The web has gone social and so has link building. Forget the “can we swap links” or “I’m pretty cool, please put me on your blogroll”. That’s the old way. It may have worked a few years ago, but is now most likely a waste of your precious time.
Have things really changed that much?
Frankly yes. I’m looking back five years and the truth is:
- most people didn’t have a personal website, blog or web presence
- most people didn’t use the likes of tagging and social bookmarking
- getting to the top of search engines was largely attempted by incoming links and the right kind of content on your web site
- social networking did not exist as it does now
There are now so many people online. The majority I would say have some kind of web presence. It might be as simple as being on FaceBook or Twitter, through to the the more involved of having a website or being strongly involved within an online community.
Link building still exists in a much different form and it may not be entirely about search rankings – it’s more now a form of online social existence. Think about it, how can links be measured when they are being posted where search engines cannot reach?
The clever way to do link building and attract people to your online community is to get people to do it for you – without them realising it!
Consider this a guide, it’s not comprehensive, but it should hopefully get you thinking in a different way.
Raising awareness
The hardest part of starting any online community is the beginning. It sure can be hard work. All the technology is in place, but where are the people? They haven’t come flocking. Why? Because in the real world this doesn’t usually happen. People are busy, what’s in it for them?
Some basic tips to raise awareness:
- Write something useful – an article, a guide, an opinion, something people would find difficult to find elsewhere
- Get others to write about you – perhaps a blogger or a magazine could feature something about your online community
- Focus on the people you do have – make them feel special. Help them out. Go the extra mile. Give them a superb reason to tell their friends about you.
- Don’t talk about how great your online community is – let other people do that for you.
Social bookmarking
If you are the only one book marking your own site it’s not really going to have much of a positive effect. The results happen when other people are doing the bookmarking for you. Not only do you get the valuable links, but if they have a following there’s a better chance other people may pick up on the information.
Example bookmarking sites: delicious and StumbleUpon
Social Networking
Not all links posted within a social network or online community are equal. Some people are trusted more and may have a bigger network of ‘friends’. If a link is posted by someone with 10 ‘friends’ compared to someone with 1000 ‘friends’, who would you prefer to post the link? Search engines may not see a difference in the link value, but people do.
Closed social networks should also not be underestimated. Much of FaceBook and LinkedIn are closed (ie. not searchable by the likes of Google), but the opportunity to drive traffic and increase awareness is immense.
Create a presence elsewhere
For your own sanity and for the sake of being efficient, pick and choose networks where you have a chance of making an impact.
For example, if you run a professional online community then somewhere like LinkedIn or Facebook is a good bet to interact or create a group. However, you would be wasting your time to create a presence on Bebo (which is where teenagers hang out).
Remember that by having an online community you want people joining and having the conversations in your space, not on others. So whatever kind of presence you are creating remember that the focus is to attract them to your online community.
schux build, maintain and nurture online communities.
Photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/1824234195/