How To Increase Website Traffic With Social Media Marketing

So you built a website for your business—now what? It won’t do you much good if no one ever sees it. While many small businesses rely on their websites as their primary marketing channel, they don’t do enough to drive traffic to them. Used strategically, social media marketing can be the solution to this common problem, but if you’re juggling all the other challenges of running a small business, you may not know where to start.

Social media marketing strategies to drive traffic to a small business’ website range from the basic things everyone should be doing to sophisticated methods that take a little more time and effort. If you’re looking at a totally flat traffic curve on how to increase website traffic, start with Step 1. By the time you get to step 5, you’ll be a pro.

How To Increase Website Traffic With Social Media Marketing

Step 1: Include Your Website On All Your Social Networks

The first thing you need to do on any new social network for your business is to include your website URL. On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ company pages there is a specific place where you can put your website URL. Don’t forget to do that.

Step 2: Social Media Monitoring and Engagement

Once you have all your social networks set up with your website URL, you can start proactively monitoring and engaging on your social networks. By being proactive you can reach out to existing customers and potential customers to drive them to your website. Be sure to also share relevant content that are on your website to prospects. You can also listen to recommendation requests and share a relevant link to your website that answers their inquiry.

Step 3: Start a Company Blog

One of the biggest barriers to effectively using social media to drive traffic to your website is a lack of new content. Staying active on your blog is the easiest way to maintain a dynamic website and make sure you’ve always got something to say on social media. If you’re struggling to write quickly, trythese tips from our blog team. And remember, your blog isn’t just for written content.  If you made a YouTube video to increase brand awareness, like ourHootSuite Story video, embed it on your blog. The same goes for infographics, Slideshare, Storify, and all sorts of rich media. When you can point your social messages to great new content on your site, your followers are more likely to click through and become customers.

Step 4: Social Media Advertising

To take it up a notch, you can start using social media ads to increase website traffic. When using Facebook ads or a promoted Tweet be sure to link back to a dedicated landing page for conversion. You can also create ads on LinkedIn that links to a lead generation form on your site.

Step 5: Twitter Chats and Google Hangouts

Now that you’ve mastered the easy stuff, try hosting Twitter Chats or a Google Hangout. For example, we host a weekly #HSUchat on Twitter or you can host a one off Twitter chat like our #MKTGchat. These Twitter chats allow you to increase awareness of your brand, build relationships, and drive people to your website. Google Hangouts are another way to increase website traffic, like our Small Business week Google Hangout. This allows you to invite people to “hangout” and share insights about a specific topic and link back to resources on your website.

The above steps are just a few ways people who are beginners or pros can use social media to increase website traffic, and of course there are definitely more ways. However, the first step in ensuring your website is proactively seen by your customers is to be where your customers are.

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