How to Use LinkedIn to Benefit Your Blog

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When LinkedIn was launched in 2003, the average person probably didn’t give it a second thought. Today, the social networking platform in the main venue where professionals want their profile to be found. It has become the de facto tool for professional networking.

LinkedIn

Of course, there are still people who do not use LinkedIn to their advantage and see it as merely another social network. If you are in the market for a job, though, or you simply want to highlight your professional life, LinkedIn is an indispensable tool. But have you ever thought of using the platform to send some love your blog’s way? [Read more…]

Facebook Drives Most Shopping Traffic But Pinterest Users Spend The Most Money [Infographic]

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Online Shopping ReferralsSocial media networks are big traffic drivers and when it comes to dominating the referral market no website is bigger than Facebook. While the world’s largest social network might drive 85.8% of online shopping sessions, Pinterest and its 11.3% referral traffic brings in the bigger spenders.

A new study by RichRelevance examined 700 million “shopping sessions” and found that shoppers who enter an online commerce portal from Facebook stay on the website in question longer and return to the online retail site more regularly. Facebook referrals average 7 pages per session while the study found Pinterest referrals check out only 4 pages and Twitter users stick around for just 3 session views.

The study also found that Facebook customers convert into sales 2.63% of the time while Pinterest customers buy .93% of the time and Twitter customers convert higher at 1.09%.

According to RichRelevance much of Facebook’s success appears to be from “Sponsored Stories” ads which tend to drive specific users with possible vested interested in certain brands.

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Are Blog Comments a Source of Referral Traffic?

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Here’s a question. If blog comments are mini-resumes, which comments are bringing the most traffic to your blog?

When you leave a comment on a blog, there are three things at work.

  1. Your desire to participate in the blog conversation and topic.
  2. Your desire to increase your link credits through blog comments.
  3. Your desire to encourage traffic from your comment to your blog.

A lot of pro bloggers cover the first two, but I want to explore the last one. If you really want to drive traffic to your blog through comments on other blogs, is it working for you?

Have you been paying attention to your blog referrals and incoming traffic to see where your traffic is coming from in relationship to your blog comments? It’s a very good question because we blog and comment on the premise that blog interaction helps drive traffic.
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