “author

box” at the end of the message to say a little bit about you as a person and as a

businessperson. Avoid using affiliate links in an email, as this could turn off your

audience.

Last but not least, just as you study SEO analytics and social networking metrics, study

the analytics for email. Determine which messages increase traffic and which themes

don’t seem to work. Adjust your campaign accordingly.

Another tip: do not be content with just one avenue of information. Just as with article

marketing, you can actually increase traffic to your website by finding more than one

newsletter to publish your material in. As long as you’re researching the niches and

focusing your content, you can find upwards of 10 or more newsletter sites to post

information.

Up until this point, we have only been discussing the mediums for traffic generation. In

the next chapter, we are not only going to discuss video and audio content production

as a means to produce more traffic…we are also going to discuss the theory behind

“Viral” content. That is, what truly makes people stand up, listen to you and decide that

you have valuable content worth sharing? Ultimately, producing lots of “viral” content is the best way to generate an awesome amount of free traffic. So let’s get to the bottom of this mystery…