Social media platforms offer a fantastic opportunity to generate website traffic by drawing high volumes of viewers that happen to be browsing on popular sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. What you might not know is that there are specific ways these platforms can be used to encourage more views – read on to find out how!
Sharing is Caring
“Like and share this post to win!” is a method used with good reason and once you see the power of sharing a post, you’ll understand why this is favoured amongst companies that are intent on garnering higher volumes of traffic. Maybe you’ve shared a post before with minimal increase in views and you’re sceptical about this method but the trick is to keep sharing the post and to go about content sharing with a specific plan. Firstly, don’t be a spammer hammer. Nobody likes being flooded with the same message and spam could produce the exact opposite of your intended purpose by actually chasing potential viewers away. Be careful to overshare content and rather stick to a scheduled plan for reposting.
When deciding how often and on which platforms to share your content, consider the following important questions. Is my content bound by a specific timeframe? If you are promoting a competition or sale, your post will be shared more frequently than a general article as time is limited. Is there a target audience and what time of the day is this audience most likely to browse social media? Try to determine the peak website traffic times for your audience and release posts accordingly. Very few people are surfing the web at 2am in the morning so this probably isn’t the best time to share content. How long should the time intervals be between sharing a post? A popular sharing schedule might follow the pattern of publishing a post on one chosen platform. On the same day, release similar social messages on your other chosen social media platforms. The message can be shared again the next day, then the next week and even the next month if your timeframe allows it.
In order to keep the shared messages interesting, create unique blurbs each time or use quotes from within the article. Sharing the same message for content becomes uninteresting and might just irritate your potential audience. Keep the social media share descriptions relevant and try to pique the viewer’s curiosity. Furthermore, tailor your social media content sharing to the specific platform: photos are more likely to stand out in Twitter while Facebook allows for longer article descriptions to be shared. As you see changes in website traffic – whether increased or decreased – adjust your posting schedule to ensure continued views. This might mean retweeting, sharing a post again or even sharing a post on a new platform. For more visual posts, sharing on platforms such as Pinterest can be done up to 5 times a day with positive results that increase traffic.
Tip! Content for Pinterest can be reposted up to 5 times a day with optimal results for increasing traffic.
Tip! Statistical research shows 3 or more Twitter posts per day for one article can actually decrease website traffic.
Tip! The optimal amount of posts on Facebook per day is just one with a maximum of 2 posts per day for best results. Sharing more than twice a day might be seen as spam and reduce your user views.
Linking up with LinkedIn
The power of LinkedIn to share content is often overlooked but you’ll be surprised to know that LinkedIn often channels up to 50% of website traffic! By keeping your personal profile up to date and professional, viewers are more likely to trust the content that you are sharing. A well-kept LinkedIn profile can serve as a whole new platform to post and share content from. Joining LinkedIn groups is another way to broaden your social media share horizons. This is to be done with caution as it is not a platform for promotion but rather one for discussion and critical thinking aimed to lead to more profile views. As always, content shared via LinkedIn groups and your personal profile needs to be relevant and constructive to ensure further sharing. Photos and videos can go a long way in making your posts more interesting – by putting in a good amount of effort you should reap benefits accordingly and see your website traffic climb. By adding a LinkedIn share button to your website, traffic could grow as conscientious readers are likely to re-share value-adding content. Sharing high-quality content from other LinkedIn users could also make your profile stand out, which in turn will have more viewers visiting your profile and clicking on your shared content. Keep in mind that content on LinkedIn should be more specifically tailored for professionals: well-written articles with interesting information and catchy titles are the name of the game.
Heavy Traffic
Encourage users to provide feedback through surveys, polls and questionnaires as this will allow you to understand the demands of users visiting your site. These surveys can be shared on social media platforms and some channels such as Facebook even have a specific feature through which polls can be published. Profiling your customers will enable you to produce targeted content that will harvest loyalty and support while increasing traffic volumes. Asking questions is another great way to encourage discussion and feedback, which in turn will draw attention as users continue to share posts on interesting topics. Similarly, seeking advice from readers will allow for their personal input which harnesses the great feeling of participation and the sense of belonging that so many users seek.
Including links to relevant blog posts on similar topics, sharing resources with useful information and giving useful tips throughout an article will keep viewers loyal and ensure continued site views as social media sharing increases. Furthermore, recommending other services and products can be useful especially if you’ve made arrangements for those sites to link back to your posts and products -networking such as this is a valuable tool for increasing website traffic and one that should be utilized to the fullest.
Competitions and asking for photo/content submissions from viewers is an excellent way to engage with your users and will drive up website traffic as users begin involving their friends and family. Make sure to choose topics that have the potential for wide discussions and stay involved, commenting on submissions and posts to show how much you value user contributions. Although this will take a bit of time and effort from your side, the reward will be seen in the jump in website traffic that is sure to accompany consistent website activity. Small things like answering user questions, promoting other businesses and adding share buttons for all platforms to your content could make the world’s difference. Make sure to monitor your site traffic and if possible, see which social media channels offered the most diverted traffic and focus on those. It won’t be easy but soon enough you’ll get used to the routine of sharing, liking, discussing, linking and sharing again – and as your website traffic grows in leaps and bounds, it’s sure to get easier each time!
References:
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/double-your-social-media-traffic/
https://maximizesocialbusiness.com/8-ways-get-more-website-traffic-via-social-media-22744/#
https://sumo.com/stories/linkedin-traffic
https://www.marketingcloud.com/blog/50-ways-to-drive-traffic-to-your-website-with-social-media/