Social Media Marketing is Similar to a Fishing Tournament

Today I would like to address the similarities of how social media marketing is like a fishing tournament with an emphasis on the social voting sites. Many of you already know that I am somewhat of a fishing fanatic. Everything I do has some relation to catching the fish of my dreams!

First let’s look at who the players are and what they compared to, starting with the main prize winner. If you want fame and fortune in the fishing world you want to land the monster Blue Marlin. The winner of a Blue Marlin tournament will often bring TV and newspaper coverage; if you’re lucky enough to catch that tournament winner you will also qualify for many endorsements with offshore fishing equipment companies.

If you’re looking for the same effect online, what site do you want linking to you that compares to winning a Blue Marlin tournament? Digg! Getting an article on the home page of Digg can make your server scream just like the drag screams when line peels off your reel from an acrobatic Blue Marlin racing off toward the horizon. Everyday I see sites go down from the “Digg Effect.”

They’re many fish in the ocean that I can compare to social media related sites; of which we have the major offshore pelagic species. The “pelagic” species live in midwater or close to the surface and commonly the top of their food chain. They include swordfish, tuna, dolphin wahoo, swordfish and many others. These compare to the larger social media sites that are all the rage recently. These social media sites include Digg, Propeller, StumbleUpon and Mixx just to name a few.

Breaking down the list of species and what sites they compare to, starting with Digg. I like to compare Digg to Blue Marlin. Blue Marlin are often very elusive to reach, but worth the effort to seek out. One Digg home page post may bring ten’s of thousands of visitors to your site, but the main prize is the all important backlinks created when other bloggers review your post.

Next up is the newly updated Propeller.com. Until recently you could find them on the Netscape.com domain. They have been renamed their social news voting site to Propeller and are steadily creating a quality traffic stream. Propeller is the Sailfish of the internet. Sailfish are a highly prized fish that produce spectacular runs, just like Propeller can produce spikes in traffic which make them a popular social media site to marketers.

StumbleUpon is the Dolphin that are everywhere offshore. Dolphin, also known as Mahi Mahi, are favored by the weekend warriors because they can catch them with limited fishing experience. Dolphin grow fast but have a limited lifespan so they do not reach the size of Marlin or Sailfish. StumbleUpon creates sustained traffic for up to a week from just one good Stumble. Although this traffic is not as heavy as Digg StumbleUpon traffic is easier to achieve.

New to the scene is Mixx. Mixx is the Snapper of the internet. Mixx is a new social voting site that looks like it will grow into a valuable community with lots of potential. With a little research users can obtain some nice backlinks and targeted traffic. Snapper are one of my favorite species to fish for in a tournament. They can vary in size from small Mangrove Snapper to the very large Cubera snapper that can reach over 100 pounds. If you are looking for a site to market a variety of niches, Mixx is the one to use.

Once you see the similarities of how social media marketing is like a fishing tournament you can start looking at how to approach them to gain the most benefit. For the newbie to social media marketing I recommend you begin with the smaller social media sites. Once you are familiar with how they work you will progress up to StumbleUpon and then finally on to Digg.