This was a Panel at ad:tech New York. (Actually it was 15 Ways— but the last two were a bit hazy and had to do with advertising).
The panelists were Adam Hirsh from Mashable, Jack Rotherham from Metacafe and Waterfront Media. Moderator was from Real Girls Media.
1. Focus You Content
Differentiate yourself. Find a niche no one is covering well. Filter and curate quality information. Create lists. Have good categories. Find trends. Mashable saw the popularity of social media and left its tech-crunchy roots for it. It’s now the Social Media Guide.
2. Syndicate Your Content
Send it out across other channels via RSS and email subscriptions. Have those subscription offers where folks can easily see them.
3. Give Link Love
Link out. Share other people’s good work. Try to get links from the influencers. Guest write for higher traffic blogs. Linking builds relationships.
4. Barter
Trade ads, promotions. Swap content and stuff with other bloggers.
5. Add Social Media Sharing Tools
These tools helps your readers spread your content to popular sites like delicious, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Facebook, and email. Mashable likes using custom buttons– Facebook share and Tweetmeme Retweet buttons are hottest right now. These shares can multiply your page views tenfold.
6. Be Active in Social Communities
Spend some quality time at the social media soirees. Note to self– check out Helium.
7. Build Relationships with Influencers
This can be done in many ways, including running a contest and giving out badges. In this way, “involved” readers (influential?) would promote your website and brand.
8. Promote Loyalty and Activity
Categorizing posts as Most Popular or Most Comments tend to encourage readers to participate and create loyalty. I’ve seen Top Commentors highlighted on blogs.
9. Comment on Other Sites
Leave interesting comments on other blogs and include a link back to yours. Enter other communities outside your own.
10. Tweak Your Site
Play with the layout, make changes to add other useful features to increase stickiness and traffic. Use icons to get newsletter or other subscribers.
11. Don’t Forget SEO
Use tags on images, use keywords in title and first sentence/paragraph, follow trends and news.
12. Use a Team to Market on Social Media
The day of the solo guru is over. It takes a team to get ‘er done.
13. Create a mobile app.
Waterfront Media created an iPhone app for expectant moms. Since it’s a health information media site, the mobile app increases the brand reach.
Related Ad:tech Posts:
Ad:Tech NY, Day 1 Part 1: Sellsius Crib Notes
Ad:techNY, Day 1 Part 2: Sellsius Cheat Sheet
Technorati Tags: ad tech, social media, marketing, advertising, mobile app
