4 Benefits of Pushing Traffic to Your Social Media Channels

Millennials know it best — social media is the top communication tool and it’s here to stay. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr. They all share the same purpose, to connect millions of people for entertainment and information sharing. There is no doubt these engagement channels are the best way to get your content in front of your desired audience, and you’ve worked diligently on your company website and it’s social media channels to do just that. You’ve built a steady following and have the engaging content to share — so where should you send those followers?

Your website is a wonderful place to host and archive articles, but it should not be the only place that content sits. Social media is the fastest growing and quickest way to get desired eyes on your information, and it’s this reason you should have a plan behind it.

Driving Followers to Social Media Channels

There is something to be said about social media and website visitors. According to a report by Shareaholic and reported on by Forbes, social media is the No. 1 driver of website traffic. Active users are clicking on your links shared via Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or Google+ and investigating your article, and then your website. This is why it’s so important to have an active and reachable social media outlet. The days of Googling or directly typing in a URL are in the rearview mirror. People are searching on Facebook for a company and jumping to websites from there.

1. Getting Those Shares and Retweets Matters

One of the biggest reasons sending users to a social media account rather than your company website is simple: shares. I’m not talking shares in your stock, I’m talking Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ shares and Twitter retweets. It’s understandable that your strategy for content is to bring visitors to your website, but by allowing such easy access for your followers to share your content with their followers increases your visibility. You already have a following, so why not use them to your advantage while trying to convince them to use your product? Now answer this question, would you be more likely to share an article from a website or an article that is already easily shareable on your social media account? The latter is easily the most popular.

2. Social Allows You to Better Create a Conversation

Social media offers real time conversations. Once you post something, it’s immediately available for commentary from your audience and their followers. This gives you, the company, an opportunity to create a two-way conversation. By doing this, your audience immediately sees your interest in pleasing them — positive impressions lead to more “likes.” Twitter has some great tips for getting your content retweeted — and it all starts with a social media communication plan.

Twitter also offers opportunities to “live tweet” events your company is participating in or sponsoring. This engages your followers and gives your social media channel some personality. See how the United Nations Foundation live tweets their Champion Summit event — retweeting those interested and posting relevant quotes from speakers. This gives your Twitter a voice and a great way to interact with followers or future followers. It’s also a great way to brand your company and the events you host or attend.

3. You Can Work with Partners to Cross-promote

Social media also allows a company to easily cross-promote with partners and investors. Following a “I’ll share yours if you share mine” mentality. This not only reinforces the positivity of your company working hand-in-hand with other partner organizations, it creates a stronger bond with those companies. Plus, you’ll get more eyeballs on your content from that organization’s followers and vice-versa.

4. Share Content Multiple Times

The great thing about social media is it’s fast-paced. People scroll through Facebook or Twitter so quickly, they wouldn’t know if your content is fresh or reused. So feel free to post the same content a few times within the first week of its publish date. Followers who missed it the first time will see it the second or third, getting you more “likes,” “shares” and “retweets.” So, share on, my friends.

Remember to Avoid Spamming Your Followers

The best way to do multiple shares without spamming your audience and possibly losing followers is to create a balanced social media schedule. Take the time to do market research.

• What does your social media timeline look like?
• What do companies you follow do well? Not so well?
• Who is your audience?
• What can you adjust to ensure you aren’t overcrowding your timeline?

Answering some of these questions will point you in the right direction for an appropriate social media schedule. Take into account the differences between social media channels. Twitter has a quick content rollover time (post to Twitter the most). Facebook is much less; you share messages in between your repeating content to keep the page fresh. Google+ isn’t as popular as Facebook or Twitter, so keep that in mind. You also want to keep in mind that you’ll have the same followers on multiple platforms, so spread out the timing of posts on each channel.

Always change up the messaging. Can you imagine a new possible audience member visiting your Facebook page and seeing the same repeating message and link? I’d assume you don’t have new and interesting content. So, change the voice — be casual the first time around or maybe share important statistics from the article. Make sure to change up the visuals as well. In this step, successful social media channels keep audience in mind — write to your audience, not what you would want to see.

So in the end, it’s important to take the time to create social media accounts that have the proper voice for your company and keep it active. The more you post, the more people will see and the more people see, the more clicks you’ll get.

Republished by permission. Original here.

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This article, "4 Benefits of Pushing Traffic to Your Social Media Channels" was first published on Small Business Trends