Consider the following two statements:
1. Most social media users do not have the power to independantly link.
2. All linkers are involved in social media in some way.
Do you agree/disagree?
Linkbait loves social media because it provides a vehicle to show the linkbait to a vast audience.
Keeping this in mind linkbait should not only be crafted in such a way as to get links but to attract as many social media users as it can.
Does appealing to social media potentially weaken the ability for linkbait to attract links?
Is it possible that people will pass a story around Twitter without going to their blog and linking? Thus reducing the potential for links?
What do you think?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah I think social media allows a writer to get their work seen by a bigger audience, and the linkerati use social media to find new stuff, but most social media users do not have a means to provide you with google-friendly links.
@chrisgarrett said: “social media users do not have a means to provide you with google-friendly links.”
Agree – which is why linkbait targeted to the media/bloggers vs. social media users is more successful on all fronts
Boiled down to essence, it will be a choice between search engine trafic or social media generated traffic.
Of course, the more people who reads your link bait, the better, but in case of link bait I’ll go for search engine traffic.
I do think there’s a tendency to share information across social media without physically linking from a blog (although the exception to this seems to be things like decks on slideshare, videos on You Tube etc, which are often embedded), so I agree with Debra’s comment about targeting sites and bloggers
I think there is no doubting that Twitter has seen Linkbaiting not get the same level of traction as it may have got a couple of years ago, however I would add that this doesn’t mean it won’t get the traction it deserves, it just means its got to be that much better.
I do a lot of work with a well known broadcaster, and accepted this has meant I have had avenues to exploitation made easier by journalistic contacts; however Twitter has been a fantastic vehicle for raising awareness of new content pieces.
In terms of high impact linkage to the site however it has proved a hit and miss affair – and it has only been the creme of the crop that have allowed subsequent traction in terms of linkage. As Debra said above, blogger relations have proved a more reliable source of linkage than true linkbaiting
An item might be huge on social media without getting a single link, especially when it comes to sites like Twitter or StumbleUpon which are self sufficient and which basically replace blogging.
You need one of the hooks that make an item linkable. Otherwise it might end up as simple gossip, going viral without carrying any substance.