Long believed to be an essential component of effective SEO,
social media allows brands to humanize and interact with customers on a
more personal level. What's more, social media also offers companies the
opportunity to keep their audience engaged, promote their products, and
offer expert insight on common industry concerns.
Even when it comes to traffic generation techniques, social media seems to be very popular thanks to the many options it offers to brands. From Facebook to Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, companies can utilize a wide range of social network platforms to drive more traffic and generate leads.
We have compiled a list of efficient ways to drive traffic to your website using social media.
1. Distribute Your Content
Probably the most popular and effective methods to leverage social media is distributing links to the content published on your website. Both Facebook and Google+ will include a relevant image along with a short excerpt from the original article, making it possible for users to figure out what's covered in your content, and also to make the post more visually appealing. Twitter allows you to write up to 140 characters per tweet, which is oftentimes enough for creating an eye-catching line to entice users to follow a shortened link redirecting them to your website.
Make a habit of distributing links to every new published piece of content to relevant social media platforms. Many developers offer a variety of plugins you can use to automate the process, allowing you to select the social networks that you want to post links to, and also insert a default message that comes along with them.
2. Give Away Digital Content
Nothing drives more traffic than free digital content. Whether it's about an eBook, a report, a white paper, a design template, or anything else that your audience might be interested in, this kind of giveaways can earn you hundreds of new visitors in a relatively short time. Make sure that you properly promote your content and optimize messages according to each social media network that you post it to.
3. Add Tweetable Quotes Throughout Your Posts
One of the best ways to generate more traffic to your website is inserting tweetable quotes throughout your posts. If they are coming from an authoritative source, you will likely drive a lot of traffic. However, you should always remember that quotes must be shorter than 100 characters, as you also need to include a link to your website in the tweet (which will likely be shortened using an URL shortening service such as Bitly ).
According to KISSmetrics co-founder Neil Patel, you can choose to either include a tweet button along with every quote, or simply add a tweet button at the end of the post, so users can select the text that they want to share. We also recommend CoSchedule's Click to Tweet plugin, which creates tweetable content for your readers in seconds - plus, the plugin makes text look beautiful!
4. Invest in Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is getting more ground due to the many opportunities it offers. Facebook Advertising is perhaps the most complex system of its kind, allowing brands to precisely target the audience that their ads will be displayed to. From age to gender, relationship status, political orientation, religion, interests and current location, Facebook ads can be customized to match the demographics of your targeted audience in order to drive more traffic.
Twitter sponsored tweets are similar, but you will not be getting as many customization options as with Facebook advertising. Social media advertising can land you hundreds or thousands of visitors shortly, so consider preparing a solid budget beforehand.
If used correctly, social media can be a powerful tool that will drive a great amount of traffic and help your website thrive. The best part of all is that most visitors will likely be interested in your content, products or services, so you will also be generating leads and maybe sales.
We recommend that you take the time to research the best social networks for your specific industry, and distribute the right type of content on each before you start implementing any of the traffic generations techniques above.
Even when it comes to traffic generation techniques, social media seems to be very popular thanks to the many options it offers to brands. From Facebook to Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, companies can utilize a wide range of social network platforms to drive more traffic and generate leads.
We have compiled a list of efficient ways to drive traffic to your website using social media.
1. Distribute Your Content
Probably the most popular and effective methods to leverage social media is distributing links to the content published on your website. Both Facebook and Google+ will include a relevant image along with a short excerpt from the original article, making it possible for users to figure out what's covered in your content, and also to make the post more visually appealing. Twitter allows you to write up to 140 characters per tweet, which is oftentimes enough for creating an eye-catching line to entice users to follow a shortened link redirecting them to your website.
Make a habit of distributing links to every new published piece of content to relevant social media platforms. Many developers offer a variety of plugins you can use to automate the process, allowing you to select the social networks that you want to post links to, and also insert a default message that comes along with them.
2. Give Away Digital Content
Nothing drives more traffic than free digital content. Whether it's about an eBook, a report, a white paper, a design template, or anything else that your audience might be interested in, this kind of giveaways can earn you hundreds of new visitors in a relatively short time. Make sure that you properly promote your content and optimize messages according to each social media network that you post it to.
3. Add Tweetable Quotes Throughout Your Posts
One of the best ways to generate more traffic to your website is inserting tweetable quotes throughout your posts. If they are coming from an authoritative source, you will likely drive a lot of traffic. However, you should always remember that quotes must be shorter than 100 characters, as you also need to include a link to your website in the tweet (which will likely be shortened using an URL shortening service such as Bitly ).
According to KISSmetrics co-founder Neil Patel, you can choose to either include a tweet button along with every quote, or simply add a tweet button at the end of the post, so users can select the text that they want to share. We also recommend CoSchedule's Click to Tweet plugin, which creates tweetable content for your readers in seconds - plus, the plugin makes text look beautiful!
4. Invest in Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is getting more ground due to the many opportunities it offers. Facebook Advertising is perhaps the most complex system of its kind, allowing brands to precisely target the audience that their ads will be displayed to. From age to gender, relationship status, political orientation, religion, interests and current location, Facebook ads can be customized to match the demographics of your targeted audience in order to drive more traffic.
Twitter sponsored tweets are similar, but you will not be getting as many customization options as with Facebook advertising. Social media advertising can land you hundreds or thousands of visitors shortly, so consider preparing a solid budget beforehand.
If used correctly, social media can be a powerful tool that will drive a great amount of traffic and help your website thrive. The best part of all is that most visitors will likely be interested in your content, products or services, so you will also be generating leads and maybe sales.
We recommend that you take the time to research the best social networks for your specific industry, and distribute the right type of content on each before you start implementing any of the traffic generations techniques above.
