Promoting linkbait

[SebastianDyer]

Hey Guys

Just wanted to get some friendly feedback on ways that you like to promote linkbait.

Personally, I like to:

a) develop the companies main social media channels (twitter and facebook)

b) develop accounts on digg and reddit etc

c) email journalists and blog owners who appear to be part of my clients 'linkerati'

Has anyone got any interesting approaches or strategies for getting the viral ball rolling?

[PaulRogers]

I would also recommend trying incentivised placement - so providing an incentive for someone with a substantial following to place or advertise your linkbait on their website.

This theory also works with people who are influential within social channels too.

Thanks

Paul

[SebastianDyer]

I like that idea - might be easier to get bloggers with strong twitter accounts to endorse the link bait.

Cheers.

[MarieHaynes]

Great question!  I'm interested in see the results.

Here's what I have been doing:

-promoting on facebook

-making it really easy for others to promote (i.e. Addthis...making catchy titles that if someone saw it on facebook they'd want to click it and share it themselves.)

-contacting local news outlets

-dropping blog comments to people who are blogging about this kind of thing

And here's an important one:

-Making it super visible on my site.  I just created a link baiting calculator that my users would be interested in using and sharing with others.  I run an informational Q&A type of site.  When users see one of my answers, at the bottom of each answer it says, "Hey, check out our ____ calculator!".  I couldn't believe how many readers are clicking on it since I did that (and are sharing it on FB).

[SebastianDyer]

Nice idea, I like that. Also you're right about making changes to the site; users need to be able to find useful information, talk to others about it and share it on a variety of networking sites easily.

People don't want to spend time copying links into digg and stumbleupon - they want to click a button quickly - a simple way to help get viral content moving.

[SparkplugDigital]

One idea you could consider is pay for StumbleUpon traffic. If enough people give it a thumbs up (hopefully it's something remarkable) then I believe you can stop paying and it will continue to be served to people. If a lot of people discover your linkbait on StumbleUpon and like it enough, they might share it on Twitter or Facebook.

[upick-162391]

How about Press Release? You can pay companies like prweb.com or similar sites to do a massive press release for you. It's another for of link baiting, that gives you results. But it all depends on how viral or how good your article is to get that extra level of links you would if you got on diggs front page.

Well worth the try!

[MarieHaynes]

Can press releases still be effective?  I haven't had much success with them.

[SebastianDyer]

Depends how you use them, but yes press releases and 'the press' in general is extremely useful in terms of generating publicity, promoting linkbait and attracting potential linkers.

[SebastianDyer]

Yes i agree, it is useful. I was, however, talking more about how we can promote pre-existing material.