Summary: Use social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace to gain links, but ensure you interact with people in a personal way, or your efforts are unlikely to be successful.
It’s possible to use social media like Twitter and Facebook to gain and request links. These sites are a great way to locate common interest groups that are relevant to your business or service, and therefore links from those groups are more valuable than a link from an unrelated page. A good way of managing your social media efforts is via a tool called TweetDeck. With TweetDeck you can update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. You can manage multiple Twitter accounts and posting replies is far easier. You’ll also get tools like Twitscoop to help you keep tabs of what people are talking about.
So what’s the difference between using social media to get links and simply sending an email to webmasters asking for a link?
Firstly, these networks are about close interpersonal relationships. For example, you can send requests to your friends using these networks. You’re more likely to get a link from a friend as you already have a relationship with them, and you can make your request pretty informal. You’re unlikely to get links from people on these networks who are not your friends and have nothing in common with you. On this subject, be wary about joining sites like Facebook and adding everyone as your friend for the purpose of requesting links however – the reaction you get from people who are using the site to communicate with their friends and family won’t be positive.
Another tactic is that you can join a group on Facebook or a similar network that relates to your business, and send messages to other members of the group (or, on Facebook for example), post links on the forum or wall. Again, this approach needs to be treated with caution. Common interest groups rarely appreciate being spammed by businesses.
Ultimately you need to have a good appreciation for how social networks work, and how interactions take place on these networks. The best way of doing this is to join and use the sites in a personal way (i.e. non business related) before you even consider using them to promote your website. Take note of how people interact in forums when they want to promote some commercial interest and how irritating this is. By contrast, genuinely useful or valuable information is welcome – particularly if the recommendation is clearly a personal one and you mix up such recommendations with genuine interaction with a particular group that doesn’t promote a particular cause.
The ultimate key is building a relationship with people interacting on the site and this won’t be achieved by blatant self promotion – think of them as your closest friends and treat them as such.
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