6 Tips to Increase Engagement on Social Media and Drive Traffic to Your Website

Increase Engagement & Drive Traffic to Your Website 

Since March of this year, we've taken on a new social media manager and what a difference our clients have seen! Not only can I tell that the engagement has gone up on all of the pages that we manage (based on the obnoxious amount of notifications I get every 15 minutes - all day long) but we can actually prove the effectiveness by comparing past months to current months in their analytical reports.


I was so pleased and excited to report this that I asked Sammy, our social media expert,  for 6 tips on increasing engagement on your social media and driving website traffic using social media, beyond creating engaging comment.

1. Use appropriate networks

You definitely need to be where your customers are and there is nothing we like more than to see people using a social network that is appropriate to their business and target market. One great example is our neighbor and customer Mountain Bay Coffee & Gifts. Two social networks steadily gaining in popularity over the past couple years are Instagram and Snapchat and Mountain Bay has jumped at the opportunity to reach the emerging network's demographic.

Their gift shop offers an excellent opportunity to use Instagram to its full potential by posting captivating images of handmade gifts and crafts.

Handmade boot cuffs sold at Mountain Bay Coffee, featured on Instagram

Snapchat lets you share behind the scenes "fun" with your customers. It's not out there forever, only a max. of 24 hours, but just enough time to peak your customers interest and make them a fan!

Mountain Bay Employee pictured on Snapchat with a Pokemon Go character!

2. Follow trends

Speaking of what Mountain Bay is doing above with Pokemon Go...  I know some of you are sick of hearing about the popular new app/game,  but if you want to be relevant in the cyber world, you need to be following the trending topics.

Not sure how to find what topics are trending right now? Here are some places to check.

• Google Trends -  see the currently most trending searches.
• Twitter - Login to Twitter and you can see what is trending today (on Twitter) including popular hashtags. 
• Buzzsumo - great for finding HOT content on the web. Enter a topic of keyword and it will give you results of the most shared content on the web for that specific topic.

3. Like your own posts

Don't like your own posts as yourself, the business - that looks a little desperate - but definitely change the user on the post and like your posts as yourself, the person! This stirs engagement on your post and makes Facebook think that the post is of value and increases your probability of other Page Followers seeing your post in their news feed. It's not cheating, its encouraging engagement!

Click on the page icon (bottom right side of post) and select your User Profile to like, comment or share as yourself.

4. Hashtag

Use hashtags. If you don't know what hashtags are all about then I suggest doing some research. You want to be on this bandwagon. Not only do they have a really useful purpose of connecting conversations throughout networks, but they can be really fun - hence the reason hashtags are such a big part of pop culture.
#UseHashtags #YourTopic #UseTrendingHashtags #HaveFunWithIt

I just love this video of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake using hashtags in place of regular conversation. 

6. Personalize your tone

Many compliments have come from the personable and friendly "Tone of Voice" we use in our social media posts. People want to be talked to like people; if your posts are too professional or void of personality, your post comes off as cold and inauthentic. Social media is an opportunity to connect with your customers. The best examples of brands and companies on any social network have a real comfortable and relaxed relationship with their followers.

Talking to your followers like friends is a great way to increase engagement.

7. Timing

Use your analytics and reports to see when your followers are online most and then schedule your posts for this time. If you find a spike in activity later in the evening, you wouldn't post in the morning because you may miss an opportunity to reach a majority of your customers.

What time is the right time for you to post?

  

What do you think? What suggestions do you plan to try in your social media efforts? What things have you done with your social media that has made a big difference?