Social news sites have been utilized by SEOs as a means of link bait since their inception.



Since it began in 2004, Digg has been the site of choice for many marketers.



As of late the ability for social news sites to deliver the same type of link bait benefit has been waining. In fact, The main flaw with the link bait and traffic provided by Digg is that it is not sustainable. It is also time consuming to build up the credibility and network needed to achieve the desired results.



Twitter had stepped onto this scene, and has given marketers a platform to deliver link bait in real time to publishers and searchers alike. Although the tweet is not stagnant, like a Digg story, it does not mean that it will not foster traffic and links beyond its origin. The retweet has offered the Twitterverse a way to spread ideas well beyond their point of origin.



The reality is that Twitter can be utilized repeatedly to build traffic and links if it is done in a transparent fashion. The same cannot be said of many social news sites.



A great example of the power of traffic and link bait provided by Twitter can be seen in the efforts of Zappos.com and @zappos, the company’s CEO Tony Hsieh. His innovative and transparent use of Twitter have allowed him to capitalize on the traffic and links provided by the site.



It only stands to reason that as the popularity and influence of Twitter grows so to will its ability to gain traffic and links for marketers that can utilize the platform in new and unique ways.