Your website is a powerful tool for promoting your brand and if there’s one thing that just about every website owner needs more of, it’s traffic. But you don’t need just any traffic. Naturally, you want targeted traffic. The traffic of people who are interested in what you have to offer.
Here are some simple yet powerful social media strategies to help you promote your brand and generate more traffic.
Join the major platforms
There are a whole lot of social media platforms for you to join, but the key is to only join those sites where your market regularly logs in. The top platforms include Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
TIP: There may be popular niche-specific platforms you can consider joining. For example, Dogster.com is a popular social media site for dog lovers.
Fill out your profiles.
Spend time filling out your profiles, including adding a good photo and a good description of you and your business. Be sure to include a link to your site along with a call to action that gives people a reason to click on your link.
For example: Need to lose at least 25 pounds? Click here to discover the new diet Hollywood celebrities are raving about!
Start a Facebook Page.
Log into your Facebook account and go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/ to get started. Again, be sure to fill out your Page profile completely, including a link and call to action, and then start posting content such as tips, infographics and even videos.
TIP: Include relevant keywords in your Page name as well as the description to help people find your page.
Start a Facebook Group.
Log into Facebook and click on “Create a Group” in the left-side navigation bar. You’ll be able to choose a name for the group and choose whether it’s open (this is your best choice for a business), closed (must be a member to see the posts) or secret.
This is a great way to start a discussion group or support group. For example, you could start a support group for those who’re trying to lose weight or start a discussion group for people who like to modify their sports cars.
Post share-worthy content.
If you want to take advantage of social media’s naturally viral platform, then post content worth sharing. This is content that possesses one or more of the following factors:
- Unique
- Useful
- Entertaining
- Controversial
- Uplifting, inspiring or motivational
- Funny
After you post good content, then follow the next tip…
Encourage people to share.
Posting share-worthy content is part of the equation. The other part is to present a call to action where you specifically ask people to share, re-tweet and re-post your content.
For example: “Click share if you agree!”
Another example: “Share with your friends – they’ll love you for it!”
Funnel people back to your site.
While it’s great to build up a big social media platform, don’t forget that the goal is to drive traffic back to your site. One good way to do this is to pin a post at the top of your page that offers people a free lead magnet product in exchange for their email address. You can then link to your lead page.
TIP: Many of the major email service providers (such as Aweber) offer Facebook apps that you can use to build your list. Check with your provider to see if they offer these tools.
Start a contest on social media.
You can get more subscribers, followers, and traffic if you offer awesome prizes and use a tool like www.rafflecopter.com. Rafflecopter lets people get more entries by sharing your contest with their friends, which makes your contest go viral.
Pro Tip: Offer all “runners up” a limited-time discount coupon on your products as a consolation prize. It’s a good way to boost sales!
Put social media badges on your blog.
In other words, make it easy for people to “like” and “share” your blog content on social media, which in turn drives more traffic back to your site.
If you’re using WordPress, you can search plugins for “social media share” plugins (go to https://wordpress.org/plugins/). Or you can directly opt for a popular plugin such as Social Media Feather (at https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-feather/).
Post a variety of content.
Variety keeps people engaged, but it also gives you a chance to see what types of content get you the most engagement. You can post content such as:
- Infographics
- Memes
- Quotes
- Jokes
- Videos
- Tips
- Articles
- Observations
- Niche-relevant “rants”
- Reactions to news stories
… And so on. Keep track of likes, shares, and comments to figure out what your audience loves.
These strategies will help you build your brand, increase your followers, and generate more traffic – but don’t just post and walk away. Engagement is essential to building a loyal following so be sure to reply to comments and join the discussion. It will help you build a relationship with your followers, which in turn makes it more likely they’ll want to do business with you.
