How Your Business Can Generate Traffic from Social Media

Websites live and die by the amount of traffic they get. Until recently, SEO seemed the only way a business could get traffic, and the SEO company that could get a front-page listing for a highly competitive term could write its paycheck.

Until now. We are now in the social media era, and traffic can be highly targeted and driven back to our websites. That’s highly relevant, and interested customers are dropping by and sharing our offers.

Sound interesting? So, how does a business generate traffic from social media and use it to its advantage?

Building your following

A business should start by using one social media tool at a time to build its following and generate traffic. Then, it should search for its target market and the people who influence it.

Follow them, see what they share, what interests them, and how they interact with each other.

Observing and following your target market lets you learn more about them and what they want.

Some companies use social enticements such as samples and discounts to encourage followers, and others create competitions. However, both can fail unless you are directly involved with your target market.

Look at your existing customer base and see if you can entice them to join you on Twitter/X or Facebook. Work with what you have and grow it.

Social Meda Listening

Businesses that use social media tools to listen and interact have an advantage over every other business, especially their competition.

What does listening mean?

• Listening means having searches for mentions of the company name and responding to them promptly.
• Listening means looking out ways to assist the customer and the prospective customer.
• Listening means having an approachable presence.
• Listening means developing a thick skin.

The first three are self-explanatory, but the fourth option, developing a thick skin, needs more explanation. Sometimes, we hear things that are not nice, and they are upsetting.

It may be a product we’ve sold that has developed a fault, a product that doesn’t live up to expectations, or an unhappy person. It’s not negativity when a person who is not your target market buys something and doesn’t like it.

It’s a mismatch, and it happens. Getting snotty or ignoring the person doesn’t do you any favours, so let the person sound off.

Handle it diplomatically, and remember that this has always happened, but now you can deal with it.

Before social media, you had to upset a customer before they would make a complaint in writing, and word of mouth may not have reached you.

Listening means showing that you care and engage, and the act of doing so will drive people back to your site.

Social media listening tools like Buzzsumo can help you set up a social media listening routine. And tools like Linktree allow you to create an engaging social media landing page to funnel your traffic from multiple social media platforms.

Building your following and listening are just the first stages.

Engaging with your followers

Some companies think retweeting or sharing something with a follower is an endorsement of their business.

Perhaps it is. But if you don’t Re-tweet and share your followers, why would they look at your content and share your stuff?

You must abandon old-school marketing methods to attract your followers’ attention and consider what’s essential to your ideal customer.

Let’s say you have a baby business. If your ideal customer is a mom and she has a blog, then RT’ing one or two of her better posts won’t kill you, and it will put you at the front of her mind.

She probably has your target audience following her, and some positive interaction will encourage her to reciprocate and share your great content.

That’s all relevant traffic going back to your website, and if you capture their data, you can build an ongoing relationship.

We touch on sharing above. Let’s look a little deeper.

Customers love it when you talk to them and are interested in them as human beings. If you look them up hungrily and the Ker-ching signs appear above their heads, the more observant of your prospects will run a mile. Being human and building relationships cannot be rushed or faked.

Sharing great stuff with your prospects is more than shoving them head-first into the sales funnel.

If you only share sales-y things, people will stop listening to you, and then you will wander into the corporate spammer zone. Nobody – and I mean nobody – wants to be a corporate spammer.

They are the laughingstock of social media sites and the butt of many “here’s how they are doing it wrong” case studies. And that’s the sort of thing that will get shared.

Streams of social traffic start to appear when you move your social media activity to another platform and replicate the excellent work from the first platform.

However, it takes a good marketing specialist for this to happen, so consider hiring experts in the field and using mentorship software to pair experienced marketers with newer team members.

If you plan your social media strategy carefully, it will be easy to replicate. If you think, “All hail the conquering hero,” you are in trouble before you start.

Social media traffic is highly relevant, and your business needs to look into it now.

Key Takeaways: How Businesses Generate Traffic from Social Media

• Start by building a strong presence on one social media platform before expanding to others. Identify your target audience and the influencers they follow.
• Engage actively: Don’t just broadcast; listen to your audience, respond to their comments and questions, and participate in conversations.
• Show genuine interest in your customers. Share valuable content that goes beyond just sales pitches.
• Embrace reciprocity: Share content from your followers and influencers to build relationships and encourage them to share yours.
• Expand your reach: Once you’ve established a strong presence on one platform, replicate your strategy on other platforms to reach a wider audience.
• Think long-term: Building a loyal social media following takes time and consistent effort. Focus on cultivating relationships, not just driving immediate sales.