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LinkBaiting: Marketing to Our Peers

By dan | February 20, 2007

Peter Young wrote a great summary and examples of linkbait hooks explained in Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing.

I think the concept of linkbaiting demonstrates that social media and blogging have created a new type of customer segment that businesses must recognize to remain competitive. Even if this customer segment isn’t completely new, the new social environment of the Internet has made this segment extremely important for succeeding in the social web.

Just to clarify, by customer segments I mean groups that your company directs marketing messages to:

I believe social media has created a new customer segment: our peer group (other active voices in your industry). We market to and strive to influence people who are in the same field as we are. Why is this now important to success? Because in a social network, your message to website visitors is no longer taken in a vacuum. More information is available to web surfers. Plus, merely obtaining a soapbox no longer implies that you are knowledgeable of legit.

In short, social media has made your reputation become increasingly important for business success.

The web’s current structure of social media networks reward reputable sources that supply information. Niche authorities.
By being recognized, referenced, and praised by your peers, your message to your consumer audience is given much more weight. You become an authority.

Since gaining peer recognition can boost your business, our peers have become a major customer segment. Plus, peer recognition obviously also boosts your search engine ranking. And high search engine rankings (usually) confirm someone’s niche authority.

Linkbaiting is a common method for marketing to our peer group.
Links are the new currency.

Thoughts?

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Topics: Social Media, linking, Peer Marketing |

One Response to “LinkBaiting: Marketing to Our Peers”

  1. TrailFire: Social Media Marketing Tool For Your Sales Page at Marketing Mutation Says:
    February 21st, 2007 at 1:12 am

    […] LinkBaiting: Marketing to Our Peers […]

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