Let’s play Jeopardy!
Answer: Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen, and Inkling Media.
Got it?
Question: What are things the French like?
Ok, so I’m stretching things a bit. But when it comes to social media, inbound marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO), one of the most important elements is getting in-bound links. This is when other people link to your site from their site. And this is where Google and other search engines make the rules. As they crawl the web, the more links (and especially quality links) they find to your site, the better, and the higher your site places in search-engine rankings.
Last night I discovered that I had received a lot of traffic thanks to a link from WoMarketing in Paris (a French marketing blog written by an Italian!).
The blog entry in question is, to the best of my knowledge, questioning IKEA’s use of Facebook as part of a promotion. At the end of the blog the writer links to my recent blog post on how Facebook’s new contest rules hurt small businesses. And a lot of people clicked on that link.
This link was unexpected. But it just shows the power of social media and blogging. That particular post is the second most read post on my blog, mainly because the topic struck a nerve with a lot of people.
There are at least two lessons to be learned here.
First, and I hammer this one home all the time: create relevant content. You want people to like what they read so that they feel compelled to share it. I don’t care how they share it, as long as they do. It could be a link from their own blog, or sharing it via social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Or even sites like Digg or Delicious. The more people share, the more will find it. Yeah, that’s what they call “viral”.
Second, there is a lot of luck involved in social media. You never know who is reading your material or when they will link to it. Obviously you can increase the odds by writing relevant content, and by working the proper marketing channels. But this link from a French marketing blog was a complete surprise. I never would’ve thought to pitch it to a blog in a different language.
Oh, and one more social media side note: When I discovered this French blog, I asked Twitter for help in translating the site, and I was swamped with replies, even from people I’ve never talked to before. So if you need a question answered, you can try Google…or, you can try Twitter!
So if you blog…keep blogging. And make sure you are creating good, useful, relevant content.
With that in mind, I’ll soon be starting what I hope will be a weekly series here at the Inkling blog. I’m asking a number of friends to write guest blog posts for my site. Each of them will be writing from their own unique perspective. Some are marketers, some are musicians, some are in PR, or even public service. And regardless of their particular angle, I’m sure there is something that all of us can learn from what they have to say!
Oh, and feel free to link to my website and blog. I’m more than happy to have more inbound links…
