Social media goes hand in hand with building traffic to your website. Netizens nowadays devote so many hours using their social media accounts to share their thoughts, like interesting things, and search for new and upcoming trends. With that said, having social media accounts to represent and promote your small business is very important to build traffic to your main website.

An active online presence through social media is an effective way to reach out to your audience in a more personal level. Because people surfing the net spend most of their time on social media sites, you can interact with them more if you are also spending time there. Whether it is a new customer stumbling upon your Facebook or Twitter page or a loyal customer sharing your page and posts, it is important to give them something good to learn and discover about your company.

Here are 10 tips you can use right now for a more effective and productive use of social media sites to build traffic to your website.

1. Timing Is Everything

Make sure majority of your followers can see and share your posts and updates. The best time to post is from 8 AM to 8 PM because these are the main work hours, meaning people are most likely online. The ideal amount of posts to optimize results is between 5 to 10 tweets and 1 to 4 Facebook posts per day. Make sure you post the updates on multiple social media sites and your own blog or website. Pay attention to frequency and timing in order to get the most social engagement possible.

2. Share Your Expertise and Passion

As a business, one of your primary goals is to earn money. However, it is also necessary for your customers to know that you are passionate and an expert about your craft. Consider offering your audience a guide, brochure, or whitepaper to download. Put these on your website and then share the link to your social media accounts so it would be easy for your customers to share them to their friends.

3. Offer Seasonal and Exclusive Deals

Who doesn’t like a bargain, right? Use social media to promote exclusive offers like special discounts, buy one take one promo, or early bird rewards. Raffles and coupons exclusively available to your social media followers can make them feel special, therefore strengthening their loyalty and appreciation of your business.

4. Be Real and Real Time

The more you acknowledge and reply to your followers, the more engaged they become. The effectiveness of your social media strategy depends on how often you use it. Social media engagement relies on daily interactions among users to survive. Although auto posting tools can help you communicate with your audience, more businesses are beginning to understand that engaging with their audiences in real conversations will bring them better results. Being available to your audience in real time means you can have more meaningful back-and-forth conversations.

5. Stay Updated And Be Current

The only thing certain is everything changes; and this is also true about social networking sites. Learn how you can get the latest updates easily so you can know the current trends they are setting. You can follow Facebook’s business page (https://www.facebook.com/business/news), follow social media and tech experts on Twitter (https://twitter.com/smexaminer/writers/members), and set Google alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts).

6. Use Hashtags

There’s a reason Twitter created hash tagging and now Facebook is also allowing it. Hashtags are made for people to trend topics and businesses to promote. Combine those two and you can use hashtags to promote your new products, services, or special offers. Announce it on your social media accounts so your followers can participate making it trend. People who use hashtags are more likely to engage in social conversations and therefore are more likely to share a positive experience they’ve had with your brand once you’ve broken through.

7. Incorporate Infographics

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. A social media page is better to look at if it contains not just plain text but also some infographics to catch users’ attention. In fact, they reach more people because they are shared more often than other online content. They are easy to understand and share, so you could spread the word about your company’s products and services effectively.

8. Be Mobile-Friendly

People surfing the web are becoming more and more on-the-go lately. There are too many smartphones and tablets in the market these days that there’s no excuse not to go online even if you are away from home. Make sure your pages are mobile-friendly and easy to load. Use a design that is accessible and convenient for multiple browsers and devices. Include social media icons, mobile redirects, simple landing pages, and content you want your users to see.

9. Ask Questions

Contrary to popular belief, answering questions is not the end of your social media task. Asking questions is a good way to engage your followers and spark curiosity about your products or services. Some good questions to ask are ones that tap into the interests and lifestyles of your fans to generate conversations. You may also ask feedback questions regarding your newly launched product or service so you can find out what they like about it and what you still need to improve. This way, your followers can feel that their opinions are part of your decision making process.

10. Use a Conversational Tone & Engage

Social media has changed the way businesses communicate publicly. In fact, it is advised to avoid stiff business writing and encouraged to adopt a more conversational tone. Take them inside your brand’s experience instead of just hard selling. Although you are viewed as a business entity, your followers communicate with you and expect a response that would make you look sound a normal person just like them. Having a conversational tone makes your content feel more authentic and engaging to readers.

In a world of social media marketing, giving your followers a unique and personal experience is a must. Be innovative and caring in all your social media pursuits so you could gain more traffic and more loyalty out of your customers.

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photo credit: mkhmarketing