There are hundreds of ways to market a website some more effective than others such as a review on stumble upon would probably bring in more traffic than mentioning your article on a relevant forum, however is that traffic targeted?
It seems that every day I come across the question “How can I market my website?” it’s understandable, with increasing use of the internet more and more people are wanting to take a piece of the internet market. However too many times I see answers such as social networking sites and social media sites being the key to marketing and promoting a website.
Although many of these sites such as Stumble Upon generally do bring a fairly large amount of traffic to your website through SMM (Social media marketing), the question you should be asking yourself is whether this traffic is targeted or not?
Targeted traffic is the term used to define users of a website who are interested in the product, service or information that the website offers. This traffic will be a potential customer or returning visitor and are the key audience of whom you should be targeting.
On the other hand untargeted traffic is generally associated with social media sites, they are users who just click on your site or “stumble” on to your website out of curiosity or boredom. They are not interested specifically in your product, service or information you display they are merely surfing the internet.
Untargeted traffic generally won’t bring any sales or repeat visits, they will just come and go, sure they will boost your traffic statistics but at the end of the day what use are they with out sales or repeated visitors?
Whether your site offers a product or a service with out targeted traffic you are unlikely to receive sales from social media sites. Informational sites are unlikely to increase RSS subscribers or repeated visitors.
So why spend time using social media marketing?
I realise I have just spent the last several paragraphs discussing why the use of SMM will not bring targeted traffic to your website, therefore you will receive no sales or repeat visitors, however there is a point to SMM.
Social media marketing allows you to show your website to the world and although many of these people may not be interested in your content it gets your brand or domain name noticed.
Just think how many people know of the car manufacturer “Skoda” now many people wouldn’t ever contemplate purchasing a Skoda (sorry any Skoda owners, personally I like Skoda) yet many have heard of the brand. Although this may not be a much related example nor on the same scale, it is an example which represents a brand that may not be very popular yet many people have heard of the brand.
This is one of the major advantages of social media marketing; you can get your website/brand out there, among all of the other sites make yours noticeable.
Yes. Social Media Marketing is the best there is for start-up websites or blogs.