As I browse through the internet on Reddit, Facebook, Quora, and Twitter, I’ve come across the term growth hacking, or growth hacker, more and more frequently. This lead me to ask myself, what is growth hacking?

It’s a term that is thrown around that refers to people (usually marketers) who use non-conventional marketing techniques to grow a business in a quick way, regardless of the way it’s done. Generally, growth hackers are different from the traditional marketers in that they use the tools available to them and this usually implies free or very low-cost options. Being a lean technique, growth hacking is a very attractive option for start-ups since it aligns with their goals: high growth rates and low cost. They (growth hackers) leverage social media well, know how to increase search engine optimization, implement a number of different tests and campaigns – similar to marketers. However, since it originated mostly with technology start-up companies (notably Facebook, Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other) most growth hackers will also know how to develop and code.

Given that growth hacking has proven so effective and successful for these companies, which were once unheard of but are now internationally known, it seems that this could be an area of expertise that is not only incredibly valuable, but also necessary for small-medium sized companies that still have a lot of room to grow. Especially if they’re on a budget. Since I’ve yet to seen “Growth Hacker” as an official role however though, I wonder if there will be more and more popping up in the coming years and if it will be promoted to an official position that start-ups and small-medium businesses start hiring for.

Source:

• http://www.quora.com/What-is-growth-hacking

First of all, what is click bait? Click bait is the term used to described headlines that are created to attract attention and to provoke readers into clicking a link that leads to a different webpage, usually an article. Some examples of click bait articles have headlines which read like this:

• 8 Reasons Why You Should Treat Your Parents Well. Number Three Will Make You Cry.
• Local Hunter Comes Face-to-Face with a Bear. What Happens Next Will Blow Your Mind.
• These Odd Looking Buildings Will Change the Way You Look at Architecture Forever.
• 4 Techniques Which Make You A Better Talker. Which Technique is Your Favorite?

Companies like Facebook is guilty of being littered with those types of articles, from websites like Buzzfeed, Upworthy, The Onion, among many others. Personally, I find them annoying because they flood my newsfeed. However, there must be a reason for why they keep reoccurring online. Do click bait headlines work?

It depends. It depends on what the goals of your company or website is and how you define if it “works” or not. According to WordStream, if you are looking to just generate views, then  it will increase your page traffic. If you want more engagement with your content: likes, shares, comments – it will get you more. However, as they also point out, and this should not come as a surprise, click bait can deteriorate your brand’s reputation.

The reason, or the science behind why it works comes down to curiosity. According to this article published in the HootSuite blogs, we “suckers for the unexpected” and that click bait headlines both pique our interest and curiosity while motivating us to click the link.