Social news and media sites are an interesting field for internet marketers. They give marketers an opportunity to get a completely untapped source of traffic. Here are the simple steps you need to take with using any social media news site for marketing purposes.

Step 1 – Be an Observer

Create an account and use the site daily for say a week but don’t post anything – just consume what is there. The important thing you want to do here is figure out what content does well. What kinds of articles are getting the most votes?

If the site has any history showing stories that were popular in the past check those out too. Usually, user profiles can be a big thing. Does this site have some kind of friend system? If so, who has the most friends? Look at the stories that are getting to the top, who is submitting them? Are the people submitting the top stories also the people with the most friends?

Step 2 – Be a Contributor

The essence of a social network is user contribution. So far you have been an observer, you have been a consumer of the information but you have not contributed anything. There are many ways in which you can contribute:

– Vote on articles that you like
– Leave insightful comments
– Make friends with other users
– Participate in discussions
– Submit articles

Note that if you choose to submit content, don’t submit your own just yet – that is self promotion and is best left once you have established a bit of a ‘profile’. You do that by contributing as above. Each site is different but have a look at the user profiles and see what kind of information is stored at each one.

Does it show the number of articles submitted and voted on? Does it show comments left? Does it show discussions in forums? Friends etc? Find out what it is that makes a user a good contributor to the community and become one of them.

Step 3 – Self Promote

This does not mean to suddenly switch tactics, stop contributing and do nothing but shamelessly promote your own stuff! To begin with, now that you have an idea of what does well at the site you should know which kinds of posts on your blog are likely to do well so submit those but do it gradually – don’t ever submit more than one in a single day and always try to submit articles from other sites as well.

Now of course you may have already been submitting your own stuff as part of your social bookmarking strategy. If that is the case, have a look back at your submissions and see if they got many votes? What you have done so far has brought in backlinks but by adding in these social elements, by making friends, developing your profile and by tailoring your content to fit in well with the sites you are likely to be able to drive traffic as well as links.

So, here it is, a simple blueprint for using social media sites. All it really takes is for you to be consistent and persist with your efforts.

Obtain realistic recommendations about seo – study the publication. The time has come when concise information is really only one click of your mouse, use this opportunity.

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