Developing content in today's user-generated media world is easy; marketing that content successfully is not. Numerous bloggers and site owners regularly ask me to explain how they can drive traffic to their sites in order to support their monetization goals. After all, quality content (or a unique product) leads to traffic, traffic leads to branding, and the combination of branding and reach leads to monetization. I respond to these entrepreneurs by telling them that their priority should be to understand and utilize social media strategies and tools, all of which can be easily accessed and are free except for the investment of their time.
Below is a "cheat sheet" of the five most impactful and immediate do-it-yourself actions you can take to increase your site's traffic.
Access and empower your target audience within social communities
Social media is not as intimidating or complicated as it sounds. Simply start out by setting up your complete profile within various online and mobile communities, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, Seesmic, YouTube, Meetup, Naymz, etc. Don't worry -- registering is free and easy. Then look for your friends and existing readers or users (more on this below) by searching for certain keyword topics, groups, affinities, etc., or by looking at the connections one or two degrees of separation removed from you.
Also, browse around for like-minded influencers -- the people frequently starting conversations, writing product reviews, contributing their own posts, uploading videos, answering questions, or moderating the community.
Now, befriend these influencers and people you admire, and even consider inviting them as contributors or columnists on your site. For example, one female blogger I invited to be an early contributor to DivineCaroline was so honored that she added "writing at DivineCaroline.com" under her name in her standard email signature.
Keep in mind that using social media for marketing purposes must go beyond simply "collecting" a large amount of friends or connections. You need to connect with community members in a genuine way, by giving them feedback about their profile, sharing some content they might appreciate, or nominating them for an award. If you don't have content to promote, you could consider launching a new product or making an exclusive offer to members of a specific community.
A friend of mine whose videos are frequently featured on YouTube told me, "I find exposure on YouTube to be an invaluable, free marketing tool that gives me credibility among cool, online influencers. I'm able to see who has voluntarily voted on the quality of my videos and then reach out to them."
Twitter is a free, simple and effective tool for increasing your exposure, establishing a voice, and keeping tabs on conversation about your site, content, or brand. It's not a fad you can afford to write off; last month, Twitter's user base grew more than 33 percent to more than 8 million users in the U.S. The majority of publishers and businesses using Twitter have said the benefits of tweeting include keeping their brand in the public eye, humanizing them to readers on a daily basis, and building a stronger sense of community.
Even a traditional brand like BusinessWeek is sharing, connecting, and learning via this micro-blogging community. John Byrne, the magazine's editor-in-chief, solicits questions from his audience of 10,000 followers, points out newsworthy articles around the web, and highlights stories from the BusinessWeek website without coming across as too pushy.
Through Twitter Tracker, you can see a real-time listing of some of the most popular media, entertainment, and consumer product feeds. Twitter is only one community out of a handful you need to participate in, so I won't go into detail within this article. Rather, read these 10 tools for getting started using Twitter.
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