Creating an account on social media is quick and simple. Posting content is even easier with the advent of social media management tools like Hootsuite and Buffer. What is difficult, especially for Small- to Medium-Sized Businesses, is finding the right digital and social media marketing tactics to connect with audiences, improve sales, and drive web traffic through social means.

Using social media for customer service, brand building/management and lead generation can be tricky. Think of it like city planning. One of the many important roles of a city planner is to find creative and innovative ways to get traffic in and out of the city. They must plan out and test every route possible and take into consideration many factors, such as peak rush hour times and events that are occurring in the city.

Similarly, a social media marketing manager must find creative and innovative ways to bring traffic to their website. They must explore different avenues like SEO, social media, blogging etc. They must continue to test multiple platforms to see if they are the right fit for their goals. More importantly, they must find innovative ways to connect with audiences, whether it is through videos, infographics, webinars etc.

To get the ball rolling, our social media and digital marketing strategy experts are going to show you 6 innovative ways to drive traffic to your website through social means.

6 Ways to Increase Web Traffic via Social Media | Digital Marketing Strategy

1. Emoticons

Both big and small brands are experimenting with emoji marketing. That is because incorporating emoticons in their messages to consumers allows businesses to connect with their audiences on a more human level. The emoji phenomenon has been partly propelled by messaging apps, where most people are using the visual symbols to chat, and by social media (e.g., Twitter) where emoji is the official language.

Studies have shown that people remember 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read, and 80% of what they see. So, the more visual your marketing message is, the more likely it is to have a lasting impact on consumers.

2. A/B Testing

This is a tip that not a lot of businesses with a dedicated social media marketing team are taking advantage of. A/B testing (e.g., split testing) involves using multiple headlines for the same content to see which one garners the most engagements and conversions. Instead of publishing content on social media platforms once and then forgetting about it, schedule the links to be shared multiple times and change the wording in the headline. Come back in a week’s time to see which of the headlines gave you the fame status. When possible, try to emulate results in future posts.

Source: adparlor.com

3. Explore New Networks

Social media marketing is not and should not be restricted to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. While these four networks will give you the greatest reach, other smaller or niche networks are as important. The greatest potential lies in platforms that are emerging and have the potential to disrupt. If you invest in them early, you will get a leg up on the competition.

A well-known example from the past is Snapchat. The mobile messaging app has been around since 2011 for personal use. Only a couple years later, it had become prevalent among brands. Since then, success stories were built every day. However, the brands that saw the most success were the ones who invested in Snapchat early and were able to build a follower base by the time everyone else started flogging to it.

4. Surveys in Real Time

Have you ever wondered why companies are doing surveys on social media? For a number of reasons! Mainly it allows companies to get information about audiences’ perception of their products and services. It is also easy to conduct and allows for more informed decision making.

The good news is that surveys and survey requests are no longer limited to email. Companies can now survey their audience in real time via social media. That means that a business can get instant feedback with a simple poll that asks a very important question. It is a great way to get your audience engaged (most people love to vote and answer surveys on social).

5. Use Exclusive Content as Bait

Who doesn’t like the velvet rope treatment! Any time you give people access to specials and exclusive content, you give them a sense of belonging and make them feel like they are the “cool” group. People who feel special are more inclined to share your vision and your products with their relevant audiences.

This is a great example of how Levis sends people to their website using exclusive content (source)

There are a couple of ways to use social media to share exclusive content. You can use it to post links to exclusive content that is available for a limited time. Alternatively, you can announce news and product releases on social media through live videos and press releases, which will encourage your fans to follow you for more information.

6. Maintain a Consistent Voice

Social media is a good place for brand building and recognition as well as online reputation management. It is therefore very important to make every post in line with the company’s brand and image. This may pose some challenges for large corporations with multiple people assigned to the task of social media marketing and small businesses who outsource their work to digital agencies. For this reason, it is best to limit the number of people posting and to make sure everyone has the same vision and goal in mind.

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