Promoting your content on social media is a critical part of an effective digital marketing strategy. It can, in fact, be one of the most cost-effective ways to drive traffic back to your website and accelerate marketing results.
According to Pew Research, today around seven in 10 Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. What this means to you is your potential clients are active on one social media platform or another, or several of them.
And since the majority of internet traffic is now mobile and the majority of mobile time is spent in-app, social media represents one of the best chances you have at getting views, shares, likes and visits to your website.
To help you get maximum visibility and website traffic with social media, these are some simple tactics to try.
1. Use Paid Advertising
Even if all of your page followers see each and every one of your posts, which they don’t, your reach is limited to those followers, who might not all be your ideal target audience. Out of all the platforms, Linkedin is the one with better organic reach that can potentially extend outside of your followers. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have been increasingly limiting their organic exposure.
In addition, there is a lot of noise in feeds with advertisements, videos, and news posts, which reduces the chances of your audience seeing your posts.
But the good news is that advertising on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, provide the ability to reach your target audience and drive clicks on your blog posts
Consider advertising a few of your most popular blog posts each month. Even though it’s not as inexpensive as it once was, advertising on social media allows you to target specific demographics, website visitors, and custom created audiences, and show your posts just to them.
Try different blog posts, change the images so your audience doesn’t always see the same ones, and test which ones work best. This will help you earn spots on the feeds of people who are most likely to be interested in your content.
2. Share Every Blog Post to Your Personal Profile and Relevant Groups
You’re likely to have way more followers on your personal profile than in your business page. It is best to post your company blog on your business page, and then share it on your personal, especially on LinkedIn. You can tag people on your shared post, or share it via a DM, and also share it to groups.
On Facebook, depending on who the majority of followers are, you might or might not share it on your personal but you can certainly share it to business groups you might belong to.
LinkedIn groups are not so active anymore, but the members will still get a notification when a new post is added. Groups on Facebook have better member interaction. There are business groups such as your local chamber, the city, causes, and other business groups you can join. These are perfect places to share your posts.
Keep in mind, it’s important to participate in the discussions and look to be helpful, not just show up to share your posts. By participating, people will get to know you and develop trust, helping build your positioning as an expert within the members of the group.
You can repurpose your blog posts by sharing them multiple times, every so often. For this purpose, you can create snippets of each of the main ideas of the post, and share each of them, using different images.
3. Think Mobile First
People who are seeing your content on social media, are most likely viewing it on their phones. Make sure your post is optimized for smaller mobile screens, with minimal detail on your images, avoiding small text.
Also, make sure any image you use doesn’t have tiny details that require zooming in. For instance, don’t post a supplier’s flier with tiny text on it. Crop out part of it and share that instead.
Most importantly, ensure your blog site itself is responsive and mobile optimized. If people click to read an article they see on Facebook and end up on a messy site, most will back out immediately and not bother reading the article in full.
4. Pay Attention to the Headlines
According to Content Marketing Institute, 80% of people who see your post on social won’t get past the headline. Some will keep scrolling and not bother clicking or reading.
Others will start reacting to the post based on the headline alone. This can actually be a good thing for your blog. Great headlines have a way of getting people talking. While it can be frustrating to hear commentary from people who clearly haven’t read the article, the whole point of posting on social is getting engagement.
So embrace hot takes and write good enough titles so that people who actually read have an incentive to dig further. In a nutshell, use phrases that get people’s attention without being too clickbait-y.
Most importantly, look at your own data for feedback on headline quality. Posts that have a low click-through rate clearly show that the headline wasn’t enticing enough. Posts with a high click or engagement rate did a good job at getting attention.
Learn lessons from past successes and failures and adjust accordingly.
5. Use the Text Portion Wisely
Take advantage of the space provided for you to add your text. This varies for different platforms, but it is always best to write a teaser type paragraph to prompt interest in clicking to read the whole post.
The text you add to your posts can lend context, provide a brief summary, or reveal key benefits. Just remember that the maximum amount of content people can see without expanding is about 480 characters, so the beginning is the teaser part that will make them read the whole thing.
Avoid using chunks of text to get your point across. Try to be descriptive yet brief. Use any hashtags or cross-tags to other pages that are relevant to signal and boost your post even further.
Use emojis, especially if your audience tends to use them.
6. Be Selective With Images
A picture is worth a thousand words. Images catch our attention, and they can also begin to tell the story behind your blog. With the right image, you can elicit emotion from your audiences before they even read a single word. Once they’ve been engaged in this way, your audience will be more likely to read the actual post.
Make images as relevant as possible to the content of your posts. Don’t just use an image because it’s eye-catching.
Also, limit the use of text within your image. A spare amount of text can be great, but too much can prevent your boosted posts from running.
7. Test Different Versions of Blog Post Shares
One of your best tools for marketing is the ability to split test two different versions of the same blog post.
For instance, say you wanted to promote a blog about how canvas bags can add value to your client’s event. Create one version that uses an image of a group of people enjoying an event and using the bag. Then create another version that uses a stock image of the canvas bag.
Now, show each version to roughly the same audience and see which one gets the more clicks!
Performing these experiments can help you get details just right for each blog post you promote. It can also reveal preferences for different demographics when it comes to post design.
8. Repurpose to Post Regularly
The more frequently you post, the more the platform shows your content, the more people see it. Set a schedule to post regularly. You don’t have to post a blog every time, mix it up to keep it interesting, the point is to have a presence on a regular basis.
Repurpose your blogs using different images, rotate them on a regular basis so you always have relevant content to post and your writing efforts will go a long way.
9. Review Your Social Media Insights Data
Social media insights give you a lot of information about your viewers. After all, your own data is the best indicator of what’s working and what’s not and make educated adjustments.
Make sure you account for factors such as the time of the day, frequency of posting, day of the week, current events that might be taking place that could capture people’s attention.
Also, A/B test post variations vigorously to find out how to get the biggest reaction from your audience.
Finally, make sure that the content you create is absolutely worth reading! Offer value, relevance and genuine quality to your readers. Otherwise, nobody will want to read it.
This article was first published in the ActionMarketingco.com blog. If you’re interested in more digital marketing information specific to the distributor business, visit the Resources section of our website.
