Types of Social Media

How to Increase Website Traffic with Social Media

Connor Barrett Social Media Leave a Comment

Improving the Levels of Traffic to Your Website

Increasing the number of visitors to your website can be a challenge.  Website traffic can be generated from many sources including organic search, paid advertising and social media.  Improving the level of traffic to your website requires you to follow a process: performing research, producing good quality content, effective SEO followed by good content promotion.  You may then choose to edit the content as a result of your performance.  The process doesn’t stop when you have created the content; it begins.

We are going to focus on promoting your content here.  Even the best content on the web needs to be promoted if it is going to reach its intended audience.  Social media is one promotional tool you can use to ensure that your content reaches the screens of interested readers.  After you have promoted your content, social media provides you with a great opportunity to interact with your intended clients and customers.  Engaging with your following can help spread the word and draw more people towards your content and ultimately, your business.  In this article, I will outline a number of ways that you can maximise the potential of your social media accounts to drive traffic to your website.

The Growing Influence of Social Media

Social Media Mobile Applications

In February 2015, Forbes reported an increase in the number of website referrals from social media platforms.  According to the report, social media overtook search as the number one source of website referrals in September 2014.  In the lead up to the report, Facebook rapidly increased its global referral share resulting in an overall increase in traffic from social.

The influence of social media on website traffic depends on the type of website.  However, worldwide data trends suggest that social sharing platforms are becoming a more popular way to increase traffic on the web.  This results from the increase in user numbers of social sharing platforms.  Another benefit of using social media for promotion is that it provides you with the opportunity to interact with people about your content, enabling you to find more like-minded people.

Building a Rapport with Your Clients

Building your network is important if you want continued success through your social media channels.  You may post the best content on the web, but if nobody hears your message, what’s the point?  Engaging your online following is key.

Think about what you want your followers to do with your social content.  Do you just want them to read it or do you want them to take action and share it with their friends?  Is it enough for somebody to like your content or do you want them to visit your website too?  Always remember to link a relevant page from your website where appropriate; this gives a reference point where the readers can get more information about what you are offering.

Social media provides a company with an easy way to engage with potential customers and clients.  An active social media feed provides the perfect opportunity for a company to express their personality online.  Your social media presence should reflect the personality and values of your business.  A well thought out social media strategy can help build brand identity, helping your visitors to associate with you.  Responding to customers who post feedback about your brand or products is also an important part of relationship building.  Even a negative review can be turned into a positive marketing opportunity.  Responding to negative online feedback in a constructive and helpful way can demonstrate your company’s commitment to good customer service and act as an advert for your business.

Why Engagement is Better Than Volume

The question of whether it is better to have more, less engaged followers or a small number of highly engaged followers is more complicated than it seems.  Many social media accounts attempt to build a large following in the belief that it is the most effective way to spread a message on their chosen platform.  However, having a high number of followers alone does not guarantee that your content will be successful when you share it.  According to a report by Invespcro only a tiny fraction of a brand’s followers interact with brand posts.  Whilst having a high number of social media followers means that your posts will be well distributed, it does not automatically result in interaction.  In order to generate traffic as a result of your social media activity, you need to engage your users.

To combat this problem, Followerwonk devised the Social Authority score.  This score determines the rate of interaction that a Twitter account receives.  The social authority score is more useful than follower statistics alone as it indicates how influential the account is by looking at engagement statistics.

Active followers are more likely to visit your website as they have a keen interest in your content.

Unique Features

Each social media platform you use has its own unique features.  Hashtags are popular on Facebook and Twitter, infographics are used on Instagram and LinkedIn.  LinkedIn Pulse is also available for you to share your content with professionals in your field.  Snapchat provides you with the opportunity to customise your photographs before you distribute them to your connections.

With each of these features, you have the opportunity to demonstrate your company’s personality to your potential customer base.  For example, you can create a hashtag that is specific to your business for use on your Twitter feed.  This would improve your brand visibility and allow you to see when people are talking about subjects relating to you.

Top Tips For Social Media Success

Here at CodifyMedia, we have come up with our top tips to optimise your social channels:

  • Create A Plan:  Planning your social media activities means that you can decide on a strategy.  Creating a plan has many benefits which include ensuring you have a consistent and measured approach to your online activities.  Plans also make it easier to identify where you can improve in the future.
  • Be Unique:  Nearly every company you come across uses at least one social media platform.  Now more than ever, it’s important to stand out from the crowd.  If there are any quirks in the way your company operates, your social presence is where you can show them.  Consider the message you want to convey to your audience then sing it from the rooftops!
  • Target Your Audience:  Each social platform has its own unique audience.  Whereas Facebook is used across generations, Snapchat predominantly attracts younger users.  Similarly, 45% of women using the Pinterest, compared with just 17% of men.  Targeting a particular section of society is much easier when you know where you can reach them.
  • Engage with your followers:  Invescpro recently produced an infographic packed with interesting engagement figures.  Key findings include that engagement rates are higher on Thurdsay and Friday.  The report also found a general trend towards engagement with rich content posts.  Posting the right content at the right time ensures that your posts will be more successful.
  • Use Social Plugins:  Plugins such as Hootsuide, CrowdFire and Buffer provide information about the performance of your social activity.  These plugins also allow you to automate your social accounts.  Use this data to inform and improve your future decisions.  These plugins have useful features such scheduling so that you can trigger your social media activities if you are out of office for a period of time.

 

The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of CodifyMedia.

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