The Social Media Mantra

Driving traffic to your website via social media has become a mantra for the 21st Century. I have called this phenomenon simply the social media mantra. Kind of catchy. I am often reminded that it has become the yellow pages of today. Sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Plurk have changed the way that Users of the Internet find out about information, goods and services. It is like having our own online encyclopedia driven by other users of the Internet. Having a strategy for social media marketing cannot be ignored any more, unless you are just bent on self destruction.

In the not so distant past, back links to websites were one of the strongest indicators of how well a website was doing. Search engine ranking also looked heavily into the number of back links that were attached to any specific website. Links meant quality information is here, in a sense.

The problem with this "quantity style" way of ranking websites became apparent when people started buying and selling good links. There were also many other so-called black hat tactics used to just simple push traffic to websites. With these tactics, many websites achieved high search engine rankings by just throwing money at the links, and using sneaky tactics. As a result, the quality of information to be found on various high ranking websites suffered. These sites are easy to find, it looks like chidren in Primary school wrote the articles.

That is why you have websites like Bing now talking about so-called intelligent search engines. Their media ads have also poked fun at the same issue. I just love the gibberish ads from Bing coming out the States. Those Yanks can be funny.

Social media, on the other hand, is built on a "likeability factor" Users of the social media sites can vote with a "like or dislike," or thumbs up or down on whether content is good, or crap. In many respects, word of mouth via these types of social media engines is often driving what Users will see as fact or fiction.

So, on a site like Twitter, one can see who recommends a website, on Digg one can actually do research on who originally submitted a web page. If an Internet User finds quality social communities, like Hub Pages for example, they can, over time, have a certain expectation of the quality of the information found there. In a web link, you might find a consumer report from CNET, let's say. The link might just as easily have come from a Pay per Click ad, or an affiliate sales page. One never know for sure, till after the link is clicked.

In the final analysis, people don't want to waste time clicking on garbage websites. So, in true human fashion, people have banded together on social media websites to help each other find quality information, goods, and services. It's that simple.

If you happen to be one of the business people who can provide quality information, quality goods, or quality services, then the website in question will need to be driven by a social media campaign. Driving traffic with social media can mean the difference between Internet survival and prosperity.

Johnny Smoes is an IT Programmer and Principle with SEO Experts Australia, a company specializing in search engine optimization and website development. He frequently writes on issues about social media and search engine optimization. You can reach him at @seoaus2010 on Twitter.