Social Media

  • How to Grow Your Business on Instagram

    Instagram has over five hundred million daily active users who use the platform to check in on friends, discover interesting and inspiring people and also many entrepreneurs grow their business on Instagram.

    As of October 2021, more than half of Instagram users, 52 percent, were male and 48.4 percent were female. As of July 2021, more than 30 percent of Instagram users in the United States were between 25 and 34 years old according to Statista.

    You can find anything on Instagram from product reviews, tutorials, and even cool recipes. That is why this platform is so popular.

    Here are the top reasons people choose Instagram for their business.

    Instagram is free and easy to use

    Instagram has a simple user interface that is intuitive and efficient. The social network requires little input from users; it’s only necessary to post pictures and videos every now and then, which is what makes it so convenient.

    However, if you are using it for business you may want to build an effective marketing strategy.

    It helps you to connect with your customers

    When your customers trust you, they are more likely to buy from you. Instagram is a visual platform that allows customers to see your products in detail.

    When potential customers can see what they are paying for, it builds that “know”, “like”, and “trust factor” with your customer. This simplifies communication when the customer has questions about your product.

    Building rapport will increase sales when done correctly. Be genuine when communicating with your customers on social media so they know there is a human connected to the sales process.

    Use hashtags on Instagram

    Using hashtags will help people find your page and see what you’re posting about. On Instagram, you can use up to thirty hashtags in one post and ten on Stories.

    When choosing what hashtag to use, make sure you use keywords that are relevant to your company.  It is also helpful to identify popular hashtags that are being used by other companies in your field.  

    This will help grow your follower base and increase the number of likes on posts.

    It helps to build brand awareness

    Instagram is critical in generating brand awareness. Nine out of ten Instagram users in the United States were aware of a specific brand in the last three months and seventy-five percent of millennials say that social media influences their buying decisions.

    Brands can take advantage of this by advertising their products and services to potential customers who are already engaged within the social network.

    The social network also has a mobile app available for iOS and Android, meaning you can use the platform on-the-go and access it from any location at any time.

    Use the platform to promote your business

    Instagram, for many companies, is the perfect photo-based social media platform. When it comes to photo editing, everything is available with just a touch of your finger – no need for any elaborate editing software package.

    Although platforms like Canva do have a really nice integration for Instagram and other social platforms.

    With features like “Shop Now” buttons and “Follow” banners that display when people scroll down their feed, Instagram offers businesses easy access to potential customers.

    Use of third-party apps

    Worried you won’t be able to keep up with your engagement? There are many third-party apps that will help you grow your following quickly without spending hours each day on the app.

    These tools are designed for businesses looking to increase their reach on social media in order to generate more sales leads or brand awareness.

    You can use a tool like Iconosquare to track how many followers you have gained over time, where they come from, and which posts get the most engagement.

    In conclusion, keep in mind when using Instagram that it doesn’t matter if some posts don’t work out – just keep going! The key is trying new things and giving your audience something, they want.

    Experiment with several types of posts, post at various times, use hashtags differently, etc. This way you can find what’s most appealing for them which will lead to more followers on the platform as well as increased sales from advertising or marketing campaigns.

    Need help with your social media marketing? Contact us, we’d be glad to help.

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  • Ideas for Visual Marketing in 2018

    What Is Visual Marketing?

    To be successful at creative visual marketing it’s important to understand what it means, how it works, and the tools that you need to make it work. That’s why it’s called “creative” and in 2018 that’s what audiences are looking for.

    We know that most people are visually oriented. According to David Hyerle, the brain can absorb 36,000 images every minute and 80-90 percent of information received from the brain is through the eyes. Wow, if that isn’t mind blowing. Keep in mind that the brain is a visual organ. So, to me it just makes since that using visual marketing should be a key factor in our marketing mix.

    Creative Visual Marketing

    Visual marketing allows us to use a variety of design elements, graphics, photographs and videos to tell the story of our brands. The visual cues we use to tell that story will help make our brand more memorable to everyone who views the information. No wonderful live streaming and broadcasting has become so popular and keeps growing.

    Pictures tell stories in ways that words cannot. Pictures combined with text will make your story come to life in a new way. Marketing is all about communicating a detailed message to a specific audience. And today’s online tools can help you create very effective images to help complete your marketing story and gain momentum online.

    There are free or low-cost options to help you integrate visual eye candy. There is Canva, PicMonkey or Stencil.

    https://getstencil.com


    Anytime you have the chance to include images in your marketing − whether it’s your social media profile, your website, your blog, or an advertisement, do so and give a lot of thought to every image that you put on your marketing material.

    Using visual prompts helps tell your story and will attract the people in your audience who are interested in the topic but who don’t want to read a long text-based story. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If this is the case, the graphic images you show will enable you to tell your audience a thousand words of information with just a simple glance from them. Keep in mind that a lot of people skim what they are reading these days.

    Plus, when you use graphics, photos, and/or video with your text information, blog posts, and sales pages, you make it easier and more likely that others will share the information via social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. In addition, it makes it easier for the search engines to locate the information due to the tags you place with the images. So be sure to use tags!

    Using all the visually creative marketing material that you can craft will help you get information out to more people, because they will be more likely to share something that is great to look at.

    Types of Visual Marketing

    There are many types of visual marketing that you can choose from such as:

    [ez_two]

    • Banners
    • Blog posts
    • Books
    • Brochures
    • Business cards
    • Direct mail
    • Flyers
    • Games
    • Giveaways
    • Graphics
    • Infographics
    • Kiosks

    [/ez_two]
    [ez_two_last]

    • Letters
    • Live Streaming
    • Newsletters
    • Postcards
    • Premiums (tote bags, cups, shirts)
    • Presentations
    • Press releases
    • Social networking campaigns
    • Screen casting
    • Webinars
    • Widgets
    • YouTube videos

    [/ez_two_last]

    Creative Visual Marketing

    Depending on the marketing channel you’re using, you’ll use one or more of these visual marketing tactics. If you can figure out a way to add visual interest to every marketing campaign, you’ll experience more success and reach your goals faster than if you don’t.

    So, let’s look at how to stand out visually and best practices.

    Stand Out Visually

    Choosing the right images can make your content and marketing stand out better than plain textual content. You can use creative copy, gorgeous typography and graphical images that bring your content to life, and draw the eye through the copy quickly.

    • White Space – When you create anything graphical and textual it’s imperative to include plenty of white space by using bullets, spacing, and the right fonts. Choose images wisely and for a reason. Every word and every image should have a “why” for being in your marketing material.
    • Color – It might take a little research into your target audience to figure out which colors will get the most positive reaction. You may want to cause emotions to come forth in your audience that only color can elicit. But, every audience is different, so it’ll take some research, understanding and testing to pick the right colors.
    • Contrast – The more ways that you can make your call to action stand out from the rest of the copy and images, the better. By using contrast such as black/white, white/gray, or other colors that contrast but do not cause your audience’s retinas to burn, you can create the view you want to attract your audience’s eyes where you want them.
    • Surprise – Most people today are practically blind to advertisements, and anything that wants to sell them something. The way to overcome this ad blindness is to use visuals to surprise the viewer. Change the fonts; make the CTA stand out such that your audience cannot miss it.
    • Encapsulation – Use robust, vibrant shapes to highlight your call to action or anything you want to draw interest to. Put your call to action inside a highlighted, outlined box, or other form that will enclose it to draw attention to it.
    • Arrows – Using directional cues will also help draw the reader’s eye toward the information that you want them to see. Anytime you want your reader to imagine the future or some destination in the future, for example, you could show a picture of a road that will take them on a trip.

    We looked at what creative visual marketing is and its value for our future marketing efforts online.  The psychological factor and how the brain works in absorbing visual information. We also looked at how pictures tell stories and when combined with text attract readers attention. And we know that visually appealing images results in more social media shares.

    Also, we looked at the different types of visual marketing options and how we can engage the reader’s imagination with our marketing efforts through well-known visual cues that help your reader get to the mindset that you want. And over time, as you study your audience, you’ll come to know what types of visual cues will work best with them.

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  • Live Streaming and Business

    The History of Live Streaming

     

    Live streaming

    Live streaming is touted to be one of the ‘big new deals’ when it comes to digital marketing. There has never been something quite like this and the rate at which it has grown in even the first few months is rather remarkable.

    Experts speculate that live streaming is going to be massive, but we don’t have to speculate. All you have to do is to take a look at the statistics which make it rather clear just what a big deal live streaming is going to be!

    Did you know for instance that Periscope has already managed to accrue a very impressive 10,000,000 user accounts?

    And did you know that if you combined all the footage ever recorded on the platform, it would take you over 40 years to watch all of it? 2 million people log in every single day, distributed across 25 countries! And when you consider how big Facebook is (it has more users than the population of any country in the world); it’s easy to imagine that live streaming is about to explode in an even bigger way!

     

    Where it All Began

     

    But where did this all begin? It may surprise some to realize that Periscope actually wasn’t the first live streaming site to make it big. Instead, that accolade belongs to Meerkat, which launched in March 2015. Back then it was known as ‘AIR’ and ‘Yevvo’ and it was immediately apparent that this was going to be a big game changer in social media marketing.

    At first, Twitter helped this success and worked closely with Meerkat. Shortly after though, the company clearly decided they needed their own contender in this new space; which is when they bought the then-small Periscope for a sum of $100 million!

     

    Facebook’s Entry

     

    Facebook From there, Facebook decided to get involved and rolled out an experimental live service for its best-known members aka celebrities. In December 2015, this was extended across Android and iOS devices, and later it made its way across the pond.

    And Facebook is currently taking this movement very seriously, stating that live video enjoys much more engagement compared to other types of video, and that they imagine a time where one-day video is the primary form of content. The ranking algorithm that dictates what gets seen on the home feed has been tweaked to prefer live video and marketers everywhere are getting excited.

    Newer features are coming into the service all the time and in short – this is a very good time to be involved with Facebook Live.

     

    So what are you waiting for? Need more information on how to be successful with Facebook Live? Check out our eBook product, “How to Successfully Use Facebook Live” which comes with some awesome bonuses. 

    Also, check out our event page for upcoming “Facebook Live” training. 

    Facebook Live

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  • Have you started Blabbing?

    Blab front page

    Blab.im came out in the Spring of 2015 and it has hit the ground running. It’s growing in popularity daily. If you haven’t started Blabbing you probably will. Whether it’s listening to others Blab or doing your own Blab Show.

     

    I have to say this platform is HOT and I love it. It has brought the social back to social media. It also allows you to instantly network with people all over the world. Providing you with opportunities that you may not get at a regular networking event.

     

    It’s easy to watch a Blab. All you need is a link. You don’t have to join anything. However, if you do join you might be able to participate in the conversation and meet some really interesting new people, get answers to your questions or give answers and highlight your expertise.

    It’s easy to start an account. You can sign up with your Twitter account. You don’t have to use the same bio info but you can. You can always start with that and change the information later.

    Blab ID

    Here is the screen shot of what a replay looks like on Blab.im. It’s really easy to watch. Obviously, you can’t participate in a Blab conversation but you can leave a comment.

     

    Bkab Replay

    Blabs are categorized by tags. Each Blab has three tag options to make them easier to find. You can also look Blabbers up by name and the search will take you to that person’s participation in Blabs.

    Blab Tags
    I would recommend watching other Blabs first before doing your own so that you feel comfortable with the platform. Once you are ready you can do a Blab by using the category called “First Blab”. This will give you a way to setup your audio and camera if you haven’t already. On thing to keep in mind is that unlike Google Hangouts you are LIVE streaming the minute you activate your Blab.

    I hope you find Blab as Blabalicious as I do. 🙂

     

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  • Networking for Potential Clients

    Networking for Potential Clients
    Networking may be one of the oldest forms of advertising…

      
    Traditionally, with this approach business people  attend designated “networking meetings” where they  meet other people and exchange business cards in the hope that one of the people they talked to would send some clients their way.   Some people may look at it as an “Old School” method but networking done effectively can still work. It’s about building relationships and taking that initial introduction to the next level.

     

    Other business people have realized that networking can be done anywhere, not just at designated meetings.  These people often carry business cards with them at all times and may strike up a conversation with the person in front of them in line at the grocery store or sitting next to them at the Little League game.

    The Internet of course has taken networking to a whole different level…

     

    Now people are turning to social networking sites in order to meet new potential business partners and clients. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus are providing us with the means to connect with people from all over the World and not just in our backyard.

     

    It doesn’t matter which form it takes place in, networking is essentially a way of marketing your business through building relationships with other people.  Some of these people may turn into your clients, some may be a source of clients, and others may actually become future business partners.

    Networking for Potential Clients

    Networking has many benefits…

    Generally speaking, it is a free or low cost activity.  It can take up some of a person’s time, but other than that, there really isn’t a huge cost unless you’re traveling to a conference.  It is important to note that some networking groups do require a membership fee, but it is very easy to find many free networking opportunities if that is your goal.

     

    In many circumstances, a networking situation will lead to word of mouth advertising, which is extremely valuable.  For example, if a web designer meets someone through a networking group or through a social networking platform and establishes a connection, that person may recommend them to several people they know on a personal level.

    I’ve had great success in networking in person and online. I have found that joining groups in LinkedIn and Facebook has provided me with great strategic partners and allowed me to increase my bottom line by featuring my business knowledge thru posts. Being a giver and helping others goes a long way with getting future referrals. 

    Advertising…

     

    As you know, when someone sees an ad they take it with a grain of salt.  They know it is advertising.  But when someone receives a recommendation from a person they know and trust, they often follow that person’s recommendation and buy the services or products that have been recommended to them.

     

    Whether done face to face or over the Internet, it does take time to build relationships with other people.  Some easy ways to get things started may be to spark up a conversation about something you have in common with the other person, or to offer help or advice to them.

     

    The effects of networking may not be seen overnight, but over time a person will start to receive calls or emails from potential customers saying that they were referred by so-and-so.  This lets the person know that their networking has paid off.

    So I challenge you to go out and do some networking. If it’s in person and you don’t like to go by yourself go with a friend. If you are brave go solo. Create a plan before you go if possible on who you want to connect with. Ask for introductions.  

    If you’re braver on the Internet take that route. Step outside your comfort zone and meet new people.

    I love networking with my blog followers so please leave me your comments and connect with me on social media.  

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  • A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

    A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
    You’ve heard the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  Now, more than ever images are more important in your marketing plan.

    We live in a visual world. We make decisions based on what we see. Images appeal to our emotions.

    Content may be king, but images are queen.  With networks like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, images are shared instantly from your smartphone.

    Visual content including photos, videos and graphs, have been proven to grab the attention of your readers and are more likely to be shared than text alone. As a marketer, images can help you build effective and shareable selling campaigns.

    Of course, you don’t want to just throw random images into your marketing mix. You need relevant and professional looking images that engage and help communicate what you are trying to say?

    The 3 basics of creating effective visual content should be:

    • The style and type of image needs to be consistent throughout your all your products. That doesn’t mean all your images have to be photographs or clip art. What I mean is you should be keeping a consistent color and font style.
    • Know your target market. Knowing who your target market is and their preferences will help you determine where and what types of images to use.
    • Think outside the normal. Be creative in your use of images. Go ahead and change images, add text to photos or combine images.

     

    A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

    Where can you use images?

    Full length articles need images to break up big chunks of text. Images can be used in your branding and logo. Use images in your social media channels to make it more interesting.

    Use images online in your website and offline in any advertising or conferences you participate in.

    Images are clearly a major part of buying behavior because they grab attention and evoke emotions in your buyers.

     

     

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  • How to be a Social Media Influencer

    Many people think that building a huge following on social media is all it takes to become a successful influencer. There is actually a lot more to this than you may realize.

    how to be an influencer on social mediaWhile it may be easy for you to create a new Facebook fan page and build a following of thousands of fans, what you need is active followers. An active follower or fan is someone who takes the time to comment and share your content. It is this activity that the major sites like Klout and Kred take into consideration when measuring your influence.

    It is possible to get your fans and followers to engage with you by following some simple steps. First remember that social media is about sharing content. While your main goal may be to have others share your content, this will not happen unless you share theirs first.

    Another aspect that you want to master is the one of listening. Listen and read the comments that your fans post and then take action on them. By doing this you are actually showing them that you are interested in what they have to say. This will help you build trust and respect amongst your followers and in turn this will improve your power of influence.

    Always remember to be yourself when using social media and don’t try to come over as you think people want you to. You should know what your brandhow to be a social media influencer is and what message you are trying to convey to people.  This places you in an honest light and again helps to build trust with your customers. After all you want to be someone who your customers can happily do business with.

    When it comes to adding content to your social media sites then always aim for quality content first. When having any type of social media conversation it is best to have one great conversation with one person than to try and have a mediocre one with ten or twenty people at one time.

    Social media is meant to be fun so don’t forget to include this in your business. You don’t always have to be serious. Exposing a fun side will not hurt your business at all. Instead it will make you look more human and friendly to your followers and more approachable.

    So instead of worrying about how to become the next best social influencer, just get out there and inject your personality into your sites. You may be surprised by what happens. And remember to have fun!

    If you are your looking for assistance with your social media influence please feel free to reach out to me. I understand what it’s like to struggle with the constant changes that happen in our fast paced business world and I’d be glad to be your guide. 

    http://my.vcita.com/d802bba6/scheduler

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  • Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    One of the best things about online marketing is the advent of social media. Social media lets you promote your content, expand awareness of your brand, and engage with your clients and potential customers. But you can’t just send blind updates without doing just a bit more to ensure that your audience wants to engage with you. Getting your audience to respond to your calls to action is all about engagement. After all, social media is supposed to be social, right?

    Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    1. Update Your About Pages &  Social Media Profiles

    First things first – start updating your “About” pages on your websites, and all your social media profiles. You want there to be no mistake what your brand stands for, and who you are. In addition, every change you make is a chance to cross-promote on other social media. Your About pages, Contact pages and Social Media profiles are great places to cross promote.

    2. Provide a Blurb of What’s to Come When Promoting Content

    When you share any content, whether yours or someone else’s, always provide a little blurb to help pique interest and make your audience curious. For instance, if you’re sharing a Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media article, you might say something like “Pay special attention to tip number 2” in your promotions. This will make your audience want to click through to read the blog post or article. In addition, ask them “What’s your favorite tip? Come back and share here in the comments.”

    Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    3. Use Multiple Types & Forms of Content to Keep Your Audience’s Interest

    Don’t only share one type or form of content. There are so many forms of content to choose from, such as images, text, eBooks, articles, blog posts, infographics, memes, videos and so forth. There are also many types of content (such as evergreen content) that will be current for a long time, and then there is newsworthy timely content that you will want to share as soon as it occurs. Keep your audience interested by being exciting and different.

    4. Never Forget Your Call To Action (CTA)

    When you share anything on social media, always remember to put a CTA. It’s also important to vary the CTA. For instance, sometimes you might say, “share this with your friends” another time you might say “comment if you disagree, like if you agree” or you might say “buy now” as your CTA. Whatever you choose as your CTA, don’t overwhelm your audience with too many choices. But always include one, and make it different than the last time.

    Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    5. Show Off Your Personality (Let Your Helpers Do So Too)

    Consumers want to feel as if they’re engaging with real people. Since you’re a real person that should be easy. But, we often get so tied up with automation (which is wonderful and useful) that we forget to engage with people. If you outsource to anyone who is handling your social media, they don’t need to act like robots. Let them show their personality too. Keep your business’s mission statement handy not only for yourself but for those who represent your brand. As long as you stay on message, it’s okay to let your personality show through.

    6. Use Your Metrics To Improve Your Efforts

    What posts, updates, and sorts of shares are your fans currently interacting with the most? By knowing what the numbers say, you can use that information to increase your efforts in a smart way so that you avoid doing what isn’t working, and do more of what is working. Not every audience will respond the same to every type of content that you share. But it’s impossible to know without looking at the analytics. When is your audience online? What types of content do they like, share, respond to the most? Never rely on guesses; rely on the facts and figures that you can obtain.

    Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    7. Use Apps & Technology to Improve Your Connections

    There are so many apps that you can use to schedule, study, and interact with your audience. Did you know that there are custom apps that you can use for Facebook that will help you run contests, encourage email sign ups, add a storefront and more? Try Heyo to create mobile optimized campaigns for Facebook. Want to create useful Facebook Tabs, awesome cover photos, scheduled posts and more? Try Pagemodo.com. There are apps that can do so much, the best thing for you to do is ask your colleagues what they use, or simply do a Google search.

    8. Keep Conversing With Your Audience

    Speaking of apps, you can put apps on your smartphone that enable you to speak with your audience at all times. You want to talk to them at “off” times as much as “on” times. You might seem too robotic if you only post on Monday through Friday during business hours. It’s also great to post from different locations; it shows that you’re a busy person who nevertheless cares about your audience. Be sure to use some automation for this, such as using apps to schedule weekend updates.

    Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    9. Add the Right Metadata to Your Websites & Pages

    Metadata is information that essentially summarizes data on your site, like the title, description, author, date and other things such as identifying images and more. The thing to remember is which metadata is important to include on your website so that when you share a link on social media the right information is presented in an attractive way. This will make your audience want to click through.

    a. Titles – This is the keyword rich title of your article or blog post. On Facebook, it will show up in bold above the link.

    b. Description – This shows up under the link and is usually the first words of your article or blog post that are NOT header text.

    c. Image – You can use the code of your page to specify the images that are allowed to show up in the thumbnail.

    d. Canonical URL – Within the code of the site you can ensure that everyone goes to the same home page when clicking through to your site.

    It’s important to consider these factors when creating your WebPages and blogs so that when you or others share articles or blog posts they find interesting on their social media sites, it looks good and gets the message across that you want.

    10. Ask Your Fans What They Want

    Finally, never forget to ask your current fans, connections, and followers what they want from you. You can send out a survey, answer questions, and more to find out what your connections what. The more you give them what they want, the more they’re likely to engage with you in social media.

    Use social media to communicate the story of your brand. As you use these top ten ways to engage your audience in social media, try to remember what your business core values are, what the benefits of your products and services are to your clients, and your point of being on social media.

    Top 10 Ways that You Can Engage Your Clients thru Social Media

    Let us help you brand your business. Visit our services area on our site to find out how we can make YOUR BUSINESS more visible and unique. If you don’t see a service that you need let us know how we can help you GROW your business.

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  • 10 Ways that Social Media Can Drive Traffic to Your Website

    When you realize that the entire point of social media is to drive traffic to your website, which should be the center of your online marketing world, you start to use social media correctly. Social media is not supposed to be the destination of your followers. No, social media should only be the beginning of a long relationship that involves sharing, interacting, learning, and engaging.

     

    Use social media to remind followers to visit your website for more information, products and services. Use social media as a way to listen to what your audience wants. Use social media as the method by which you become an important industry expert from whom your audience seeks information. The following tips are used by industry experts, large organizations and businesses alike to drive traffic from social media to their websites. No need to reinvent the wheel, these ten tips work.

     

    1) Become a Thought Leader

    It may seem strange that the more popular you can become off the Internet, the more popular you will be on the Internet and the more people will connect with you, follow you, and then go to your website. Spread yourself around, write for other popular blogs, magazines, and newsletters then cross promote. Accept speaking engagements outside of the Internet but record them, and put them on YouTube.com, embed the recordings or links on your site, and share via social media. Write a book, and use that as your calling card.

    2) Create an Interactive Community

    People love to talk to each other about issues that affect them. If you really want to offer a huge benefit to your customers and potential customers, form a community around them. Create a message board that is interactive and generates a lot of visitor activity and participation. Promote the board, which will promote your website – thus gathering not only more traffic the first time you promote the forum, but if it’s active people will also come back again and again.

    10 Ways that Social Media Can Drive Traffic to Your Website

    3) Don’t Forget SEO

    Search engine optimization is a very important component in any online marketing strategy. Optimize for social media by including the right keywords, the right metadata, and including information about images, content, and more, so that you can be found. Remember to focus on both on-page and off-page SEO for best results.

     

     

    4) Engage on Social Media

    You can’t just open a social media account, fill out a profile, start blasting updates and expect any results unless maybe you already have celebrity status. You need to start with a plan, understand your goals, choose your tactics, and then seek to engage with others on social media to ensure that your plans happen and your goals are met.

     

    5) Listen to the Buzz

    A really great way to use social media is to use it to listen to the buzz about your business. But don’t just listen. When you find something about your industry or product in general, or your business in particular you want to ensure that you respond with the right answers, links, and information so that you can get your message out to participants. If you don’t find any buzz, create it. Make your own groups, start your own discussions, and share, share, share.

    10 Ways that Social Media Can Drive Traffic to Your Website

    6) Track, Measure & Adjust

    Find out which types of content get more shares, more comments and more action. Know what your customers want to read. Ask them what they need to know. The more you can track the success of your campaigns the more you can improve. You can actually adjust and improve any campaign in progress if you have the right information.

     

    7) Use Strategic Paid Advertisements

    Paid advertisements can be very expensive if you aren’t sure why you’re doing it. When it comes to social media, run an advertisement to get more signups for your newsletter or more likes on your Facebook Page. Then market your products and services to them that way, rather than using the ads as a way to market your product directly. While at first you may not notice much of a change in traffic, you will over time because you’ll have them in your marketing funnel.

    8) Use Varied Content on Social Media

    Mix up what type of content you share and add to your social media updates. Use newsworthy content, evergreen content and content in different forms like video, infographics, and text. You want to write a blurb before each share in order to pique the reader’s attention and share high-quality, relevant content on a regular basis.

    10 Ways that Social Media Can Drive Traffic to Your Website

    9) Work with Influencers

    There are always going to be “rock stars” in every industry that are well known and who can highly influence your audience. Researches who these people are, connect with them, and find ways to engage with them in a way that helps you leverage their audience to spread your message. If you can get an influencer to recommend your products and/or services to others, your traffic will explode.

     

    10) Present Content with Strong “Call to Actions”

    Never send out any content on social media without a call to action (“CTA”). Your CTA must be varied, and to the point. Don’t beat around the bush. If you want your audience to share your infographic, ask them to. If you want your audience to “like” your post, ask them to. If you want your audience to click through to read the rest of something on a website, ask them to. Finally, if you want them to buy something, ask them to buy it. Tell them the benefits of doing so, and ask them to do it.

    It’s clear that social media can be an important avenue to gain more traffic to your website or blog. But, it’s not going to happen automatically. You are going to have to work a little bit more to get the ball rolling. Fortunately, these tried and true tips really do work. By using them you will drive more traffic to your website from social media. Not only that, if you’re clear on your message you’ll drive targeted traffic that is ready to answer your calls to action.

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