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When it comes to social media, it is important to harness the power of this tool for your business. Nearly 3 billion people access social media every single day, and so there is a huge potential for you to entice a new audience to your website if you use your social media account to its full potential.
To help you on your mission to greater website views, we have broken down some key areas in which you can boost your website traffic using your social media account. Take the time to plan these strategies and then implement them when you are ready to grow your traffic. You will be amazed at how effective they are at helping you to achieve success.
What is Social Media?
Social media is any site or digital tool that gives you the ability to share content with a group of people or the public quickly and easily. There are sites that promote sharing photos, video content and written content; but no matter what the focus is for the platform you use, the aim is to share information to give other users an insight into your life or business.
The Top 10 Social Media Networks are:
How Should I Organize My Social Media Account?
When you get started with social media, it is easy to while away many of your working hours creating content for each platform that you have joined. However, it may be better for you to engage with social media management tools to maximize your content but reduce the time spent creating it. This type of software encourages you to plan in advance and will post your content at times you specify so that you do not need to constantly be at your computer to have an impact on your audience.
We recommend trying Hootsuite.
Write a Blog
Have you ever considered writing a blog and sharing with your customer base? This is a really smart way to get people to engage with what you have to offer and provides you with a platform to share information about your products or services in a less sales-focused way.
When it comes to blog writing, many people post it directly on their website and forget to market it. The reality of this is that it will not garner the interest you are hoping to see because it simply does not have enough visibility. Once your blog is complete, it is wise to share it as widely as possible in an effort to get more views and increase the number of people that engage with your site.
You can share it by providing a short caption and a link on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Using a link to your website blog will not only get your more clicks, but people are far more likely to then navigate around the site and see what else you have to offer. This type of engagement will then result in more sales and a higher traffic volume.
When it comes to blog writing, it is advisable to organise your blogs in batches and have them prepared well in advance of publication. This way, you tweak them if needed but feel confident that you can adhere to posting regularly without having to find the time to write every few days.
If you are not a confident writer, then it may be worth investing in a content writer who can produce your blogs for you. All you need to do is share the keywords you want used and a topic for the writing so that they can complete the work you require, leaving you to focus on other aspects of social media.
Consistent Social Posting
Consistent social posts are a great way to keep people interested in what you have to offer and mean that you will grow a following of those that want to engage with your updates. If you fail to post consistently, there is a significantly lower chance that you will get increased traffic to your site as it will be harder for people to engage with what you have on offer.
Start by mapping out your content for the next few months and aim to have one long piece to post (a blog, for example) each week interspersed with a few shorter items in between. Doing this will ensure that your business name will garner lots of interest as you pop up on people’s timelines.
Humans are creatures of habit, and you can use this to your advantage; if you choose to post your first blog on a Monday afternoon, then it is a good idea to continue that tradition week after week. This will give your audience confidence in knowing that there is something relevant for them to read and will continue to drive traffic to your site.
However, along with consistency you need to evaluate, and if you find that your posts are not getting enough attention, then it is worth doing the research to find the day and time that gets the most clicks. When you have found this magic formula, then stick with it until it no longer provides the results you want. The more you analyze and evaluate, the better you will get at learning what social media posts work for your content.
Creative Posting Daily & Weekly
Using quotes or memes can be a highly effective way to provide content during the week when you do not have a blog that is due to go live. Short clips, quotes and memes are easy for your audience to resonate with and will help to grow the trust in your brand.
When someone sees a quote or meme that they like, then they are likely to share this on his or her social media or tag other users in that they feel they would enjoy it. This type of sharing is invaluable to a business that wants to grow its traffic. If you are lucky enough to hit the right note with your posting, then you may even find that it gets shared thousands of times and potentially even goes viral.
While creative posting may not initially send droves of people to your website, it will start the process of your business name becoming more well known. As you become more well known, you will begin the process of developing more brand trust which in turn will lead to more customers heading over to your site and spending their money on your product or service.
Interact With Your Followers
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when they first start to use social media is forgetting to respond to comments and questions from their followers. This is an essential part of growing your name on social media sites and ultimately growing your business and traffic to your website.
When you post a new blog and share a link, then you may find that people respond with comments or questions that require a response. While it is imperative that you respond in a timely manner, you also need to ensure that you use the right tone and make the person feel valued for getting in touch.
Always start by thanking them for their contribution and take the time to give the most accurate answer possible as this will lead to a strong trust between you and your audience. If you ever are not sure of an answer, then do not be afraid to tell the person as long as you promise to follow up as soon as you have found out. By responding publicly on the post, you will have also given others the opportunity to learn more about you and your product so view it as a marketing opportunity every time you post.
With any form of social media, there is a risk that you will receive negative or unhelpful comments. There is never a time where it is ok to respond rudely or abusively, as this will bring your business into disrepute. Ideally, try to spin their comment into a positive response, but if what they are saying is unrelated to you, your business or contravenes social media rules, then report it for moderation.
It is also as important to respond to any private messages your receive from potential clients and some social media accounts now give you the option of automating your replies so that a courtesy holding response is sent before you have time to reply. With accounts such as Facebook Messenger, you can even automate the initial stages of the conversation to get more information from your customer to divert them to the right person to answer their query.
Use Polls
If you are familiar with polls, use them to find out how your audience feels about a new product or service or about something you have shared online to gather opinions. Lots of social media sites have in-built polling systems for you to use so that you just need to input your questions and publish it to start getting feedback right away.
It is sensible to keep your polls as simple as possible so that people only need to choose from a couple of responses. This will make your poll more popular and give you a snapshot view of how people are feeling about something that will help grow interest in your business.
It is never wise to poll people on whether they think your business is good or anything similar to this as it will not tell the story of their experience and may end up doing more harm than good. Instead, use polling to measure interest in products or blog topics so that you can then tailor what you do and what you offer to appeal to the majority.
Consider Competitions
Finally, it is worth considering the use of competitions if you want to drive lots of people to your site when you are launching a new product or service or want to increase the interest in what you are already selling.
The best competitions offer the winner a free product or service from your catalogue along with a discount off a future purchase with you. This will entice them to give your business a go and encourage repeat business when they use their discount.
If you are looking to interest a wider audience, then you could even consider collaboration with other businesses where they also offer an item to the winner in exchange for mutual social media sharing and following.
Always give your competitions enough time to run (7 days or more) so that there are lots of opportunities for your client base to see it online. You should also arrange all your posting during this time to remind them of your competition and encourage them to sign up to be in with a chance of winning.
When the competition deadline day arrives, make sure you post everywhere about the selection of the winning person and share as much information about them as possible. This will encourage your audience to believe that your competition was genuine and get them to feel good for the winning person. Then a couple of weeks later, follow up with a review from the competition winner that tells your audience about how they used what they won and how pleased they were with it.
If you do opt for a competition, just remember to make the terms and conditions clear before going live. You will be expected to adhere to these and so will all the people who choose to enter.
Summary
It is clear to see that social media is much more than just an outlet to share your thoughts; when used well, it can be a valuable business tool that helps you to get more people to visit your site and engage with what you have to offer.
Take some time to plan a specific social media strategy and implement all our suggestions to get maximum results. You will soon have a thriving social media account as well as a booming business.
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Janszen Media designs and develops beautifully responsive websites, optimized for SEO and user experience. If you need a new website contact us at info@janszenmedia.com for a free quote.
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