I know what you’re thinking, particularly if you’re a traditional type of marketer. We’ve discussed this already in my Give Marketing series, but those two articles were about “what-to” more than “why-to”.
Let’s go deeper, shall we?
You want to know how you can possibly get more, or better quality of traffic from sharing – isn’t pointing people to resources other than my own giving traffic away needlessly? What if the person never comes back? Why should I help other people who may not help me back?
I know, I know, you’re not running a charity, you’re running a business. And no, I’m not going to give you any hard evidence that this works, as I normally would.
So you scoff at this idea of Sharing as a traffic method. It’s backwards, crazy, new age, bleeding heart.
Or. It’s the reason why your competitor’s site goes up in traffic instead of down by linking to your site.
Or. It’s the reason the Blogosphere works so well – it’s an environment where those in the know, those who are successful, become more open, and more sharing, which drives interaction and repeat traffic.
Or. It could be why some sites are considered resources, and others are seen primarily as hype machines.
And. This is the key to unlocking the need to subscribe in your visitors.
How can this possibly work – sending a person somewhere else? Giving your visitors free information instead of holding your hand out for cash each time? Offering your advice for free, with only a gentle product reminder at the end as opposed to a hard push?
I don’t know.
It just does.
.
.
.
What are you still doing here? That was the end of the article.
What do you mean “Convince me”?
Fine. I’ll give it a shot….
When you’re networking with other business people, sharing what you find to be of value at another site with your audience is a display of confidence. It says “I believe in my resource enough to point you to another, because I know that if you enjoy mine, you’ll be back.”
It also shows your business networking contact that you support them. It says to them, “Thank you.”
Sharing also tells the people who visit your site that you care enough to take the risk that they may forget about you.
It’s a reality that some first time visitor will do a search, come to your site, and leave without subscribing, clicking or buying, never to return. This could be a result of not having the proper subscription options visible enough, or that you link to something so marvelous that in their excitement, the surfer just… forgot about you.
And later, they may even remember you, but not be able to find you again. It happens.
It won’t happen any less if you don’t share information, give free tips, give away free advice in your podcast, link out from your site, or splice external links into your feed.
It’s a reality we all have to cope with – why not face it head on instead of hide from it?
And really, people are naturally attracted to givers. And as they congregate for that free bit, they are self-targeting for you. I don’t want a free hammer because I don’t… hamm. Or what ever it is you do to nails with those thingees.
But a whitepaper on Social Media? I’m SO there. Heck yeah I’ll give you my email address. Maybe you have something I can buy that solves my problem — there, I just self targeted for you.
You do it too.
Think back to the last resource site you went to that you subscribed to – why did you subscribe? Was it to get something free? Or to give yourself the best chance of remembering a place that you were about to exit?
I could go on like this forever. The takeaway point – if you have people in your ear trying to convince you that being more open won’t work, or that linking out of your site is folly, think of the effect it would have on you if you were shared with, or shared by someone who is influential in your field.
Let that be your guide. Just for a little while. Just for a week, don’t just blindly believe me. I have no hard evidence besides the blogosphere and socialsphere.
So try it yourself.
