How to use the Social Media Networks to Generate Traffic?

If you haven’t started utilising the social networks for you blog yet, now might be the time. Not only do the social networks help generate traffic but they also generate links to your blog. Some examples of Social networks are Digg, Stumbleupon, Blogcatalog, Mybloglog, Reddit, Freindfeed.

How do the Social Media Networks Generate Traffic?

When using the social networks on your blog (such as the ones seen below this post), people can submit your good posts to the network. When submitted the Social Networks (such as the popular Digg and Stumbleupon) have a voting system on your post allowing viewers to comment or view your website post. More votes generally means more visits to your website. I have received traffic surges as high as 160 visits form one post landing in Stumbleupon and still today a few months later a receive a few hits from Stumbleupon a day…

Are the Social Media Networks Good Traffic?

Not all the traffic is good in general but if a visitor from a Social Network joins your email subscription or buys from an Affiliate through your website then does that make them less. I would say that at least a third of the traffic from the Social Networks are interested readers. I mean in the end it’s all traffic generating and that’s what we want. Think of the Social Networks as a tool for popularity….getting your blog seen…

How Do I use the Social Media Networks, such as Digg etc?

Just by simply placing there add me links at the bottom of your post or somewhere inside your post you allow readers to submit and vote on your pages. Social networks like Mybloglog and Blogcatalog are a bit different though, they connect you with other bloggers and categorise your blog to create more readers. They allow you to be part of blogging as a group and work together. If you haven’t joined Blogcatalog or Mybloglog already I would recommend it now to any Blog owner.

If you look at the image above you will see Facebook and Myspace as being two on there…The reason i added them is because they are being used now to generate the friend side of exposure to your blog. On these two friend networks you can add a link to you blog and so your friends can see what you do as well…Facebook and Myspace can be used as a good in between for your friends and Blog connection.

“By using the popular Social Networks all together you can generate a swarm of extra traffic per day!!!”

So how much traffic do the Social Media Networks Generate?

They can generate a lot of traffic, like i said one submission to Stumbleupon or Digg can generate over a hundred visits or more. The amount of traffic your recieve can vary. As your blog gets bigger and more popular like over 200 posts, you will find that it might start as a few visitors each day. Over time as you submit more posts it will grow as your blog grows.

Remember also it is a link to your website too…:) Even if it is only a few visitors per Social Media Network a day from over 10 networks that adds up to like over 30 visitors a day… And like i said the number is growing each month as your blog grows… The best way to describe a Social Media Network is it is set up is to Build traffic for your blog or website.

Overall by using the Social Networks you can -

Generate more Traffic!

Create More Links to your Website!

Get More Email Subscriptions (Social Network people are active internet users)

Get more comments on your Blog

Make more money if your blog uses Affiliate Marketing

Create more popularity!

If you are a Wordpress user then you can use the socialise me Plugin and it will attach the social networks to all your posts. Even if you don’t use all the Social Networks using some of the popular ones (such as Digg, Stumbleupon) will make a big difference in your traffic. Simply after they have been implemented in your posts the next step is writing good posts.