Tag Archives: Twitter

Social Media: 10 Ways To Increase Website Traffic

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Highway Insomnia

Are you looking for Internet traffic that will bring paying customers to your site? A quick search on Google will quickly show several sites that offer “free Internet traffic,” but what’s the catch? If these services are as great as they say, how do companies like Google still be in business selling clicks for more than a dollar each?

This article will teach you several methods for getting quality, targeted, traffic to your website.

1. Facebook

Who isn’t on Facebook these days? Facebook currently has over 1 billion active users and is considered by many Internet marketers to be their favorite traffic source. Succeeding in Facebook can be simple but it requires some time.

Since Facebook is all about “being social,” using it on a regular basis definitely helps. One way is to add links from all of your posts to your Facebook timeline. Use as much visual content as possible, as this will increase the likelihood of people viewing it. Have fun creating memes and use them to help build your brand!

2. LinkedIn

After you set up a great LinkedIn profile, start connecting with everyone you know. Help out your contacts with recommendations for the people you know professionally and add skills to their profiles. Many times, they will return the favor and add recommendations and skills to yours. Be active. Answer questions on LinkedIn forums and join groups where you can ask and answer questions. You can also share your LinkedIn profile with your peers off-line to help build your network.

When you meet people that might benefit from your website, ask to connect to them through LinkedIn. Sometimes people will connect using this method instead of e-mail as it seems less obtrusive than exchanging an e-mail address.

3. Google Plus

Google Plus can help give you social proof and improve your search engine rankings. Much like Facebook, you can engage with people and connect with them through circles. You should link out to your published content on your website. It can also be helpful to host huddles and hangouts.

If you’re using keyword terms, make sure you use your customer’s terminology. This will help you connect better to your customers.

4. YouTube

Video marketing can be a powerful tool in building traffic to your website. It can be a great way to create controversy and at the same time educate viewers. Make sure you include a call-to-action telling the customer what you want them to do. Have your URL in the video as well as in the annotations. Introduce your site as soon as possible in your video to help establish your brand. Create an interesting video description.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest is the fastest growing platform on the internet. The number of visitors has increased by an amazing 6% year after year. If you spend about half an hour 3-4 times per week adding pins and following other pinners, you get to grow a following. Pin your best articles from your website, but make sure they match popular topics on Pinterest. Take extra time to select interesting images as they will increase the likelihood that someone will share your post. Take some time to think of a great description for your pins.

6. Twitter

If you are not using Twitter to promote your site, you should start now. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where every message can only be 140 characters long. It takes some practice, but with a little work you can create a Twitter following that will make you proud.

Two things you need to do when you set up a new Twitter profile is to create an interesting description and find an interesting background. You will also want to impress people with your rapier wit and thought-provoking style the moment they arrive. If not, at least make them believe you are more interesting than the sandwich they had for lunch.

Whatever you do, don’t immediately start promoting your product or service. This will turn people off and you’re likely to lose followers and credibility. Take the time to help others by answering questions and providing value. Selling your service or products will come later after you’ve established trust.

Start following people that are leaders in your niche. You can find them using Twitter search. Once you find the first one, you can follow their followers to quickly grow your list.

7. Writing Articles for Site Promotion

Writing articles can be a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Most articles should be a minimum of 500 words. You can either write it yourself or hire a freelance writer to write one for you. It is important to post the article on a site that is in the same niche as yours. This way the people that read your article will already have an interest in your topic.

It is a good idea to pick popular sites in your niche. They usually have good traffic and you can get some from them. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get much traffic on the first article. It is generally a good idea to submit 3-4 articles at once. This way, readers see your name more than once and it gives you a great opportunity to build trust.

8. Blog Commenting

Proper blog commenting is not about creating bulk comments using an automated tool. It is about helping people and adding value to the conversation. If blog commenting is done regularly and correctly, it can be a great traffic source.

9. Posting to forums

Forum posting has received a bad rep in recent years because spammers have used these sites without providing any real value. What you want to do is the exact opposite. Forums can be a great way to learn more about your niche and eventually contribute to the community. It is usually a good idea to read and learn more in the beginning so you can get a feel for the people on the forum before you start posting.

Be careful not to directly promote your product on forums. This can be an immediate turn-off and can even get your account banned forever.

10. Blogging

We saved the best for last. If your website does not have a blog, get one. You should post engaging, well-researched articles a few times a month at a minimum. The search engines like blogs and so do readers. Just like with social media, it is important to build a community. You can use tools like Addthis.com to create sharing icons for Facebook, Twitter, and the other sites you’ve read about in this article.

Blogging can be a great way to tie all of this work together. Regular posts to your blog can be posted on Facebook, Pinterest, tweeted on Twitter, etc. These sources of traffic will help bring more people to your blog and your website.

What about that “Free Internet Traffic”?

So what about all of those websites that promise “free internet traffic” that were mentioned at the beginning of this article? Most of them use a method called traffic exchange which is the old tradition of “I’ll go to your site if you go to mine.” The problem with these is that most people will spend several hours a week going to other people’s sites. They in turn generally get very low quality traffic back to their site from people that almost never buy anything.

Conclusion

This article contains several great methods to gradually increase traffic over time. These methods don’t cost any money, but most require your time. If your goal is to establish yourself and your company as a leader in your niche, this is a great way to start.

Opening up Your Ecommerce Site with Social Media

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Social media and ecommerce make ideal bedfellows. Whilst one is geared towards self-promotion, sharing and discussion, the other is about developing a strong customer-base and driving sales. It’s almost as if they were made for each other.

All ecommerce sites are fundamentally standalone stores of course. So your job, as an owner, is to get as many people coming through the doors as possible. To do this though, you need visibility.

On the high street you can employ a wide range of tactics including:

  • Billboard advertising
  • Sandwich boards
  • Attractive window displays
  • Local media promotions
  • Free samples hand outs

The Internet is an entirely different beast though. Whilst the logic is still the same, the tools and techniques are worlds apart. To generate interest, you have to get yourself noticed. This means optimising your site to adhere with search engine practices and getting seen on any platforms that potential customers are using – including social media.

So what do you need to be doing?

First of all, secure profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. If your business name has been taken, look for similar alternatives, such as “Store Name UK” or “Store Name Online”. However, it is important that any profile you create is clearly branded, enabling customers to recognise who you are and associate the accounts with your store.

Each of the aforementioned social networks allow users to create customised business pages, so make sure you take the time to create a design that is indicative of your business. This means incorporating clear imagery, colours and your company logo to tie all your properties to one another. Below are examples from the Gap.

Getting (inter)active

A dormant profile is of little or no use, in fact it may even be damaging. So make sure you have a social strategy in place. Who is going to be managing comments, how frequently are you going to update your profiles and what will you say? All of these questions need to be answered before going any further.

Dell was one of the earliest adopters on Twitter and made headlines when it was announced that the company had made $6.5 million in sales solely through the social network. This was way back in 2009 though, and now hundreds of businesses are booming thanks to their effective social strategies.

To be successful, you need to follow a few key golden rules:

  • Be human – nobody wants to follow an automated robot that endlessly pumps out sales messages
  • Be responsive – respond to questions, compliments and criticisms in equal measure wherever possible
  • Be creative – why not use your social profiles to create special promotions, using unique hashtags or requesting ‘likes’?
  • Be interesting – give people a reason to leave a comment, share your content or visit your store

Once up and running, you can use these social profiles to funnel people towards your site. However, this is where your web pages and pricing need to deliver. After all, it doesn’t matter how many people come through to your store if nobody ever makes a purchase. So make sure your site is ready to deliver on these promises.

Social Site Integration

Assuming that everything is shipshape, you need to find a way of integrating social elements into your site. After all, now you’ve created these properties, it’s important that people can actually track them down. Most ecommerce sites and online businesses now integrate links to their social profiles in the footer, side or even top navigation, making them incredibly easy to find.

This form of cross-promotion makes it easier for visitors to keep up-to-date through their preferred medium. In time, this could lead to them becoming a loyal and valuable customer. The joy of social media (the major networks in particular) is the ease with which information can be shared. Every message you post will be seen by thousands, either directly or by others ‘liking’ or retweeting it. This only serves to help your brand’s visibility grow, making your future marketing activities easier and more effective.

It is important to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to share products and promotions, so include “share this” shortcuts on every page. These needn’t be intrusive or ruin the design of your site; but the more prominent that you can make them, the better your chances of having a product shared.

A number of ecommerce sites currently have this feature, although few are taking full advantage. Take Amazon as a good example. Here we have the product page for the iPad 2 (on the UK site).

The “Like” button is for Amazon customers to share recommendations, whilst the Facebook, Twitter and Email functions are buried on the right-hand side of the screen.

Gap (US site) place their ‘Like’ button alongside the product, above the price and specification even, for greater exposure. However, this has its own limitations, as it only allows Facebook users to share the product – effectively dismissing Twitter, Google+1, Delicious, Digg and the other bookmarking sites.

Finally, clothing store Office (again, UK site) give their share buttons the greatest prominence of any of the brands featured here. Both Twitter and Facebook have their own unique icons underneath the main image, whilst dozens of others are available by clicking the + symbol. As you can see from the figure, this has generated a reasonable number of shares across all platforms.

Nobody is going to claim that a few buttons are going to make or break your site, but as part of a cohesive effort to promote your business on social platforms, they can be hugely effective. Essentially, you should be helping your customers to help you. Their endorsements can be just as effective as your own marketing efforts, so give them the tools to do it without leaving your site.

Playing the Numbers Game

Social marketing really is a numbers game. The more brand ambassadors you can recruit, the more stock you can hope to shift. Your outreach though is almost unlimited. Whilst your ecommerce store may only have 10,000 Twitter followers, 500 of these may choose to retweet a promotion to their followers, who in turn may share it with their friends, and their friends share it with their friends, and…well, you get the idea. A single message can be seen by tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, offering unrivalled exposure with limited input or cost. As your own followers grow, so does your potential exposure, with one effectively feeding the other.

Ultimately though, you need to always remember why you’re doing this in the first place: sales. Whilst customer service, reputation management and online visibility are all extremely important, the bottom line for any business is to get a return on your investment.

Social media is an interactive platform on which you can promote your produce to an expectant audience. As with brick and mortar stores, there are a number of ways in which you can attract attention, with the only major difference being the platform(s) being used. So rather than using in-store staff and promotional teams to engage visitors, you can use Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to do much the same.