Social media promotions add lots of color and interest to business websites and are a great way to generate customer interest in the company and brand.
By Shelley Widhalm
Every business seems to need to do social media shout outs to get traction on their websites and business to their doors.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a marketing tool and the process of getting results on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Search engines rank web pages and other content, such as videos or local listings, based on what they consider the most relevant to users.
Getting those rankings requires words and phrases relevant to what the site is offering, as well as other site links to your website. Rankings, in turn, are affected by the number of website visitors and the length of their stay.
Getting the Traffic
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram help generate traffic and increase SEO results. But there is more to social media that includes a desire for connection and a need for personal and global news and quick and relevant information.
For businesses, social media is a way to showcase expertise and to provide customers with valuable content and usable information.
When deciding how to use social media, here are a few things to consider:
- Think about Your Target Market: Don’t overdo social media, especially if you have limited time and resources. Pick the platforms that are a fit for your business. Who are your ideal clients? What are the clients’ pain points? How can you help them solve their issues?
- Figure Out Your Goals: Is it branding, marketing, connecting with customers or spreading awareness about an event or news item? The idea is to build a community of fans and followers.
- Define Your Voice: What is it that you want to say? What is it that you want to post and how often? Be sure you don’t sound too much like an ad, saying over and over again, buy my product! Make sure the information you offer is valuable, useful and interesting. Even better is if your posts stimulate a conversation.
Additional Tips
A few last things to consider include being sure to include photos and videos and using hashtags, or the #, since users can search by the little mark to find your content.
Develop a plan, setting aside a specific day or time to work on your social media posts. Create a spreadsheet of posts to not repeat your content and to keep to a schedule.
And enjoy what you’re doing, or hire someone who loves to generate clicks for you. Otherwise, visitors will realize you see it as a chore and not a connection, finding your content to be less than amazing.