Social Media is one of the most powerful channels in digital marketing, but its effectiveness is often difficult to measure. In social media, few users think about making a purchase immediately, and it can be hard to determine the impact of activities like brand image, engagement, customer loyalty, or relationship building. However, that doesn’t mean that social media isn’t an important part of your marketing strategy! In this blog post, we will discuss how you can generate website traffic from social media using techniques that actually work.
Very few users immediately think of purchases on social media, and the brand image, engagement, customer loyalty, or relationship building with social media activities is difficult to determine.
Websites, on the other hand, are built directly to guide the customer to the intended goal: purchase, contact, ask for more information. On the website, the customer also appears in website analytics and may become part of marketing automation actions. If the customer is recognized via social media, he or she can be followed on the website and individual marketing campaigns can be implemented for him or her.
So, it is worth attracting the users of social media to the website. But how?
Fix the basics
Marketing in social media should not be started without clear goals and resources. Likes, comments, and shares bring visibility and increase awareness of the company and its services. However, managing and using a social media account requires activity and effort, in other words, resources, both financial and human.
The most common social media channels are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. More important than the number of users, however, is how the company’s target group spends its time. Advertising on Facebook and Twitter will not be successful if the target group is primarily active on LinkedIn, Periscope, or Snapchat.
Media monitoring also plays an important role. By following social media celebrities and influencers, participating in discussions, and commenting on publications, companies stay up to date and also increase awareness of the company because more users are interested in the website without having to link to it often. A social media monitoring service helps with this, with which companies can follow publications about their own brand, the industry, or their competitors and with which they can also observe the latest trends.
The timing of postings on social media is important. For example, posts on Twitter should be shared on weekdays, but on Facebook at the end of the week or on the weekend. By scheduling content ahead of time, visitors can find their way to the site while those responsible are on vacation. Tweetdeck helps schedule posts on Twitter and the Grum app for Instagram. Facebook has its own post-scheduling feature.
Basics of going to the site
The company’s contact information and a link to the website can be found on any social media channel.
The presentation of the company can be easily found in all channels used.
Each post comes with a clear call-to-action: “Check out the best Christmas deals on our site now!”
When directing visitors to the website, it should be ensured that the site is mobile-friendly. A special landing page can also be created for the content.
Basics of social media channels
Facebook is a helpful tool for brand building, customer service, and engagement. In Facebook, it’s also easy to target posts based on age or region, for example. Facebook appeals to a large number of users on countless devices, and it’s no longer just young people.
A good Facebook channel will have posts on a regular basis, usually several times a week. Not all posts have to contain their own content, it is also worth sharing interesting news from the industry on Facebook – in addition to lighter content. Discussions and sharing are supported with contests and calls. Updates that feature an image or a clear CTA tend to work best.
The Facebook followers are often more loyal customers or at least really interested users because they themselves have decided to make the company part of their everyday life. They should be rewarded for doing so with special offers, competitions, and awards.
Facebook’s algorithms have changed in recent years to favor paid content. That’s why boosting important posts with money is imperative so that they are at least displayed to your own likers.
In Facebook, traditional display and banner campaigns can also be easily created, which can also be used to link to your own website next to your own Facebook site, as in other online marketing campaigns.
Through Twitter, ads and news can be published, posts can be liked, shared, and discussed with users who use the service. Twitter is a channel for young people and is mainly used for professional reasons. Although it is used less frequently than Facebook, for example, some target groups (e.g. CEOs, marketing and communication professionals, and politicians) are strongly represented.
At a minimum, updates should use a hashtag that connects the post to the company so that social media users can easily find the company and website. It is also worth checking which hashtags are particularly popular in order to use them to participate in the discussions. Hashtags are also a tool for grouping materials together under the same topic, so users using similar hashtags can find previous posts under the hashtag and be directed to the site.
Twitter also offers the option of directing users of tweets or ads to the website – Twitter cards work particularly well.
Instagram lends itself to lighter marketing actions, it is an ever-growing channel that emphasizes visuals. High-quality and interesting images attract attention, stand out from the crowd and attract likes. In Instagram, however, the hashtags must also be taken into account because they make it possible to find the companies directly via the search. As with Twitter, it’s important to follow key industry figures.
Instagram is a very visual channel, so the link to the website should also be highlighted visually.
YouTube
Youtube has grown in popularity over the past few years. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures.
Via YouTube, it is possible to add a card link to the own, verified website to the videos, with which the user can easily be directed to the website. Especially CTAs in the middle of the videos have proven to be effective. Direct links to your own website can also be added in the video description and comments.
The videos should always show the URL of the company’s website and a route to the site. If this aligns with the rest of the video’s content, users can also be directed to the speaker’s activities.
LinkedIn is a service for networking. Users can add their CV to their profile, tell about themselves and their skills, and recommend and receive recommendations from previous employers. An important part of actions on LinkedIn is networking in groups and publishing expert articles and blog posts.
A service is an important tool if you want to gain visibility on the labor market, both from employers and employees, but also in B2B marketing. On the company side, LinkedIn is an important B2B marketing tool and represents a convincing way to reach people based on their job descriptions. High-quality articles about professional life are read the most on LinkedIn. If the company has a blog, employees should be encouraged to share the articles on their personal profiles.
Because the most important results in LinkedIn are the networks, the personal profiles of employees are in a key position alongside the company profile. Employees need instructions on how to use their own profile as a link to the company profile, website, and social media profiles. Some companies also use a uniform design for the profile and background images.
The other channels: Periscope, Snapchat, Pinterest…
New channels are constantly being published, which gain notoriety relatively quickly, such as Periscope and Snapchat recently. Although these channels don’t appeal to a broader audience, businesses can use them to find just the right audience that might or might be interested in the site, such as teenagers.
Periscope is an interaction-based service. Live videos can be broadcast and commented on via the channel. The service is owned by Twitter, which is why tweets can also be linked to video transmission. This is a way of directing users from Twitter and Periscope to the website. Of course, all ways that can be used in connection with video content can also be used: “Learn more about our other events in winter at www.event.com!” Even if the user group is small, the groups are very interested in live streaming options.
Snapchat is especially popular among young people, the app allows users to send pictures or videos to their followers or the “My Story” timeline where they are visible for a day. Snaps can be commented on. The service can also be used as a channel for exchanging messages. For example, information about the hottest offers in the online shop can be shared: “Only today -70% on all jeans!”. Because the news on Snapchat is very short-lived, many actions should be published for a long time. But with the right target group, companies achieve high results with their messages.
Pinterest is a social media service where various images and tips on topics of personal interest can be shared, followed, and organized into collections. The service is structured like a bulletin board, which users can use to search for interesting tips and save them on their own pinboard. Today it is mainly used by women in their 30s. Pinterest makes it easy to link to the website as links to the website can be added directly to the images. Normally, companies link directly to the product pages. On Pinterest, for example, many people put together shopping lists or furnishing ideas – and users can buy everything immediately with a click.
Now you know how to generate leads and new B2B contacts via social media.
But what do you do with those leads?
At some point, you want those leads to visit your website and other internet sources, where they can see more of your content, become avid readers or viewers, and eventually enter your sales funnel. The trick is: your social marketing should make sure that happens.
Just because you find prospective customers on Linkedin, Facebook, or Twitter doesn’t mean they’re seriously considering your product or service, unless specifically asked to do so. With a sophisticated social media management strategy, you can create an experience for your followers that automatically guides them to the services you offer – and thus increase your number of visits.
Visit counts are one of the key metrics impacting social ROI. In fact, Shareaholic reports that nearly a third of website visitors come from social media and counting. Because of this, social media traffic is something that B2B marketers definitely need to manage. Here are three ways you can increase your web traffic through your social marketing efforts:
Make your websites social media-friendly
Most likely you already have an internet presence. And if that’s the case, you also have texts on your pages that are intended to convincingly present your products and their advantages to interested parties. Chances are you’ve also created a lot of material for your company blog. But none of these things should exist in a vacuum. Even with the most careful SEO optimization, you must continuously draw attention to your web presence. And social media is often the perfect tool for this.
There are tons of potential buyers on social media every day and the companies that are there are pulling them to their websites, so why not you too? Your company can also be part of this – but first, your internet presence must be tailored to social media. And it works like this:
- Use share buttons for your blog content. Through these buttons, each reader can share your content with one click on the social networks of their choice. The result? Your future customer’s friends and business partners will see your content and maybe curious enough to click through.
- Include specific calls-to-action to share in your blog posts. It’s easy for readers to miss the share buttons, so make it very clear that sharing is encouraged. For example, some plugins encourage readers to “tweet” to share your content on Twitter, thereby increasing your visibility there. You should also consider plugins that prompt you to share with pop-ups or fly-overs.
- Allow comments – and reply to them. There are still corporate blogs that incorrectly block readers’ comments. Of course, dealing with spammers can be a bit exhausting, but you still want future customers to respond to your content so that a relationship can develop over time.
- Link to your profiles or discussion groups naturally within your content. If you can manage to have ongoing and natural discussions with (prospective) customers via your social channels, you can occasionally subtly hint at this in your blog posts. At the right time and place, casually mention that there are also private discussion groups on the topic on LinkedIn, Google+, or similar platforms, or link to a popular post with a high response rate.
- Share your links to social networks anywhere. Social links aren’t just for your blog posts. Inform your customers and future customers in every piece of content that you make available that you are also represented on social media. Ways to do this are through links next to videos, in email newsletters, in infographics, or other publications. Always remember the more social followers you can engage, the more links you will create to your content.
Determine from the start that all your websites will be connected to your social media presence, including for all your branches. Not only because future customers want and expect it, but because your standing in the social networks is integrated into an overall system that directs future customers to your website.
Use your posts in a targeted manner to generate more web traffic
Once you’ve connected your website to your social profiles, it’s time for the next step: look at your posts and make sure they bring followers to your page.
Of course, you aim to achieve a good mix of active participation and simply having your brand on the network, while continuously driving followers into your sales funnel through your website. Nonetheless, here are a few tips on how to be sure to use social posts to drive traffic your way:
- Leverage social posts in familiar communities to drive traffic to restricted content. Through your supporting material – be it eBooks, white papers or informative research reports – you will get your followers to invest more in your brand and see you as an industry leader. But how do readers get this material? Through a social post that takes them to your respective landing page. Take a look at your social media calendar and focus on including posts that target restricted content. If you are really brave, you generate special content that can only be accessed via social media. Before doing so, however, look at your customer profiles and the best-performing social platforms in terms of engagement and conversion rates to decide if the idea is worth it.
- Leverage keywords. By using keywords and key phrases in your social content, you can help interested readers find you through networks’ search engines (not to mention the SEO benefits you’ll glean along the way). This can increase traffic on your social networks. On Facebook, you can search for specific industry-related terms and see which ones are currently the most popular. This will simultaneously uncover keywords you might want to use in your content and future customers to connect with. For Twitter, sites like org let you sort hashtags by popularity so you can see at a glance which relevant hashtags are getting the most traffic.
- Use advertising. Social media ads are a direct way to get traffic to your website. If your goal is to drive social traffic to a particular store, use images that, combined with a relevant caption, will draw your prospective customers’ attention to the post.
Optimize your website and social strategy based on your results
If you’ve followed all the tips, your website is now connected to your social profiles in every possible way, and your leads couldn’t miss it even if they tried their best. You also have some results related to social media posts that are specifically designed to drive leads to your site. Now it’s time to optimize both.
The first thing you should do is look at your website again to see whether it is suitable for converting prospects into prospective buyers and ultimately into customers. Use website analytics to find out which blog posts are performing best and which websites are getting the most traffic. From this you can derive which content is best received and write more of this content and on these topics in the future. Additionally, it’s always useful to run A/B tests on your web copy, specific elements of your landing pages, and other aspects of your website – to make sure every detail is as efficient as it should be from a conversion-driven tool should, can expect.
When it comes to evaluating social media ROI, there are three useful metrics (among many) that you should pay special attention to:
- Social Traffic: Put simply, your social traffic numbers tell you which social posts are bringing the most traffic to your website – and more importantly, how much
- Click-through rate: This metric shows you which posts are getting the most clicks. Are there posts that, contrary to your expectations, hardly get any attention? You might want to tweak the headline, add a catchy photo, or change something else that resonates with your followers.
- Conversion: Every good marketer knows what a lead is worth to them. By tracking conversions from the social channel, you can determine exactly how many leads – and how much money – social media is generating for you.
A highly effective social media analytics tool (especially one that can ‘talk’ to your marketing automation platform) is your perfect partner for assessing the impact of social media on your web traffic.
Increase social traffic and prove that the promises of social media are true.
When you increase the amount of qualified and targeted web traffic, you make yourself popular as the one who ran an effective digital marketing initiative. But if you can show that the traffic is coming from the social media channel, you provide hard-earning evidence that social media marketing is valuable. Leads become customers and the company’s sales increase. And with enough “marketing elbow grease,” social traffic can become a sure-fire success in driving your brand’s growth.
Conclusion
So there you have it – a few tips on how to generate website traffic from social media. By following these tips, you can increase your traffic and conversions, and prove the ROI of social media marketing.
Social media gives you the right tools to connect with your audience, and when used correctly, can be an extremely effective way to drive traffic to your website.
If you want to reach your goals, you have to put in the work – but with a little effort, you can see some great results.
With these tips, you can start generating website traffic from social media.
We also have a helpful guide that goes more in-depth on how to increase website traffic from social media if you need more help.
