While on first glance, you might find it hard to find a logical connection between social media and cryptocurrency, you’ll discover, if you dig a bit deeper, that the rise of cryptocurrency is in no small part due to the sharing of information online via chat rooms, forums, and more.
Cryptocurrency is, quite simply, a type of digital legal tender that is intended to be secure and potentially anonymous. It uses cryptography, a way to change legible data into virtually undecipherable code, to track buying and transferring. Bitcoin, created back in 2009, was the first cryptocurrency, and it remains the most widely known cryptocurrency to this day. While initially panned as a going-nowhere fad, it has gained traction to the point where bitcoin recently reached up to $20,000 in value, though the wild ups and downs may be too much for the squeamish of heart. While the most popular and well know, bitcoin is one of north of 1,000 cryptocurrencies available today. And much of this success comes as a result of social media.
What follows is, firstly, a look at how social media has added, and continues to add, value to cryptocurrency — and, secondly, a look at how your SEO marketing efforts can also benefit from social media.
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Social Media and Cryptocurrency…in the Past
Social media and cryptocurrency definitely have a connection. From social media of the past, which included internet relay chat and online chat forums — to social media of the present, which includes sites like Twitter and Facebook — cryptocurrency has benefited from the sort of promotion that came from online discussion. In fact, a lot of bitcoin’s most influential thought leaders learned about bitcoin courtesy of social media discussions. As one source put it, community discussion both spread the word about bitcoin and also managed the bitcoin network. So, social media has been the wind beneath the proverbial wings of bitcoin, in general, and cryptocurrency, in particular. And this has taken cryptocurrency from an idea to the big leagues.
Social Media and Cryptocurrency…in the Here and Now
As a result of the groundwork put down in the past through social media, bitcoin has now gone mainstream with news, information, and commentary about the digital currency being widely available on many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. These social media platforms continue to feature prominently in the development and operation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and they provide channels through which users can share ideas. And the spreading of information remains critical since the industry continues to develop and evolve. But while the impact of social media on cryptocurrency has largely been very good, it has also played a role, perhaps unavoidably, in some of the fluctuations in value. The reason for this is that the same spreading of information to promote and to build up digital currencies can, if the news or information being spread happens to be more bearish and than bullish, trigger uncertainty. So, if there’s a negative story, the value of cryptocurrency can take a severe hit.
Social Media, SEO, and Your Marketing
It goes without saying that social media, while critical to the growth and development of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is also an important part of any company’s online marketing efforts. And you can get the most of these efforts by properly implementing SEO best practices. Consider these 2 points when you go about combining social media and SEO.
Social Links and Search Rank
A lot of marketers are of the opinion that links to your site courtesy of social media accounts can have a big impact on your search engine rankings. So, links to content you have on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and other social media platforms can enable search engines to grasp what web properties are credible. Also, links put on social media could be deemed as credible backlinks, which could positively boost the rank of your website.
Don’t Forget Bing
While it can be tempting to focus solely on Google, the world’s most popular search engine, don’t forget that there are others that are worth your time as well. Bing, for instance, ranks in at number 2, so you should incorporate SEO for Bing, tool. Bing’s algorithm factors social signals — data about the authority and influence of social media profiles — into the page-ranking equation unlike Google. This is critical to know as concerns getting the best possible results.
Social media can certainly add value to your marketing efforts in the same way that it has added and continues to add value to cryptocurrency. So, take some inspiration of the power of social media and see what it can do for your company.
Author Bio
Twitter: @NickARojas