There are many ways to get a ton of social media traffic.
Though, most will deliver fake clicks and no engagement.
If you’re willing to put in the effort, then these techniques will work for you.
The process will:
- Reduce low-quality pages on your site
- Help you earn social media traffic, without dodgy tactics
- Improve your branding and sales, too
Here is a simple 3-step plan to get social media traffic fast.
1. Improve the quality of your content
The best thing you can do is create better content.
The ideal length of a blog post is about 1,600 words. This is nearly triple the length compared to a few years ago when SEO’s were hammering 500-word pieces.
Data from Medium places this closer to 2,100 words for optimal view time.
But, it seems the 3-minute mark is best for getting the most views.
You decide – but aim for longer pieces.
Longer blog articles give readers more to read, and more to engage. These long posts are the perfect vehicle for sharing your expertise in detail. Overloading the content value, along with length, will increase dwell time. It creates a valuable piece people love to share.
Expand content topics and add media to increase the length of the post to see an increase in website traffic through search and social.
2. Engage through several social channels
Each post should go through a distribution routine to several social media channels. Distributing content this way places it in front of a larger audience pool which increases its chance of getting clicks.
Social channels:
- Networking – Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter
- Media – Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube
- Sharing – Reddit, Tumblr, Flickr
The value of social media cannot be stressed enough.
Content distribution is the key to increasing traffic by nearly 3x. [1]
Content marketing and its distribution result in a year-over-growth in site traffic by 7.8x for content marketing leaders versus followers [2] which fall in line to the 80% consumer demand to research a company through articles versus advertisements [3].
Sharing is king for those wanting real, organic traffic.
Networking favorites:
- News articles
- Music videos
- Quizzes
- Lists
- Food and recipes
- Practical tips
- Animals
Don’t feel like you’re going overboard sharing those stunning photos, cute animals, quizzes, and news articles. This creates engagement and boosts news feed visibility for the appropriate promo post.
Media favorites:
- Celebrity gossip
- Trending news
- Politics
- Multimedia
- Off-beat questions
- Bizarre real-life events
Don’t be afraid to open to the audience and share a twisted tale. Social media sharing sites love their mix of drama and prompt. Humor tends to create the best engagement with followers. [4]
A whopping 55% of people watch videos online every day [5] while 4x the number of consumers rather watch video versus reading [6]. There’s no reason to put off video any longer. Each media favorite will likely double engagement and traffic when paired with video content, too.
Sharing favorites:
- Politics
- Activism
- Photos
- Memes
- Inspiring quotes
- Shocking news
- Q&A
The key to a great social media share is found in the headline. An analysis of 1 million blog headlines found the use of ‘You’ and ‘Your’ increase shares by 3x. List posts, giveaways, and tutorials continue to dominate social sharing though memes and inspirational media show growing, social signals [7].
Sort social shares by popularity to understand the hot topics and leverage its buzz by injecting your opinion and/or related content for quick and easy traffic wins.
3. Mingle with influencers every day
You could do the previous steps and call it a day, but having an influencer share your content is how to get real social media traffic.
The best thing you can do is network with influential people in your space, every day.
Statisia did a survey and found that 58% of brands will adopt influencer marketing in the next 3 years.
71% of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase if it has positive social media references [8]. When content is your product, it holds the same, influential benefit. And, 70% of millennial YouTubers trust influencers over celebrity endorsements [9] – quite an interesting shift that’s likely to dictate future endeavors to say the least.
Mingling made easy:
- Follow popular/influential market leaders
- Respond to Q&A’s and prop their shares
- Create multiple touchpoints on other channels
- Reach out (email) and develop a rapport
- Tell them when you’ve created new content
A mention by an influencer gave Neil Patel 2281 social shares for a single, relevant post. Git2Go got 9231 impressions when an influential Twitter user shared their content. This is the technique used by the best brands and personalities – the cat is out of the bag.
If socializing is not for you, then take it to your followers. Alert followers of new content through email, push messages, and direct contact to help spread the word.
What about buying social media traffic?
No.
Well… maybe.
Bought social media traffic is notorious for delivering low-quality engagement. The reason being that most traffic from these traffic services are done so with click farms. This practice has even lead to a click farm bust where authorities seized 476 phones used to generate likes and views.
I say maybe because paid promotion is a thing.
SocialMediaExaminer reports that 93% of brands leverage Facebook advertising. Promoted posts are dirt cheap and easy to create. They’re fueled by stellar content efforts (step 1) combined with detailed targeting – the stats for Facebook advertising are astounding.
Simply put:
- Do use paid promotion strategies on the channels
- Don’t use third-party social media traffic services
You risk flooding social profiles with bot and fake accounts offering little or no engagement. These followers typically increase ad spend, too, since click farms use automatic engagement – a high price to pay for nothing of value.
7 social media traffic tips to make things bigger and better
Here is what we recommend to get social media traffic easier:
- Less is more. Spend more time promoting content than creating it. Focus on creating a handful of epic, evergreen posts and use extra time getting it in front of those that matter.
- Add value with content upgrades. Rework content into new items like a checklist or a template. Give readers options and yourself plenty of ways to cross-promote the work.
- SEO it like crazy. Work hard on improving the on-page SEO through updates and LSI keyword injections. Build high-value links to the post as if it were a flagship product page.
- Spend money advertising it. Drop $5 -$10 for a promoted Facebook post or having it featured on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and others. Leverage social media advertising to its fullest and use what you’ve learned to improve the content value.
- Distribute through niche social circles. Create or join a collective of like-minded individuals within your space to create a sharing circle. Replicate the smart tactics used by the less-talked-about champions of social – mommy blogs – to work together and spreading the word.
- Have genuine interest. Make connections with influencers like you really mean it. Get to know them, help them, and retain their friendship for long-term traffic partnership.
- Rework content and remove poor performers. Update old pieces (already receiving traffic) with fresh information and media as this gives something new to share. Remove older, underperforming posts that are eating up valuable keywords and visitor attention.
More, here: 10 Instant Traffic Generation Tips
How long before you start seeing the social media traffic?
You can expect to see traffic from social media almost instantly from the moment you hit publish on the website and share the piece through your social channels.
Realistically, it will depend on prior engagement with the community.
Social media algorithms (like Facebook’s EdgeRank) is influenced by prior efforts. A new post followed by a previous, highly engaged share will meet a greater audience. These users signaled they want more, and so the platform gets your message to them easier.
Buffer explains EdgeRank this way:
In all, it’s a process and routine.
Improvement comes through trial and error:
- Media curation becomes refined to the audience profile
- Copy and headlines improve from rehashing what works
- Content topics are catered to what the community enjoys
- Understanding of the platform expands from usage
You can expect traffic from social media sources, but it greatly depends on your dedication. Creating a process and routine wherein you share and engage each day (while tracking and improving results) will begin showing significant social media traffic in a few, short weeks.
Have fun as you get social traffic
Social is social.
We have dozens of fantastic social media tools to save time and improve performance. Yet, it’s about the connections we create with people, at the end of the day. And this should be fun.
- It’s okay to make mistakes
- It’s okay to go off schedule
- It’s okay to learn as you go
We’re trying to use these social tools for business and marketing purposes. Of course, there is a resistance from the community – they want to have a fun time and be informed. But, we can be a part of the conversation if we bring something good to the table.
Work hard on creating content the community (and you) will enjoy. Promote it across the social channels that matter to them. And forge mutually beneficial relationships with the people they follow.
Do this… and you’ll make a name for yourself & brand. With it, comes the social media traffic.
