Link Spiel

You often hear people say “think outside the box” when it comes to building links,  its a way to say “do something different”  or ” be creative”.    But what exactly is ”the box” and how do you ”think outside” it when it comes to  links? 

Good questions but hard to give stock answers to so I went looking for an example to illustrate the point.  Found a good one after reading a press release today from the Cable & Telecommunication Association for Marketing.  Let’s take a look at how ”thinking outside the box” can help you find credible  resources and build links.

Recently the  CTAM  released a report analyzing four generational groups and their online behavior.  No surprises overall save one as it relates to the Mature (age 65+) market.  Here’s some of the findings:

Seniors aged 65 and older (also referred to as “Matures”) have made the Internet an integral part of their everyday lives. In a recent study, 77 percent report that they shop online. In fact, Matures lead all other generational groups when it comes to this online activity. They regularly use email (94 percent), go to the Internet to look up health and medical information (71 percent), read news (70 percent), and manage their finances and banking (59 percent). Matures also turn to the Internet for gaming, approximately half (47 percent) of online Matures regularly play free online games.  

Bold in red mine because it’s the part that raised an eyebrow and got the link brain going.  People 65 and older are playing games online? At first I was surprised since I equate “online games” with things like WarCraft and WhackAToad  but then I remembered hearing how intellectually stimulating activities such as crossword puzzles, SuDoku and word search have the potential to keep Alzheimer’s at bay in older people and it made perfect sense.    Here’s where the “thinking outside the box” kicks in.

Developing a widget for a crossword puzzle, or daily email blast would be easy, helpful and a great passive tool to expose your brand to a segment of the market with a lot of disposable income.  If you’re catering to this crowd, create the puzzle (do something different)  and make a lot of noise (be creative) when doing so:

• Launch a media blitz
• Take out an ad in on/offline magazines
• Get involved on social networking sites like Eons, ThirdAge
• Get involved on blogs like Aging Hipsters 
• Co-partner with another company selling to same demographic, drop puzzles in items e/mailed 

The demographic itself may not link since they tend not to have websites  but all the organizations who cater to them – will.   This is the “thinking outside the box” part. 

The real secret to good link building isn’t about redirects or directories or librarians, it’s about opening the box and looking beyond the obvious for opportunities and openings.   Might be time to start unpacking!

If you like  new toys and notoriety, I may have something to satisfy your techno fathead  and bring in a link or twenty.

I came across a social media  service today called SayNow;  they give away free telephone numbers people can call to hear personalized recorded messages from their favorite celebrities.

Once they’ve heard the message fans can leave a note for the celebrity and the celebrity can either answer personally or broadcast to his/her “followers”.    Right now the service is entertainment and athlete dominated but that’s changing as anyone can sign up for a number and start calling.  SayNow allows you to make your calls public or private, integrate with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace  and send out mp3, photos or text messages.  With  over 10 million registered users, SayNow has some impressive numbers if you consider they had five million in November 2008. 

My linkey senses went all tingly as I started thinking about how I could use this tool to deliver a targeted message and drive links naturally.  I came up with two ideas to start:

1.  Since the tool is integrated with Twitter and Facebook, tweet your SayNow telephone number and encourage your  followers to call in.  Create a welcome message and include

 an incentive redeemable at your site

 a retweet request  of your SayNow account  and most importantly

 a  request to link to your site. 

2.  I’d also recommend you:

write a press release announcing your SayNow telephone number, include info on the incentive program

email the press release to current customer and vendor list as well as your association and Chamber memberships

issue release through service such as PRWeb

highlight being an early adopter of the concept (make yourself look smart!)

encourage people to “fan” your SayNow account to receive automated updates

 If you sell to the teen market, this might be a service to try since teens are known to be into cell phones.  From the NYTimes:

But studios and stars are turning more heavily to the phone as a marketing tool as new services like SayNow pop up; cellphones become more ubiquitous; and evidence grows that their most crucial customers — teenagers — are not all that enamored with the likes of Twitter. A voice message is more intimate and authentic than a status update.

 And even if you don’t, marketing your SayNow telephone number to your customers, your Twitter followers and your Association  can put any future link building promotions squarely in their hand-held telephones   Hey it’s free, what do you have to lose?