So, you’ve got your website, blog, Facebook account, Twitter account, etc. Now, where’s your audience? You can’t just sit back and wait for people to stumble upon your online platforms. You have to reach out for more social media traffic.
Where is your online audience?
Wherever they are, that’s where you should reach out. Here are three places you can seek out your audience.
1. Visit online forums related to your industry.
Participate in the conversations to establish your expertise, build your profile and drive traffic to your website. Forums can be traditional forums or groups (LinkedIn) and groups or pages (Facebook and Google+).
2. Visit blogs with content that matches your expertise and offer to contribute some content as a guest blogger.
Be sure to include a link back to your blog or website as part of your exchange for being a guest! And, be generous with what you offer. Give them your A-Grade content, not duplicate content of ‘leftovers’. The better the content, the better the referrals back to your site will be.
3. Visit ratings and reviews sites related to your business.
You might also want to visit coupon and “Freebie” sites too. If you can offer a free promotional item, list it on the freebie sites. If you don’t have the budget to order promo items, you could create your own digital item, such as an eBook. Along the same lines, contests and giveaways can draw huge crowds. A photographer named Catherine White recently ran a Facebook competition where she asked people to post their favourite holiday photos for a chance to win a prize. So, she had all these people posting photos on Facebook, and it had a viral effect. Plus, people who posted their photos had all their friends voting on the photo so they could win the prize. She built an entire community around one simple competition. Now, whenever I think of a photographer, I think of Catherine. One note with competitions – be sure to work in with the guidelines that the different platforms outline. Facebook has been known to shut down pages that violate their terms and conditions for contests.
4. Social Advertising
And, advertising through Facebook Ads, Google AdWords and LinkedIn Ads can drive traffic to you online platforms very well. You’ll usually need a ‘carrot’ by way of a giveaway to make this work. NOTE: Regardless how much traffic you send to your social platforms, the key is to give people a reason to come and stay and come again. And, that comes down to being relevant and useful and providing content that your readers want and that fits well with your chosen authority focus. Got other ideas on driving social traffic? I’d love to hear from you. Suzi
