Social bookmarking sites

[Linda Buquet]

Originally Posted by sunkist219

I personally like StumbleUpon the best for finding new interesting material. Has anyone ever used their advertising program?

I've run a few ad campaigns. If you just want low cost traffic it works. Not sure how well it would convert though. For the most part they are looking for cool sites, not for something to spend money on. Maybe free trials and broad general offers like weight-loss or dating would work.

[sunkist219]

Originally Posted by Linda Buquet

I've run a few ad campaigns. If you just want low cost traffic it works. Not sure how well it would convert though. For the most part they are looking for cool sites, not for something to spend money on. Maybe free trials and broad general offers like weight-loss or dating would work.

Good point. My site is an insurance company, so it'll probably just get skipped

[victory08]

As for me, i used Yahoo My Web 2.0, but actually i don't like it =(

[seo-affiliate]

Originally Posted by sunkist219

Good point. My site is an insurance company, so it'll probably just get skipped

You can create very interesting content related to your industry, such as:

1. The history of insurance.
2. Top ten lists of things to look for in different types of insurance (I have done this to promote auto insurance affiliate programs).
3. Create an interesting You Tube video.
4. Compile a page of interesting You Tube videos related to your industry.

A big key to success with Social Media sites is creating a buzz that reaches enough people so that you get a percentage of people that are actually interested in your product or service. In this instance, you are not promoting your services commercially, but they will end up at your site where they can find others links to your products and services.

Hope that helps.

[sunkist219]

Originally Posted by seo-affiliate

You can create very interesting content related to your industry, such as:

1. The history of insurance.
2. Top ten lists of things to look for in different types of insurance (I have done this to promote auto insurance affiliate programs).
3. Create an interesting You Tube video.
4. Compile a page of interesting You Tube videos related to your industry.

A big key to success with Social Media sites is creating a buzz that reaches enough people so that you get a percentage of people that are actually interested in your product or service. In this instance, you are not promoting your services commercially, but they will end up at your site where they can find others links to your products and services.

Hope that helps.

This is true, but most of the insurance agents that come to me for advertising ideas are looking for something that will get people to fill in online quotes on their website. Some of them have success with Facebook advertising, but I guess I could try a StumbleUpon account, I just don't think it'll work.

[seo-affiliate]

If you dont try it because you don't think it will work - then it certainly won't work :-)

I should qualify what I said. To be effective with promotion in any Social Media arena, you have to do more than just "submit content". You need to be an active member of that community - which means submit new content, bumping up the content of others, and commenting as opposed to just "liking" content. It is a process and if one is not committed to the process, then they should not expect any results.

Two critical and often missed steps when trying to market a site via Social Media are:

1. Building a strong network with others - which include those who influence the industry you are targeting.

2. Producing quality content.

Hope that helps to give a bit more specific guidance.

Anthony

[jcorkern]

I have to agree with sunkist219.

Social media is not the place that you would want to use for insurance. Online marketing is basically online advertising. A simple rule of advertising is that you do not advertise a rock guitar in a gardening magazine. Each form of marketing has it's own place.

There have been case studies about social media, like the one done by an SEO company with a viral post here SEOmoz | Anatomy of a Super Digg. the title of the post was "8 Diseases That Give You Superhuman Powers" that is in question.

They talk about how they got wild traffic from social bookmarking, but it was for an auto dealer. They also state that they increased in natural position, but that the page that went viral had no links to any page within the core site, just residing on the domain, so there was no PR bleed from the viral page.

Now, here is the kicker, he had already stated that he was link building for a month, and then after aweek or so of the viral that the natural went up on the site itself, but no way for the links to that page to share gained link power or pr bleed.

So, was the first month of link building what made the site jump in natural, was it just that it took 5 weeks of normal link building for the big "G" to credit them and readjust the serps?

I would bet 1 million on that! It was the couple hundred links built over the month that made the difference for the core site as he still stated that the viral page still did not rank for it's own title.

If you look at the way viral works, you must have a mass of people interested in what you have to say, If you notice in the post that he had little, if any results from other attempts on targeted viral within the market he was working and that is why he done the 8 diseases thing.

Viral is good for certain sites, great for others, and poor for still others.

He would be much better off doing a steady link building program and/or PPC if he wants good and qualified traffic to the site.

[Joseph Ratliff]

Originally Posted by jcorkern

I have to agree with sunkist219.

Social media is not the place that you would want to use for insurance. Online marketing is basically online advertising. A simple rule of advertising is that you do not advertise a rock guitar in a gardening magazine. Each form of marketing has it's own place.

I think I disagree with you jcorkern...

You can use Social Media for just about any industry, in my opinion...it just has to be used from the right angle...and mainly as a branding tool.

From an SEO tool standpoint, I might agree with you...except that any online business owner can control the perception of the audience in a particular social media site. The jury is still out in my mind from the SEO perspective.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a perfect example of this with his "Wine Library" stuff...and the "Brand Of You" video presentation he did at AS...

Gary Vaynerchuk and the Brand of You | Mediatrust Blog

But aside from branding, there are more social media sites than the popular ones...and more "niche-specific" ones popping up all the time.

Another point where I disagree with you, is that the Internet could only be used for advertising...it's also a delivery device for pure content and branding. There is a difference between branding and advertising in my opinion.

Anyhow, I am not trying to "argue" with your whole point jcorkern...perhaps I don't fully understand the quoted part is all.

[jcorkern]

Ok, it is fine to disagree, so I propose a test to see.

If anyone is willing, I would like to put up a plumbing site for a local plumber (choose any plumber to send the calls/leads to) and the only method for one month we will use is viral marketing.

After that first 30 days, we do a second site that is very similar (just to stop having a mirror site) and sent these leads to a different plumber (again, you can choose), but I market it with SEO, and we can then tally the results and see what is best for that business. They must be in the same location.

Now, the point of results in the action or conversion, not the amount of traffic.

Anyone up to this?

[Joseph Ratliff]

Originally Posted by jcorkern

Ok, it is fine to disagree, so I propose a test to see.

If anyone is willing, I would like to put up a plumbing site for a local plumber (choose any plumber to send the calls/leads to) and the only method for one month we will use is viral marketing.

After that first 30 days, we do a second site that is very similar (just to stop having a mirror site) and sent these leads to a different plumber (again, you can choose), but I market it with SEO, and we can then tally the results and see what is best for that business. They must be in the same location.

Now, the point of results in the action or conversion, not the amount of traffic.

Anyone up to this?

Well that is a test for sure...but branding is about credibility and trust building...which leads to conversion...and that's where social media's main strength lies...in branding and building a following...not advertising and direct sales.