The surprising truth about using Scoop.it for traffic generation and SEO purposes – as well as tips on creating your own customized social media strategy, unique to your niche.

(Got your own questions for the show? Ask ‘em here!)

A question from Russell:

Hi Michelle! This is MacGizmoGuy, Russell Baer, calling here from Palm Springs.  I just want to let you know that I’ve been having a tremendous amount of success using Scoop.it for driving traffic to my websites. I’ve dabbled in Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, it fades out real fast sometimes.

But, I don’t have many internet secrets, but I respect what you do and I followed you for so many years and I just wanted to let you know, after being decimated by Google that Scoop.it, a content creation, curation site which works well for blog post and stuff like that, is actually delivering eyeballs for me better than Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and it might be something you want to use to leverage your stuff.

I did a search for you by name, I didn’t find you there. I encourage you to explore a little bit deeper if you’ve already been there. For whatever reason, Google and Bing love scoop.it right now and it drives eyeballs. Alright, take care!

Hey Russell! Thanks for your contributions over the years to my Facebook fanpage. Whenever you post, you’ve always got some good information for other fans regarding what I’m posting. Its usually backed up by data, with your actual experiences, instead of speculation. I really appreciate that and the other people on the MichelleMacPhearson Facebook Fanpage appreciate it, too!

Now, for your observations with Scoop.it, super interesting! I joined Scoop.it whenever they first came out. There wasn’t a whole lot going on at the time but I did submit my information there. I’m surprised I’m not coming up when you searched. Maybe they deleted dormant accounts.

But this brings to mind another point that I think it’s really important to everybody involved in internet marketing and in particular using in using social sites to generate traffic. You need to focus on the sites that actually going to work for you. There’s the big 3 or 4: that’s your Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And those are the ones that we cover in our main social media marketing done-for-you service. Obviously, they’re the top 4, they’re the most important and we feel that everybody should have a presence on those sites. But where do you go beyond that to really expand your online presence and generate traffic is going to be somewhat dependent on your niche.

If you’re in a niche where visual content is available and shared, then of course something like Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr is going to be a big match for you. If you are in a more business-oriented niche, you might find something like Scoop.it, like Russell has done, is a better match for your business. And beyond that, you need to go where your audience is but you also need to consider what you have the personal time and attention for.

Let’s say, you may not be somebody who enjoys curating images.  In that case, you either going to need to outsource your Pinterest and Tumblr work, maybe to our Pinterest service or you’re going to find a different source of traffic which may be a place like Scoop.it. But you need to think about what you have the time and attention to do everyday in your marketplace.

Another great place to look is the top forums in your niche. If you tune in to them everyday and contribute, respond and answer questions — are those going to be a source of traffic for you in a sustainable way that you can grow your business?

That’s something to think about when you’re putting together your social media strategy. Of course you want to hit those top 4 sites but then you also want to think about where your market hangs out and you want to be there, of course! And then, where you can sustainably post and maintain a presence or at least outsource a team to do that for you.

Thanks for your message Russell, I appreciate it and look forward to hearing from you again. If you are listening to the podcast right now, head on over to MichelleMacPhearson.com and I’ll answer your questions, too! Alright, bye!

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