Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Instagram. Pinterest. Snapchat. The world of social media is massive. According to research, the number of worldwide internet users is now up to just over four billion, with around 3.2 billion active social media users too. Now, some platforms are much more popular than others, so if you’re going to use social media for your business, you’re probably going to want to pick and choose carefully. When used correctly, social media is a great way of boosting website traffic.
What You Need to Know First
92% of small business owners consider social media to be important for their company. Before you put a strategy together, it’s worth knowing a few things about the platforms first.
What the Platforms Mean
It’s often difficult to know where to start with social media, especially if it’s something you’ve never really used before. But once you know what you’re looking at, boosting your social media presence is easy. Let’s take a step back and break it down a little. To simplify social media and make the differences between each platform clear, here’s something you may find quite useful.
When is Best to Post
It goes without saying, but to benefit from social media, you’re going to want to post when people are active. This way, you’re more likely to generate leads to your website. To make things easier, you can use something like Hootsuite to schedule your posts, that way you don’t have to worry about being at your desk and posting something right on que.
Facebook – between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, then 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. on weekends
Twitter – 3:00 p.m. Monday to Friday
LinkedIn – 7:45 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m.
Instagram – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Monday to Friday
Make Sure Your Profile is Complete
When someone is on your social media profile, your ‘about’ section is probably going to be one of the first things they look at. And that’s why it’s important to make sure that all the relevant fields are filled in. Not only will you be filling in a bio, opening times, and contact details, there’s normally always room for a link to your website! Users know that this is the most likely area to find a direct route to your website, so it’d be foolish not to take full advantage of this.
Promote Your Blog Content
We’ve previously spoken about how blogging is good for SEO, but the more you blog, the more self-generated content you have to post on social media. Brands that blog and then post the article on social media are much more likely to have referral traffic to their website. Posting blogs on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn helps with search engine optimisation, engagement, and results in more people viewing your content.
Link People Back to Your Website
If you get people messaging you or leaving comments on your posts, this is a perfect opportunity to direct them to your website. Say, for example, someone asks something along the lines of “do you offer this kind of service”, “do you have this product”, or “where can I find your store”, you can refer people to the relevant page on your website.
Optimise Your Profiles
It’s not just your website that benefits from being optimised, there are a few things that you can do to make sure that your social profiles are optimised too! With a fully optimised online presence, you’re much more likely to be found by searchers. Why not try these few things if you’re not doing them already?
- Choose a profile picture that represents your business and stands out from your competitors
- Make sure your profiles clearly showcase your business, highlighting what you do or what you offer
- Fill in all of the information required, ensuring no necessary fields are left blank
- Add in keywords or search terms that are related to your business or industry, remembering to keep it natural
- Specify your location, opening hours, and contact details
- Make sure you’re posting regularly, but not too much as this may be spammy (especially if it’s a brand-new account)
Keep it Visual
We’ve said it before, but to create content that captivates your users, images are essential. In this day and age, people don’t always want to read content. Funnily enough though, they’re more likely to be interested in what you have to say if there’s relevant imagery to complement your post. On social media, posts that have an image, video, infographic, or gif included are far more likely to have a higher engagement rate. When you create a post, use a high-quality image to draw people in and include a link back to your website so that they can find out more.
To Recap
If you’re not getting as much organic traffic to your website as you’d like, it may be worth you taking a look at how to get people there instead. Social media is one of the biggest referral paths to a website, and there’s no reason why it can’t work for you and your business. As long as you’re aware of what each social platform is designed for, you have a strategy in place, you have your profiles complete with the correct information, and you’re actively posting and engaging with your users, you should be able to increase website visits with social media.
