Twitter users often have other users added that are more of a generalized idea, such as the “GuyCodes” page or the “Shakespeare Lyrics”. These pages are known to bring in large amounts of followers through current users retweeting the things that these pages post. As follower numbers begin to rise, websites take notice and go on to enlist them in marketing their sites.
They’ll post things like, “Wow, Obama smokes weed!” making it appear that when you click the photo you’ll see a picture of our president smoking weed, which come on, is a pretty enticing statement. However, when you click it you are taken to a site like ChaCha that lists the numerous celebrities that have been said to of smoked weed. Now, it’s not as if the post lies or misleads in anyway, because in fact, after clicking the link you are brought to 12 or so photos and in the midst of them is the one that was stated on the post.
Now, is this a clever way to market their website? Yea, I’d like to think so. It doesn’t require much out of the page to post a quick snip and link the page and it helps boost traffic onto the website. Which, let’s face it, a websites lifeline is their traffic capabilities. It’s simple. Without traffic, a website cannot last.
People spend most of their times on social networks nowadays and Twitter is a highly trafficked social network, so for companies to begin using the users of the site as way to promote their own websites, it is incredibly beneficial.
Because of its wide reach, Twitter is an effective way to increase traffic to a website or blog. I know it is capable to have your ad placed in the newsfeed, much like on Facebook pages, but this may be the much cheaper alternative. Besides, it is typically obvious when a post is an ad, so a user will scroll right past it, but with these pages, a user will see what they are posting about and if the user controlling the page if clever enough, they can draw other users into the link with clever wording.
It may be a tricky tactic, but it works nonetheless, so more power to them.