Boasting 3 billion active users, social media platforms are increasingly becoming the go-to for consumers to discover, connect, and engage with brands. As a result, businesses are consistently leveraging these social networks to drive fresh traffic to their websites, blog posts, and landing pages.
Yet, many marketers still face the challenge of generating traffic from their social media marketing. Even with all the proven tactics available such as paid advertising, social video, and visuals, successfully increasing web traffic using social networks can be futile if not executed correctly.
Traffic generation takes more than simply posting a link and hoping it gets noticed on social. You must implement a plan that focuses on quality messages, a steady posting schedule, and being engaging to keep people visiting your content and website.
The following guide outlines an actionable social media marketing plan that will boost website traffic, social engagement and brand awareness for your inbound strategy.
#1 Write Engaging Social Media Messages
Publishing quality-rich content on social media is a must in capturing attention and increasing your organic reach. Gone are the days where a high number of posts shared dictated your social media success. Today’s algorithms focus on engagement signals from followers, rewarding you with greater reach on your subsequent posts if people are interacting with your existing content.
Therefore, writing engaging social media messages is key to increasing visibility, getting in front of your audience, and driving favorable behaviors such as comments, shares, and clicks.
Here are a few proven ways to creating winning social content to capture attention and move followers to interact with your posts:
- Write a variety of headlines for one piece of content so you can promote it multiple of times (more on this later)
- Ask close-ended questions that force people to answer “yes” or “no” to generate quick engagement
- Share key benefits followers will receive when clicking on your link. What’s in it for them? Be clear and concise in your headline
- Post valuable nuggets from your content that your audience finds helpful
- Include keywords that your followers are actively searching for to increase visibility of your content
- Tailor your content appropriately so it appeals to the network you’re posting to. Refrain from using a cookiecutter approach that shares the same message across your social channels. Rather, modify your content so it caters to the followers on that platform
#2 Share Eye-Catching, Visually Appealing Content
Visuals are the currency on social media. In fact, Hubspot shares visual content is 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. Whether it’s an infographic, video or photo, adding a visual piece increases the likelihood of users interacting with your post.
Yet, marketers are aware of this fact. The key to standing out amongst the crowd is sharing eye-catching, visually appealing content that compels people to stop, look and engage. Remember, quality tops quantity. So, invest time crafting great images that highlight your brand, culture and personality.
These visuals are shown to perform incredibly well on social:
- Infographics are the #1 most shared media in the world. Easily create your own using Canva or Infogr.am
- Live videos are viewed 3 times longer than prerecorded ones. They quickly build trust and offer a way to engage with your audience in real-time. It’s the perfect tool to drive traffic to your website
- Multi-image posts are great for standing out. Many platforms support them so use them to creatively relay your content
- Info-images that offer how-to’s, stats and helpful tips right in the graphic are highly useful for your social strategy
#3 Create a Schedule for Posting on Social Media
With your social message written and an attractive visual to complement, it’s time to create a schedule to maximize your content’s reach and visibility. Most businesses only promote their content once or twice, believing that anything more will make them appear spammy or redundant.
This is far from the truth… particularly since the shelflife of content on social media is short. Many of your followers simply aren’t seeing your posts because the space is increasingly competitive. Promoting your content multiple times is a top solution to getting more views and engagement. The key is ensuring that you use a different headline each time to offer a new insight or angle to your content.
Therefore, use an editorial calendar like Google Calendar or CoSchedule to organize, plan and publish your content. As stated, write 10-15 different headlines for one content piece and schedule them throughout your calendar.
Create a process that you can repeat to streamline workflow and remain consistent. This step alone will add a significant boost to your website traffic and social engagement.
#4 Follow the Recommended Posting Frequency on Each Network
Having an understanding of how often to post on social media helps you maintain an active presence and consistently stay in front of your audience. You’ll strategically increase brand awareness, cement authority in your space, and prompt more users to click on your content.
According to a recent study, the following outlines the recommended posting frequency for each major social media network:
- Facebook – 1 post daily
- Instagram – 1-2 posts daily
- Twitter – 15 tweets daily
- LinkedIn – 1 post daily
- Pinterest – 11 pins daily (at least 9 are repins)
- Google+ – 3 posts weekly
Although this is a good guide to follow, it’s important to review your own analytics to discover your followers’ behavior and engagement across your social channels.
Staying in tune to what your audience favors positions you to create the perform posting formula that yields results every time.
#5 Be Social
The final tip to boost your website traffic from social media is actually being social on your networks. It’s not enough to simply post content and walk away, hoping people will interact.
Followers desire responses on their comments and content just as much as your brand desires the same.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you by sharing, commenting, and liking your follower’s content.
Designate team members to spend time replying back to all comments, using social media management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to help you monitor social conversations. You’ll find these personalized experiences will keep people coming back to your pages, driving more eyeballs to your content and links.
Conclusion
A solid social media marketing plan can accelerate your traffic generation, positioning you for more leads and sales.
By using each step accordingly, not only will you experience a surge in new website visitors, but you’ll notice a hike in social engagement, brand awareness, and visibility.
