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5 Best Practices for Using Social Media to Attract Website Visitors

Hold on just one second.

Before you skip to tips for attracting visitors to your website, it’s important to understand why attracting visitors to your website is valuable in the first place.

The common misconception among businesses using social media is that being popular equates to making money. It canbe profitable, I guess, but only if your profitabiity is calculated using total number of friends, fans and likes.

Chances are you haven’t figured out how to do that. (Let me know if you do!)

Until then, we’ll have to accept the truth that being successful on social media means much more than simply showing up and being liked. If you’re trying to make money for your business using social media, then your goal should be to attract visitors to your website.

Two primary principles shape our social media philosophy (and our marketing philosophy as a whole). In addition to applying the best practices introduced in this article, you can use these principles to shape your social media strategy.

Add Value

These days everyone has access to an online microphone, and you better believe they’re using it. So competition for your buyer’s attention is fierce. The only way you stand a chance to gain and keep their attention is by providing real value to your fans and followers. Keep this in mind as you read through the following five best practices.

Build Trust

In order to sell something to someone, or even just convince them that time they spend considering your product or service is worth it, they have to trust you. Build trust by consistently and generously providing smart, relevant content.

And now, finally, here are five best practices for attracting visitors to your website using social media.

1. Create Compelling Content (Like Blog Articles)

You might be thinking, “I thought this post was about social media, not blogging!” From now on, think of compelling content as the fuel for your social messaging and the catalyst for your online conversations. When you don’t integrate smart content into your social messaging, you can’t differentiate yourself from the rest of the noise online. Without it, you’re just another small business saying, “Hey look at me! Aren’t we cool?”

2. Include Links

It goes without saying, when you don’t include links to your website, you can’t drive traffic to it. This is where links to blog posts and other compelling content come in handy!

3. Pursue Conversations

Be human. It’s important that your friends, fans and followers see you as a real person who cares about connecting, rather than a faceless company pushing content. So while content should fuel your messaging, it shouldn’t be the only messaging you publish on social media channels. After all, no one likes someone who only talks about themselves.

If you want to be seen as a real person, then be human! Start by pursuing conversations on social channels. It’s easy. Just pay attention to conversations happening around you and chime in by replying to tweets and commenting on status updates. Follow your human instincts!

4. Curate Relevant Content

Include content from other notable sources in your social media calendar. By doing this, you’re still providing value to your audience and building trusting relationships, while also avoiding coming across as a self-centered content pusher. Here are two ways to curate content for your audience:

Make a list of industry influencers in your Twitter account and keep an eye out for content they share.
Add industry blogs to your blog reader and make a habit of checking it every morning.

5. Measure & Make Changes

The only way to ensure success on social media is to monitor your audience’s response and make changes accordingly. Start by answering these questions: