The Secret to Utilizing All Social Media Sites
Posted on February 4, 2008 by
Adie 
Promotion, Social Media 
38 Comments
I’m a huge fan of SMM (Social Media Marketing), and I think it’s an amazing way to get yourself noticed if you have the right content. One thing that does sort of get under my skin though is that there are so many people out there trying to game social media and social networking services in order to promote themselves or their product. I’m not going to directly call anyone out, but there’s a good chance that if you go to just about any SEO blog you’re going to find posts giving you “tips & tricks” on how to game social media.
Fortunately for you, you don’t have to read all of these other posts because I have the one (and only) secret to utilizing social media properly.
The Problem
The problem with SMM articles is that very few of them argue the value of social media and instead focus only on what you can get out of it. This is also the typical SEO mindset, but it is much more damaging in the social media world. They supply you with an arsenal of “tips & tricks” needed to game the system instead of showing you how to use it as it’s meant to be used.
We all remember Gary Ruplinger’s fantastic analysis of the SEO side of social media don’t we? That’s just one example of how people are trying to game social media. The idea of free high PR backlinks, instant exposure, and potential virility attract everyone looking for instant success overnight. The truth is if you set out to game social media people are going to catch on and you’re going to succeed in doing little more than smudging your reputation.
The Solution
If you really want to make use of social media marketing the one and only way you can do that is by registering and participating in the community, make real contributions, and use the service as it is meant to be used. That’s it. That’s the tip, that’s the trick, that’s the butter.
If you want a story to make it to the frontpage of Digg then build your reputation and submit good stories. If you want articles to be taken seriously on Reddit then build your reputation and submit good stories. If you want your videos to get noticed on YouTube then build your reputation and submit good videos. If you want your articles to rise through the ranks of Netscape then build your reputation and submit good stories. See a pattern here?
Trying to take little shortcuts just doesn’t cut it in social media like it did in the old web days or with SEO. The only way you can make social media work now is by actively engaging the community, immersing yourself in it, and yes actually becoming a user. If you try to game the system people will see through it and you’ll accomplish little more than a couple wimpy click throughs and a backlink. Social media is powered by users. Users are much more capable of seeing through scams than AI. If you act like some old fart trying to game the system to increase your PR then they’ll know it, and you’ll accomplish nothing.
But How Do I Make the Most of it?
I’m tired of hearing people say things like “Yes, I know I have to be active in the community to succeed, but how do I make the most of it?” Why does this annoy me? Because the answers are so damn simple.
For example:
Q: How do I get a good reputation on Digg so that people will take my stories seriously?
A: Submit good stories and vote on ones that you enjoy reading.
Q: How do I get people to go to my blog from MyBlogLog?
A: Visit other bloggers and if you like their articles let them know, add them to your contacts, and join their blog community.
How hard are these questions to answer? Most of them can be read on the homepages or FAQs of the sites themselves! The bottom line is that if you can’t answer these kinds of questions for yourself then you are not immersing yourself in these social media sites and are not learning how to properly utilize these services.
If you stay in the mindset of “what can I get out of social media?” then you’re going to fail at it. If, however, you go into it thinking “how can I go about making use of and enjoying this service?” then you will succeed in building a good reputation, earning new readers, and reaching the full potential of SMM.
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It’s funny I’m reading this right now because for the past 2 hours I have been going through the 82 people that have joined my community on MyBlogLog and have been visiting their sites. It’s taking me long because I’m reading posts and leaving comments on articles I like. On most, I don’t see any comments, no top commentator lists or speratic posts. Hopefully, those with good content keep it consistant.
Good post Matt. You couldn’t be more on point!! :)
Participation is crucial indeed.
Great post Matt! I think it’s BS people like Gary Ruplinger and other scum try to cheat the system. I read an excellent quote on Career Ramblings - “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” Get-rich-quicksters will try to convince people day and day out that they have the magic answer for instant success. Success is never instant! It takes a huge amount of work to ever be successful. And that is why so very few people are successful -because they are always looking for the easiest way to do something.
Or they don’t realize how much time it takes to achieve success and they quit just before experiencing it. Or maybe they quit well before experiencing it, guess they will never know.
That’s why NBB has blown up so quickly. You update daily with real advice AND it centers around hard work. No shortcuts. You don’t tell us how to make a million overnight… although that would be helpful ;)
Of course I hold the secret to making $1m overnight. Give me a couple days to make a few more million and then I’ll tell you.
If you want to get on the front page of Digg for example, you just have to have the right kind of content… if it’s crap and it’s cheated to the front page, the people are going to bury it anyway. It is user-powered after all.
That’s the most important thing to remember between SEM and SMM - social media is powered by users, not algorithms (for the most part).
[…] Net Business Blog - The Secret to Utilizing All Social Media Sites […]
It’s funny, but everyone thinks there’s a secret way to being successful on Digg. There’s no secret, you just have to be willing to work hard.
Exactly!
Matt - Completely agree with your point that its simpler to think of how to contribute to the ‘community’ rather than anything else.
Most often if you contribute effectively, you will automatically start extracting value out of the social network.
On most blogs today you have comments on posts as one of the ways to interact with the community - how effective that is the first question and can it scale is the second serious doubt in my mind.
Nice post Matt. When I see a blog owner submitting all of his articles to Digg for the PR and back links I can’t help giggling…
Allen.H
I agree totally with engaging in social networks. You stand to gain a lot more than visitors or backlinks if you use a service like Digg properly.
Interesting comment about people missing the point of SEO as well, I sometimes feel like there are so many people trying to game search engines that it really is just undermining each other. I guess this is to do with mentality of groups and everyone out to benefit themselves.
Anyhow nice article, I must admit to submitting things to social media sites just for the benefits to myself on quite a few occasions. Perhaps I shall pick one and start actually participating for a change :-)
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with promoting yourself in social media, but I do think it’s unfair to use shady methods (such as auto-submitters etc) to do so.
Very interesting and I totally agree with you.
Wait, you mean there’s more to Digg than backlinks? ;)
Poeple will always have short term success trying to game these sites, but as you say hard work is the key to long term growth.
Good post.
As long as you have good enough content, visitors will be interested to keep coming back. However, most people on Digg are hard to please.
As everyone is already saying, real, sustainable success takes hard work. Everyone wants the “Get Rich Quick” schemes, but those don’t exist. It’s all about working hard now, so you can take it easy later. Not the other way around.
Good way to phrase it: “registering and participating in the community, make real contributions, and use the service as it is meant to be used”
[…] Coddington brings us back to the fundamentals (which is the secret actually) of utilizing Social Media Marketing. While it doesn’t sit well with me on his statement with SEOs gaming social media, all I can […]
Completely agree. Social Media gaming is a pet hate of mine, but unfortunately people will always be looking for that shortcut and that back door.
Unless it will reduce its effectively, I’m afraid this kind of promotion, or spam depending on how you look at it, will keep coming.
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Matt, have you had any experience with Facebook Flyers or Importing your blog to Facebook? I noticed through a couple of my stats programs that I receive a large number of visitors through the blog articles I import to facebook, which show up on the minifeed.
No, I’ve never tried that. I’ll certainly take a look at it now though!
Thanks for the tip from me as well, I didn’t look into that either but it seems like a superb way to get some more traffic, thanks!
This is such a good post. What most people are aiming for is building a community around their blog/product, yet they ignore the fact that there are existing SMM communities that are seeking to abuse instead of participate in.
Looks like you should be writing more articles, it’s a very nice perspective and I’d love to see it worked out deeply.
[…] Of course if you prefer to see the Social forest for the proverbial trees, you could always side with Matt Coddington and play the social network game by the rules. […]
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[…] The Secret to Utilizing All Social Media Sites […]
Matt,
How long do you think SMM will last? To me, it looks like Web 2.0 will fade faster than Web 1.0. It is growing in a scary proportion.
Just to say I wrote a post about this post and how I think it conflicts with the little speech bubble you have at the top of your page. You know the one with the arrows pointing to it?
You had me believing you for a while there.
Did you resuse this post? Now that is a pretty damn good idea.
Solid advice - It is the get rich quick type mentality again which leads people to want to game the system.