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
Twitter is the new wild wild west. Right now anything goes. ;)
Good or bad, you made me smile.
While nefarious schemes may be at play, Twitter is all about finding people who share your passions and information that you care about. Twitter baiting may be the dark side of a valuable tool, but it’s easy enough to avoid by just unfollowing those whose tweets aren’t interesting or valuable to you.
I didn’t mean to paint as nefarious…link baiting for that matter either…I think they both act angelic and demonic and that they really do help this social media world turn.
I think like everything else on the Internet, there will be people using it for good and people using it for evil. I tend to click on links from those people I recognize or something that sounds interesting (and I never click on those links that say, earn $$$$$).
I think it depends on the person Twitter Baiting and their credibility. Cute play on words though.