3 Tips for Using Social Media for Traffic to Your Site
One secret to driving traffic from your social media profiles to your website, or to any link for that matter, is to have people share your content with their followers. In this case, content includes; Images, Video, Interesting Facts, and Quotes. The best content for social media platforms is short, succinct, colorful, and invokes an emotional response from the viewer.
Creating Share-Worthy Content
In order to get people to share your content, it needs to be truly worthy of sharing. Most people won’t inundate their friends and family with useless content or information.
No one likes to think of their content as useless, but unless it’s really interesting, unique, or in some other way valuable, that is how most people will perceive it.
It’s not that difficult to create content that is share-worthy, but it does take a little bit of extra thought and effort. Here are 3 tips that will help you create share-worthy content right now:
Tip 1: People Share Positive Content
Don’t look at the news. Most of the time all you see is sadness, pain, death, destruction and other negative things. Our brains are absolutely slammed with horror day after day. For some reason people expect that from news sources, because that’s what gets ratings.
You may think these shocking and horrific stories are the ones that get shared most often, but you’d be wrong. The fact is, on social media, people are much more likely to share positive content than they are the bad stuff. It’s a way to balance out the bad stuff we’re inundated with.
If you pay attention to the kind of content people share, it’s almost always positive, upbeat, heartwarming stories that make people feel good. This is the kind of content people want to share with their friends.
Unless you’re running a news site, it’s best to stick with upbeat content that is useful or can help get people through troubling times.
Tip 2: People Share Emotional Content
Emotion is the most powerful motivator imaginable. Any type of emotion makes a difference. Positive emotions, as we saw in Tip 1, are more powerful than negative, but all emotions can inspire sharing.
Keep these emotions in mind as you create your content:
- Laughter – Comedy is a powerful thing for viral content!
- Shock – Shocking content is typically very share-worthy!
- Embarrassment – Yes, people will share embarrassing content, but especially so if it’s embarrassing to other people!
- Hope – Hope is something everyone needs more of, and they will gladly share content that makes them feel hopeful!
- Warmth – Heartwarming content is definitely share-worthy. Stories that warm the heart are shared amazingly often!
- Anger – Anger can definitely inspire people to share. If you can outrage someone, they are quite likely to share.
Tip 3: People Share Useful Content
Useful content is easy to find, but ‘unique’ useful content is not. You can find a thousand different recipes for a particular dish, perhaps ten thousand or a hundred thousand or more. But finding that same recipe made with leftovers, or made with super cheap ingredients, or made on a grill instead of in an oven, or with any other unique and useful spin… well, that makes it share-worthy.
Create content that helps people solve a problem, preferably in a unique way. Think of the biggest problem your target market faces, and then create viral content that helps them solve it.
What Kind of Content Drives Traffic from Social Media?
Traffic is the people who visit your website to learn more about you, your business, your products, or your service. It is the life blood of any website. Getting the right traffic to your site is vital for you to get new customers and make more sales.
On the internet, content is one of the main things that can drive traffic to your website. In many cases, it’s the content on social media that can attract and send the right kind of traffic to your site. So, the question becomes: what kind of content drives traffic from social media?
Entertaining Content
People love entertaining their friends. That’s why joke books have been great sellers for years. It’s why jokes are some of the most shared and emailed content. And it’s why class clowns always seem so popular.
On social media, the best entertainment comes from video. Have you seen those funny cat videos that make the rounds? How about those hilarious Superbowl commercials that go viral overnight? If your content is funny… genuinely funny… people will share it.
This isn’t to say that only video should be used on social media. Images, jokes, short stories all have a place as appropriate content that is shared by your followers and friends. And, when the content being shared includes a link to your website to learn more, as an invitation to be a part of a community, or simply as a call to purchase the item that the content refers to, it becomes a vital part of your traffic generating plan.
Unique Content
Unique content is a rarity these days. The internet is absolutely packed with content of all types, so creating something truly unique is a challenge in and of itself.
Of course, if you can pull it off, unique content will be something that will go viral very rapidly, especially if it’s powerful and compelling in some way. Useful? Funny? Emotional? Just be as unique as possible, and you’ll increase your share-worthy factor.
Remember, people love to be the first of their friends to share something new and exciting. So the newer and more unique it is, the faster it will spread.
Now, what can you create in terms of content that is unique? Go back to what your business is about, why you started the business, what makes you or your business or your product or your service a bit different than someone else’s. Is it the color? Is it the way it’s used? It is the type of packaging? Is it the type of delivery? It’s this difference that you can focus on, and that is what can make your content unique.
How to Bring Different Types of Leads to Your Websites
You want to bring people to your website and you want them to buy from you. They are prospects, potential customers, and are considered a ‘lead’ before they become a customer. The term ‘lead’ comes from sales and marketing and describes a “contact that a business is going to call or email in order to try and encourage sales.”
With an online business, leads take on a slightly different form and although the basics are still true, the way you interact with these potential customers is different. It’s important to understand the two types of leads
There is the cold lead – someone who fits your target demographic but hasn’t had any interaction with you yet. It’s likely to be someone who has just landed on your website or found you in social media. They don’t know much about you or your business. But, they are more than likely interested in what you are selling.
There is the warm lead – someone who fits your target demographic and has some level of interaction with you. This is someone who knows a bit about you and your business either through social media or being on your email list, or even simply having seen or heard you on other people’s websites. Warm leads are easier to convert into customers.
There are different methods you can use to drive traffic to your website that will bring both types of leads to you.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Cold leads can be brought to your site using paid advertising and one option is Pay Per Click (PPC). You can use PPC on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and more). When someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website, they are considered a cold lead. What is good about this type of traffic generation is that on these platforms you can target exactly the type of customer you want to sell to. The filtering that is available on Facebook is very good, enabling you to show your ads only to people who precisely match your target audience.
Google AdWords (another form of PPC) allows you to target specific keyword searches in Google, which can bring you qualified cold leads. Again, using the filter that AdWords offers, you’re able to select specific phrases that your target audience is likely to use and those phrases match what you have on your website.
Turn those cold leads into warm leads by going one step further for each of these PPC options and use what is called remarketing. This is a piece of code that you can place on your website so that you can target people with relevant ads who have already been to your site and actually viewed your products!
Search Engine Optimization
When you use SEO (search engine optimization) to promote your site, you are trying to get your site to rank for a particular keyword phrase. Depending on the phrase you choose, you may be able to attract pre-qualified sales to your site.
How does this work? Simple: people looking for products and services type what they’re looking for in a search engine (Google or Bing). If your keyword phrase matches what they have typed, you will appear in the search results page. Then the people coming to your website are demonstrating an interest in buying your products and may be ready to buy when they get to your site. This is the definition of a qualified lead and that means you can very likely convert those leads into paying customers with just a little more effort.
Offer them a freebie so you can get them on your email list and develop a relationship with them.
You Don’t Have to Pay for Traffic to Your Website
There’s plenty you can do attract and drive traffic to your website that has no cost, other than your time:
First, be sure you fully understand your customer. Create a “customer persona” that includes the demographics of your ideal customer as well as the psychographics. Demographics are the statistical data of your target market and usually focuses on the average age, income, education, geographic location, etc. Psychographics are your target market’s habits, hobbies, spending habits and values. Demographics explain “who” your customer is, while psychographics explain “why” they buy.
Now you can use this information on the backend of your website and in your content to attract your ideal customer.
Optimize for your customer persona, not the search engines.
By creating quality, educational and informational, content that resonates with your ideal customer, you’ll naturally improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This means creating content that taps into the main issues of your customer persona and the keywords they use in search queries.
Blog regularly.
Blogging is the most effective way to increase your organic site traffic. This is where you can go deeper into topics that matter for your target market. It’s where you can showcase how you, your business, your product, or your services are the solution to their problems.
Join a blogging circle.
There are Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, and industry blogs that invite members and people to read, comment and link to other people’s sites and blogs, particularly those operating in your market. Be sure to get active on those types of sites and be helpful, even if it’s not your website. People will see you being helpful and visit your site for more information.
Use long tail keywords.
This goes along with writing for your customer persona and not the search engines. People use phrases when searching on Google, Bing, and other search engines. Rarely do they use a single keyword. Also, don’t go with the most popular keywords in your market. Use keywords and phrases that are specific to your product or service. In time, Google and other search engines will identify your website or blog as a destination for that particular subject, which will boost your content in search rankings and help your ideal customers find you.
Guest blogging.
There are opportunities for you to write content for someone else’s blog. Search for blogs that serve your target market, contact the owner via the contact page and ask if they accept guest writers for their blog. Or, there may be a space on the site that tells you how to become a guest writer.
Ultimately, to increase organic site traffic you need to give your customers what they want – quality advice, information, and insight. And, you can do this by creating quality content on a regular basis that addresses their issues and leads them back to your website.
YouTube Can Send Quality Traffic to Your Website
Google is the biggest and Number 1 search engine in the world. Did you know that YouTube is the second largest after Google? It is in fact bigger than Bing or Yahoo. This means that YouTube offers a lot of opportunities for those who are looking forward to skyrocket their business and send quality traffic to their website.
Create a Channel
This is your video home base. You have the opportunity to use branded content in the Channel Art area, as well as adding links and other information about you, your business, your services, your products.
This is where you will upload all of your videos to be used on your own websites, shared on social media, on other people’s websites, and more. And, remember, in each video and description you will want to reference your website and include a link so people can click and go directly to the appropriate page on your site to purchase, subscribe or contact you.
Optimize Your Channel
Begin with making sure you have the perfect name for your channel. This is what viewers will see as they watch your content, but also what they will see under each video in the “Up Next” column next to the videos they’re watching after a search query. A name should reflect either the benefit of using your service or product, or your actual business name.
The channel description is where you provide a brief summary of your business, products, and services. Be sure to have a link to your website in there! Also, be sure to use your targeted keywords and phrases. For instance, if you sell business coaching this is where you would say that “as a business coach I work with women business owners who want to increase sales and improve their customer service” with ‘women business owners’ and ‘increase sales’ and ‘customer service’ being your targeted keywords.
Add Transcription
Transcribed videos generally rank higher on YouTube and in Google because the search engines don’t read the videos they read the text associated with the videos. After you’ve uploaded a video, you can select the option to have YouTube provide closed captioning and then you can copy/paste this information into the video description area, editing so that your targeted keywords and phrases are there.
You can also type or transcribe the video yourself directly into the description area. It doesn’t need to be a word-for-word transcription, but it does need to be accurate and it does need to include your keywords and phrases so that your video will appear in the search results. And, remember to have your website link at the very beginning of your description so it appears as a clickable link in both the short and long description version.
Don’t forget to share your videos on your other social media channels.