Factoring Social Traffic Acquisition Strategies into Your Business

I reference TV, YouTube videos and podcasts quite a lot when I'm trying to explain different traffic acquisition and search engine engagement models as the visual and audio media are great ways to cram an awful lot of information into a relatively short space of time.

A recent Apprentice episode (The Apprentice, reality TV programme,  BBC One, London, 29th March 2014) serves to highlight a traffic acquisition technique that I'd previously heard referenced in a recording of an event set up by Matt Bacak (Traffic Infusion 2014) -- namely, using social influence to generate leads.

For those who didn't see The Apprentice Week Four episode in question, the task was to create a YouTube video channel and see which team got the most hits. This has echoes of a similar task run by Donald Trump in the original US version of The Apprentice franchise (The Apprentice : Episode 4, Snack Attack, NBC, New York, USA, 7th October 2010) which involved creating a viral video to promote a popcorn based snack brand.

Where the US version concentrated on getting the message across to promote sales, the recent BBC spin was to generate views, on the assumption that traffic attracts advertisers. That's a business model in itself, but the end result hinged on a part of the task that at first glance might have been overlooked by many viewers.

Traffic Acquisition using Social Influence

Part of the task was in selling their concept to a YouTube celebrity, to get them to agree on a collaboration, and then, vitally, use their social influence to promote the channel. We all know how hard it is to get traffic to an online property, and so using someone else's influence is an obvious strategy.

During the Traffic Infusion 2014 event, it was suggested that one of my favourite traffic acquisition strategies -- participating in online discussions -- could be enhanced by finding one person with a very active, and respected, profile, and paying them to host your link in their signature for a set length of time.

The Apprentice task mirrors this, using a popular online video producer to drive traffic; not for money, in this case, but in return for the exposure on one of the BBC's flagship crossover reality TV business programmes.

My point is this: if you're looking for a traffic acquisition strategy that really engages and pre-qualifies your audience, then using collaborations, or just paying for the association with someone who already has authority in your target channel, can be a very profitable way to create new traffic streams.

One book that is strong on this subject is Social Media Metrics Secrets, by John Lovett. It might be a 2011 book, but it's worth reading if only for Chapter 7, which gives you explicit guidance on measuring your ROI from social media engagement strategies, including a section on traffic acquisition.

Recommended if you are thinking of taking the plunge and using search engine and social engagement as part of your ongoing traffic acquisition strategy.

Traffic Acquisition Strategies Using Squidoo

The Squidoo publishing platform is organised around the concept of a Lens. Each Lens is a focussed discussion of a particular topic; which can be anything that the content creator wishes to publish.

Squidoo does have a few restrictions on content, and requirements (such as keeping Lenses fresh and up to date) which are all designed to help its stature as a publishing platform, and web property.

To use Squidoo for traffic acquisition, the Lens has to be attractive, relevant, and interesting, with a compelling call to action to drive the traffic from the Lens to your primary sales site.

There are many reasons for using Squidoo as a publishing platform designed to capture traffic: 

• flexible yet robust structured publishing interface;
• high Google ranking;
• large user base.

The last one might need some further elaboration  - the large user base is useful in the keyword research part of a traffic acquisition strategy, and can also be used to take a shortcut in buying an established Lens with existing traffic.

In other words, you can look to other lenses for keyword phrase inspiration, or you can search for a ready-made solution.

Squidoo Traffic Acquisition Strategies

In order to set up a Squidoo Lens (Lens being a kind of structured blog) for traffic acquisition, the usual factors need to be kept in mind:

• keyword density in content;
• keywords in Lens Title;
• correct tags describing the content.

The three principle strategies for setting up a Lens geared towards direct traffic acquisition:

• build it yourself
• have someone else build it for you
• buy an existing Lens 

Clearly, there's an issue of cost here. The first strategy is essentially free, but will require time to build the Lens, and time for traffic to build up. There's also no guarantee that the best Lens titles have not already been taken, especially if you are trying to capture traffic for a particularly popular keyword phrase.

Outsourcing the Content Creation Process 

The second strategy will require paying someone to build a Lens, and will also require some time for the traffic to build up. 

The building process should be shorter (as long as you choose someone with Lens building expertise – i.e. from vWorker.com) but the time to build up traffic may become a factor for those looking for a quick return on the initial investment.

Above all, for these two strategies, you must remember that although Squidoo has a high Google profile, the exact choice of keywords and content will dictate the length of time it will take for a decent amount of traffic to build up. And, only a proportion of that traffic will click through to your main site.

Buying a Squidoo Lens for Traffic Acquisition 

The third option is perhaps the most interesting. Many people build Lenses (some build many, many of them) with the specific aim to 'flip' them for money. 

Lens flipping (Google “Squidoo Queen”for a masterclass) has become the principle business venture of many online content creators, and if you're targeting a popular niche keyword, there's a good chance that there is a Lens for sale that could be of use.

The price is dependent on several factors:

• amount of revenue generated;
• the CTR (click through ratio) on third party links;
• and volume of unique traffic.

While there are no hard and fast formulae, expect to pay tens of dollars for a new Lens with very little traffic, and thousands for an established Lens being sold as a going concern.

Choosing the right traffic acquisition strategy using Squidoo Lenses to capture and direct traffic (traffic bait) is an exercise in weighing cost against time. For those willing to pay a premium, there is instant traffic available – what you do with it is another question.