No, this is not a post-modern celebrity childrens book, nor
is this a lame Britney Spears linkbait article.
The fact is, Britney Spears fame illustrates the power of
social networks and social linking perfectly. Social
Linking Defined
Understanding social linking is simple: It's all about your
"presence" in someone else's mind (and heart). So, on a raw
emotional level, it's about how many people you've...
distracted, connected with, touched, moved, angered,
irritated, teased, humored, etc...
The more emotions you have evoked, the more powerful you're
presence.
-Social Linking Illustrated by Britney Spears-
I don't think many of you will argue that Britney Spears
has tremendous media presence. I also doubt if many reading
this post will argue that her notoriety has anything to do
with her music - it's just not that -well, musical.
So, why do we see or hear about her every friggin' day?
Because, Britney, or more specifically, Britney's "people"
have employed the power of social links to put and keep her
on top of the media. Initially, they "linked" to the folks
in charge of what we see on the web, what we hear on the
radio and what we watch on TV - probably using the oldest
and most powerful link builder — CASH.
Then, the real social power linking kicked in...
Go back to the list of ways to establish a "presence" in
people's minds and notice that the stories surrounding the
famous B.S. evoke each of these emotions.
So, all that her people need to do is make sure there is
always a fresh story for the media to chew on. Then,
despite her mediocre music, she keeps her presence and
continues to make the bucks.
-When Great Content (music) Meets Powerful Social Linking-
So, we need to relate this back to you as a webpreneur.
How can you create a powerful "presence" on the web and
drive the kind of traffic that lets you quit your day job?
Well, you could follow the example of Mrs. (or is it Ms.?)
Spears and use controversy, shock and shame as your primary
social link or you could focus on offering amazing value
-content, tools or services- and then promoting
emotion-evoking stories related to these.
No judgements here on which path to chose... When it comes
to business, there is no ethical dilema in my opinion. If
controversy is the best way to sell your product or
service, leverage it.
In Britney's case, her music doesn't compare to talented
singer-songwriters like John Mayer or Corrine Bailey Ray.
These people create music that evokes the emotion necessary
to create presence and gets the social linking established.
Ultimately, your product or service will determine which
path you need to take... it may be a combination of both.
The important thing to remember... It is your job to evoke
emotion and establish a "presence" in the mind of your
visitors.
You must distract, connect with, touch, move, anger,
irritate, tease, humor or otherwise affect anyone you link
to.
You do this with the words you write, the images you
present and the offers you make to them.
-Social Linking: Where to Start-
Whatever path you choose, social linking has to start
somewhere. Fortunately, there are tons of social media
outlets on the net which give internet marketers a venue to
evoke emotion and establish presence.
At this point, some may argue that social linking is really
just about creating "backlinks", but I disagree.
(Newbie definition - Backlinks: this refers to hyperlinks
on someone else's site that link back to your site
increasing your site's value.)
Yes, backlinks alone will get you some Pagerank and perhaps
some pretty good SERP listings but they will NEVER get you
the kind of qualified traffic and passionate customers that
a carefully established web "presence" campaign can get.
----------------------------------------------------
Peter Lenkefi publishes social media marketing and blog
promotion tips at http://Web2Center.com . He is also the
co-founder of the Authority Site Center, a membership site
dedicated to serious business bloggers.
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