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Leveraging social media to drive traffic is one of the biggest challenges facing B2B marketers today.
While social media has the potential to be one of your biggest traffic sources, it also requires the most time and effort to maintain. The occasional tweet or Facebook update isn't enough to move the dial.
In this post you'll learn several ways to improve your current social media efforts and start driving more traffic to your website from it today.
1.Don't Forget the Link/CTA
It may seem obvious, but always include a link/CTA back to your website. It not only drives traffic, but shows your reader what to do next.
No matter how much someone likes your brand, if you don't ask them to visit your website, give them a compelling reason to, and make it easy, they are not likely to do it. So, always user social media as a teaser and include a website link for more information.
Doing this may be difficult on platforms like Instagram and Vine, but you can always change and direct people to the link in your bio as companies like HubSpot do.
2. Always Include an Image
It's crucial to use images in your social media posts when sharing content, especially now that the majority of social media users are on mobile devices.
Images are more eye-catching than text alone and they also take up more room in the timeline, helping you attract more attention. Also, the right image can help prospects visualize what the content is going to be about while also making a post more "shareable."
Images increase engagement across the board:
- On Facebook, posts with images attract 39% more engagement
- Post with images on LinkedIn get 98% more comments
- Including images and/or videos in your Twitter posts can increase engagement by up to 200% (Source)
3. Add Social Share Buttons to Your Blog Posts
It's great when you can drive a lot of traffic from your social media channels, but it's even better when other people do it for you.
If your website doesn't already have social sharing buttons, you could be missing out on a lot of social media traffic that's generated from people already reading your blog!
Social sharing buttons are those colorful buttons you see around the top or bottom of blog posts that allow you to share the page directly on the social media channel of your choice.
They provide convenience to your buyer persona and act as a non-pushy tool that encourages social sharing.
Two of the most common, and free, social sharing tools are SumoMe and Shareaholic.
If you'd like to learn more about those tools and 8 others like them, check out this useful article on bloggingwizard.com.
4. Use Paid Promotion/Sponsored Content
The quickest way to drive more traffic from social media is through paid promotion.
When you're executing on a solid social media strategy, paid promotion or "sponsored content" adds fuel to the fire. You can experiment with different targeting options (including location, gender, industry and interests on most profiles) to help expose new people to your content and promote new traffic.
As the business models of social media platforms evolve, B2B marketers will likely have to pay to be seen. Facebook has been this way for a few years now and with the recent introduction of algorithmic timelines on Twitter and Instagram, this is likely a trend to continue.
5. Be Active & Engaged
Too many B2B brands are guilty of not updating their social media enough. The only way to keep your followers engaged is to post updates and interact with people on a regular basis. Otherwise, they are likely to forget about you.
When we tell B2B marketers they aren't active enough on social media, their minds immediately picture a teenage girl glued to her phone as she posts non-stop selfies and updates on her every movement. We then assure them that being active doesn't require you to dedicate your life to social media.
In fact, a handful of posts a day is enough to do the trick.
Here's a simple, but effective daily schedule:
- Post 1-3 non-promotional updates
- Share 1-3 pieces of your brand's content
- Share 1-3 useful articles from other brands, influencers, or new sites
- Spend about 5-10 minutes replying to questions and comments
6. Be Consistent
If you study the B2B brands with the best marketing, you'll notice they are always consistent with their social media activity.
Regularly posting high-quality, interesting content, and responding to comments keeps your page lively and engaging rather than a one-sided conversation.
Don't take this to the extreme and post updates every 15 minutes or you'll just annoy everyone, but make your presence known. Have your brand act more like a human and less like a B2B enterprise on social media, and you'll connect with more people.
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