How to Drive Website Traffic From Social Media?
“Social media is important”, “social media it is essential”, “social media is crucial to business success”, pretty sure you’ve definitely seen or heard about these before.
Figures show that there are currently 3.78 billion social media users worldwide in 2021, which is near half of the entire world population. People, on average, are spending almost 2.5 hours per day on social media, and 54% of them use social media to research products.
What does that mean? You will be missing a lot of potential customers if you are not on social media, especially when the total number of users is only going to grow—an estimated 4.41 billion by 2025.
STEPS TO TAKE TO DRIVE WEBSITE TRAFFIC FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
Set your goals
If you start any new projects without having a “goal”, you will soon find yourself lost without any sense of direction simply because there is not an “end”. Sounds vague, right? This is the exact issue, you don’t know what exactly you should be expecting.
I know it is stressful to chase key performance indicators (KPIs), it’s definitely not a pleasant feeling when your numbers are just not going to cut it. But think of it this way, tracking metrics is a way to ensure if your social media strategy is working, if the posts are connecting with your target audience, or if your company is on track to achieving its business goals.
There are plenty of metrics to look at, below are just some examples
- Number of posts per day / week / month
- Number of likes
- Increase in followers
- Divert traffic to websites or specific web pages
Know your audiences
If you want to succeed in social media, which also applies to blogs and websites, you need to know who you are writing/posting for.
Different people have different preferences when it comes to consuming content. And by understanding who your audiences are, you can then tailor your content to their needs, their preferences, and make your content stand out from others.
Some common features to identify your target audiences.
Use visuals
Stunning images and interesting graphics are essential to earning a high engagement rate on social media. Consumers prefer visuals over traditional text-based content. Tweets with images, for example, receive 89% more likes and 150% more retweets than those without.
And just look at the most popular social media platforms we are currently using. Five out of Adobe’s top seven social media sites in 2021 are visual-based—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat.
Post consistently
People want to know what is new, what is going on, know the latest trends, get notified of the latest sales. To simply put it, people want to follow an active account to get all the latest updates.
Here’s a catch. Posting on social media is a bit different from publishing content on your website. The engagement rate of your post could be affected by several factors including your industry, and the day and time you post on different social media platforms.
Additionally, all social media platforms have their optimal posting frequency. Here’s a simple breakdown from Hootsuite.
- Instagram → 3 – 7 times per week
- Facebook → 1 – 2 times per day
- Twitter & LinkedIn → 1 – 5 times per day
Actively engage with followers
Social media offers businesses an opportunity to easily engage with users directly. Whether it’s a comment on a service/product, current customers seeking quick assistance, or just a simple “I like it” from a potential customer. A genuine response will increase their user experience, urging others to follow suit.
Everyone likes personal attention and interaction, they want to be noticed by others. Increasing interaction with followers can boost your social media presence and improve your brand image.
Say if a follower is seeking help on how to use a product, you can also make use of this chance to promote any relevant web page and divert traffic to your website.
ADDITIONAL TIPS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Engage with influencers
Marketing is about connections. If you are stuck with getting more engagement and gaining new followers, why not try and reach out to influencers? These are people who already have a certain follower base.
However, it is not about finding THE influencer with a mega follower base, it is about the “right” one. The key here is to find influencers within your industry that align with your brand values and are relevant to what you provide.
What’s more, these influencers know how to use these social platforms, they know what to do that works best for them. By giving them creative control, you can also take a closer look and general new social media ideas for your brand in the future.
Use hashtags for greater reach
Hashtags are very popular on some platforms like Instagram and Twitter, this is how people discover new content of their interests. Some will even follow specific hashtags to keep themselves updated. This is a good way to expand your reach to non-followers, but to those who might be interested in what you provide.
Just be aware to not overload your post with tons of hashtags, especially with irrelevant ones. And when adding hashtags, do some research on what is trending or popular among your industry. The goal is to get your post out there to as many people as possible.
Know your limits
What are your available resources? Do you have enough manpower? Have you got all the tools you need? How many channels can you optimize whenever you post? Do you have a person dedicated to handling all the socials? These are some questions you need to ask before jumping straight into opening accounts and posting things.
Do you need to be on EVERY social media platform? Think about your target audiences again. Say if they are “business professionals”, you will probably want to be on LinkedIn but not necessarily TikTok. Say if you’re targeting a younger audience group you should focus on Snapchat and Instagram.
It is better to be “great” on two to three platforms, rather than “just average” on five to six.
A good media strategy can help drive traffic to your website. If you want to improve your boost your online business, you need to have a website to put you out there and make use of social media platforms to expand your reach.
If you don’t have a website, it’s still not too late to create one now! (Better late than never right!)
If you know website building and want to have full control over your website, choose content management systems like WordPress. There is, however, a relatively steeper learning curve since this is a full-blown solution with a lot of features.
If you’re new to this game and want to quickly build a website and get it running as soon as possible, go for website builders like Website.com instead. These are easy-to-use, all-in-one solutions ideal for beginners, especially since most providers offer customer support service to assist those in need.