Brands know that social media isn’t just about having great posts that get lots of likes and shares. You’ve got to get those clicks! After all, if you can’t drive all that traffic you’re getting to what you’re actually selling, then what’s the point of putting all that effort into social media?
For larger brands with massive, never-ending budgets, constant advertising seems to do the trick. However, if you’re a small business or solopreneur hustling your way to the top, you don’t have that endless cash to pour into ads, but you still need those precious clicks.
While advertising is still important, and highly-recommended, combining it with a few strategic tactics can give you a lot more bang for your buck. Let’s take a look at a few things you should be doing on social media to get that much-needed traffic boost.
1. Get familiar with your analytics
It’s easy to scroll through your feed and see what posts people like the most, but if you want to see which ones are actually driving clicks, then you’ll need to review the stats.
Fun fact: Every social media platform you use for business purposes gives you free analytics data that tells you how many people are seeing, engaging with, and clicking on your posts. It’s important to regularly use these statistics to build a strategy around your content, instead of posting based on a whim or personal preference.
Knowing which posts are resonating the most with your audience means that you can focus on creating more of that content, and, in turn, give your actual customers more of the content they want to see.
2. Use video to grab attention
Scroll. Like. Scroll. Like. Scroll. Like. That’s a pretty good summary of the average person’s social media usage today. If you want to stop them in their tracks, you’ve got to have something worth stopping for, and nothing does that quite like an engaging video.
Not only does the movement of a video make people stop and pay attention (even if it’s just for a few seconds), but videos generally receive an average of 38% more overall engagement than images on social media, so you know that the effort you put into creating it will actually yield results.
The best part about creating video content now is that you don’t even have to put a ton of work into it. In fact, you don’t even have to be in your office.
Mobile apps like VideoBoost enable you to edit videos and seamlessly add high-quality elements and cool tricks straight from your phone in minutes, so you never have to worry about looking professional, even on a budget.
The app also provides a wide range of video clips and templates you can use, which were especially designed according to social media’s best practices. So don’t worry if you’re not the most creative type, as the app makes sure your content is always up to standard.
3. Add a tangible CTA to your content
Sometimes getting people to do what you want them to do is as simple as asking for it. That’s especially true on social media. Instead of hoping that your audience will figure out how to find your products or website, tell them explicitly what next step you’d like them to take by adding a call-to-action (CTA) to your posts.
As with all other elements of social media posts, there are few ways to make your CTAs more powerful:
- Focus only on the main goal you want to achieve. Too many options will confuse your audience and they’ll end up picking none.
- Make it relevant to the content of your post. Instead of a generic, “Check out my website,” try, “Learn more about [topic] in my latest blog post.”
- Make sure any links you post lead directly to content related to your post. Eliminate the guesswork of figuring what to do when they click through.
- Put the CTA where they can see it! If your audience isn’t reading your captions, put the CTA in your image or video as well to ensure they don’t miss it.
4. Optimize your bio real estate
Whenever someone decides to check out your social media page, the first thing they see is your bio. If you’re wasting that precious real estate on a generic business description and link to your homepage, you’re missing out on a ton of potential traffic.
Instead, take some guidance from celebrities and influencers who turn that space into a promotional billboard for your latest campaign or project. Share a quick summary about what you’ve been up to lately, and make sure your link is relevant to something your audience can take action on right now.
This tactic won’t only drive traffic from new followers, but existing ones too. Being dynamic with your bio content means that whenever they return to your page, they’ll see something fresh and new.
Another factor to consider when discussing Facebook specifically, is making sure that your audience sees your customer reviews on your business page. This channels social proof that acts as an awesome incentive for the user to keep clicking on to the next piece of content, which eventually leads to your website.
5. Use short, but relevant links
Which of these links would you be more inclined to click on – yourwebsite.com/Jh982Klpi13 or yourwebsite.com/free-productivity-tools? Better yet, if you couldn’t click through right away, which of them would you remember later when you do have the time to take a look? If your answer is the latter, then you’re just pretty much just like everyone else on this planet.
Short URLs with easy-to-remember words and phrases will always invite more clicks and visits, for multiple reasons. Most significantly, it sends a clear message about what to expect and, if directly related to the content you’re promoting, gives the viewer confidence that their click will be worth it. (I know, a click hardly sounds like much effort, right? But if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this post.)
Additionally, in cases where users cannot click on the link – for example, in a regular Instagram post caption or embedded in an image or video – they can quickly memorize it and type it into their search engine directly.
If you’re posting blogs, make sure to swap out the long, auto-generated URLs for something short and simple, yet relevant to the post itself. This is even more important for landing pages and other website links you plan to share a lot.
Social Media is an Investment
Using the above tactics will definitely give you an uptick in traffic, but that doesn’t mean that you should avoid social media advertising. For as little as a dollar a day on most platforms, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another paid solution that gives you more value. So don’t leave it out of your overall strategy.
While some of these tactics will give you results almost immediately, others will take time to bear fruit. It’s easy to give up right away when you’re not seeing immediate returns, but remember that your investment into social media takes a lot more than money. The more time and effort you put into it – doing the right things – the better the results you’ll see.
