What is a Social Media Article?

It will seem intriguing to write a 'social media' article unless perhaps the article is about reviewing one of such sites. There are rules to write a press release, a business plan, a story, a resume and even an obituary, if you ask me.

And yes over the past decade or so we've come across web content optimized for search engines using keywords as weapons in the armor. Again there are certain rules to write search engine optimized articles.

But social media article? How does that fit in a proclaimed writing style? Are there rules - or at least clues if not rules - about how to write one?

Seems there are as we'll explore in this article, and they're from experts who have successfully exploited the increasingly relevant social network marketing.

The one point that stands out is there is no way one must ignore the social media. It is the 'in thing' in these times. For if incidentally an article is digg-ed or stumbled upon or furled among many available options, chance is there'll be torrent of viewers embarking on it in a short time and may be even later.

To talk examples, there are instances where after an article is digg-ed by someone, it has fetched as many as 100 'diggs' in just under 5 minutes - and who knows how many visitors!

That ought to be reason enough to get unabashedly attracted to social media if only to induce short-term viral marketing at perhaps negligible cost.

To me however it's still a mystery as to what may qualify as a good social media article. How do you know which article of yours is a good click for social media visitors and which is not? Hanging about in social network sites will surely offer some clues. But wisdom says there's indeed a bigger picture in all this.

To get a feel of that I've been looking at a few articles by bloggers who have seen it and done that.

Briefly, here are my takes:

1. Social media articles are those that thrive on fresh news. People like reading them especially if they're dipped in juicy narration. If there's some tangible benefit to be had, nothing like it, but served of course with catchy details.



2. Hanging about social networking sites is a big help. That gives fair idea about what succeeds and what doesn't.



3. As far as feasible, it's better to stick to one's own style while writing a 'socially relevant' article and not try something so offbeat that it puts off core readers.



4. Social networking traffic is in most cases unpredictable. Today you've a torrent you can barely manage. Tomorrow they're gone! Too bad, won't you say?

Well, that to my understanding is what a social media article is in present time. What the future holds for it is anybody's guess. Readers' views are welcome.