Keep me out of traffic…

: Image by joiseyshowaa via Flickr

An interesting topic took off on Twitter today concerning offers to generate traffic that sometimes come in emails or other spammy ways (like auto-generated DM’s).

It’s been important for me to extend my reach in Social Media. I can tell you the exact day I made the decision to go out and find “my people.” What I mean by that: those that share my interests and passions. Millions are using these tools and I knew I needed to position myself in a manner that would allowed me to connect to the right folks. That strategy has little to do with traffic.

Doug Cone (@nullvariable) offered the following valuable insights that helped frame the issue for me:

I would suggest that reach would be people who would share your site/product vs traffic being those that come and go.

Reach are people who’ve converted and will send converts, traffic is the unconverted–traffic=useless w/ out conversion.

I’d like to move the argument to another level. Let’s move from traffic to reach and then on to touch. It’s the touch points that make the difference.

Sid Parham

As a relative tweetophite I've found some difficulty finding my friends--a kind of semiotic problem An avatar or a blog post may seem attractive to me, but return visits seem less good. In other cases I develop a conversation with folks I think I'd like to me. The metaphor I offered in talking with @Pattidigh was knowing some one on twitter was like trying to complete a puzzle without all the pieces.

<abbr>Sid Parham´s last blog post..Not in my Lifetime II</abbr>

ccseed

Hey Sid,
Patti has such a way of framing experiences with images...

Mary-Frances

Richard,
Great discussion today. Thanks for sharing your ideas on traffic vs. "your people." It makes a lot of sense!

<abbr>Mary-Frances´s last blog post..My Wacky, Secret, Psychic Ability — It Involves Wine</abbr>

ccseed

Hey Mary-Frances,
"My People" is the title of a book on the portraiture of Robert Henri and I like how it frames relationship as a creative exchange.

Susan Mazza

The use of the word "touchpoints" resonates for me here - with reach you want to touch someone (figuratively of course) whereas traffic is just passing through. Reach is about relationship where traffic is just noise. I follow you because I am genuinely interested in what you have to say.

This provokes a wondering for me...I have been wanting an idea of mine to go viral so it can touch as many people as possible, but does the very nature of "viral" relegate it to becoming traffic? Said another way, once an idea has gone viral have you diluted your touchpoints? Whatever the answer this is a reminder to me to be mindful of measuring my success based on reach rather than traffic.

Thanks for the thought provoking question!

ccseed

Susan,
I think the viral product can be a wonderful thing. As a product, it will have a life of it's own, much like a piece of artwork. In as much as it provides touch points, then it will bring you life as well...

Detlef Cordes

Hey Richard,
at the end of this post I thought: "Hmm, Richard, what exactly do you mean by touch? Please define."
Having read Jay's comment on the post before, now I understand. No further definition needed. Thank you.

<abbr>Detlef Cordes´s last blog post..Coffee Cup Yoga</abbr>