Twitter Baiting
No, I didn’t say, ‘twitterbating’ – that’s another topic entirely.
Twitter baiting is the Twitter equivalent of link baiting – wherein people lure bloggers, visitors or companies to their site through a variety of tactics. According to Rob Sullivan on Search Engine Journal, link baiting sounds like black hat (or dirty and sleazy) SEO, but it’s actually just the process of getting other sites to link to yours.
Link Baiting is just like fishing. You publish a new page on a topic…and set it free on the web. Hopefully others pick up on the content as fresh and interesting and link to it. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch.
You just witnessed link baiting, as a matter of fact. Rob wrote a good article, and I quoted it and linked back to him.
It must be noted that some folks do fish for links in a bad way – with false claims, antagonistic or controversial content.
The Twitter Translation
So how does this convert to Twitter? Well, people are using their tweets to lure people to their sites, of course. Not for links only, but also for traffic, body counts, retweets, buzz. Twitter baiting happens in the following ways:
- Controversial or attention-getting tweets
- Contest, challenge or giveaway tweets
- Asking for retweets
- Misleading tweets that tease X and deliver Y
- Plain, old-fashioned, good quality content
Sometimes it’s good: when the tweeted link leads to a quality site offering high value and solid information.
Sometimes it’s bad: sending you to product pushing sites, scams or long sales letters (or just junk).
Wait. And Eureka! Either way, Twitter baiting really isn’t that far from Twitterbating after all! I mean, it is all about self-pleasure…right?
Is Twitter Baiting good or bad? Is it all in how you do it? Is it simply the nature of the beast?
Image courtesy of Aaron_M
Filed under Blogging, Marketing, Myth or Reality, Networking, Social Media | Tags: Julie Roads, link baiting, social media, social networking, Twitter, twitter baiting, Writing Roads | Comments (6)
