People use Twitter for a number of things—to keep up with daily news, to catch up with friends, to follow hobbies, to share work, to make new connections… you get the idea. Many of our #TwitterSmarter community use Twitter to boost their business brand—they share their content, expertise in certain subject matters and build relationships. However, not all of us know much about how referral traffic and how it impacts our brand.
We invited Eddie Garrison, a social media strategist and the founder of Clover Media, a content and marketing consultancy, to share some insights about leveraging social media to improve website traffic.
Here’s a summary of our chat.
Topic: Using Social Media to Increase Your Web Traffic
Guest: Eddie Garrison
Format: Eight questions directed to the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
Referral traffic is people who’re referred to visiting your website (or blog) by sources other than yourself. Think of it like word of mouth marketing, except it comes from other online resources like social media accounts and third-party blog posts. Every time you collaborate with another business person and they include your links in their posts, you become referred in their work. And every visitor who lands on your link from that page will be counted as referral traffic.
A1a. Referral traffic refers to visitors directed to your website from outside sources such as your Social Media channels. It sends possible buyers to your website that might have the same target group & people that trust their recommendations already #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/Kvcf70Md5M
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A1b. Referral traffic is important to track for marketers. It sends potentially valuable purchasing visitors to your brand’s website while at the same time, getting your content in front of new people #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/Kvcf70Md5M
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
These could be potential buyers who clicked through from a recommendation website. And that’s why it’s important to track these referrals. Rachel called these “outside offerings” like listing websites—efforts you put in places other than your own website. Tracking helps identify the more efficient sources and invest more time in developing them.
A1: Referral traffic is that which comes to your main offering from one of your outside offerings, such as social media profiles or biz listings. #TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/z0eiLk322g
— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) August 8, 2019
What’s more, referral traffic is also a boost to your SEO. Search engines see traffic from external links as a credibility factor, placing you as a high authority website.
YES! It's also relevant for SEO. Google sees this traffic as positive ranking factors since they signal users’ confidence in the authority & relevance of the information #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/VitM8JBYJv
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Our guest’s top advice is to make use of social media wisely. Eye-catching images, videos, and enticing offers coupled with great, relevant content can help capture your audience’s interest. Identify which types of content perform well for your audience, make sure it aligns with your content strategy, and create more of that content. Then share across other social networks to widen your reach.
A2a. Use Social Media as much as possible by creating content that not only helps people find you but buy from you. Create nicely designed videos, images, "freemiums" and blog posts & share them on multiple platforms #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/05S7bNvTXZ
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A2b. Matching your audience’s interests with the right content is a huge first step in rising above the noise on Social Media. Certain content types may get more traction than others #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/05S7bNvTXZ
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A2c. The important thing here is to ensure that the content you create fits with your content strategy and are focused on helping your target audience #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/05S7bNvTXZ
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Some other vibrant ideas from our community:
A2: To generate referrals:
? Give an EXCELENT customer experience so your business is memorable
? Write quality content that provides value
? Spend time networking
? Give other websites referral traffic#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/79SinBICl2— WP Business Reviews (@WPBizReviews) August 8, 2019
Make sure your tweet and image have a catchy and stop-worthy CTA. In in endless stream of tweets, you want to stand out and make viewers pause. Just another article with a regular title won’t help much—put real thought and effort into creating good headlines.
A3a.
1. Add URL's to your profile
2. Tweet like a human, not a brand
3. Pin a Tweet for constant attention
4. Automate sharing of evergreen content like blog posts and/or videos
5. Recycle old(er) Tweets#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/7BfkmZe7Rh— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A3b. Enticing CTA’s & headlines from blog posts are also crucial in making sure you have that “thumb stopping” content your audience wants to engage with #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/7BfkmZe7Rh
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
As CTAs, it’s also equally important, as Eddie mentioned, to check that your images and videos are correctly sized. It’s never a good sign when Twitter or another social platform crops your image because it wasn’t fitting.
A3c. Also, you want to make sure your visual content is formatted correctly for the platform. There’s nothing worse than creating a great graphic, photo, etc. & it’s not the correct size & gets cut off, losing it’s visual appeal #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/7BfkmZe7Rh
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
There’re so much more you can do, too, to drive referrals from Twitter to your website. Here are a few that our tweeters suggested:
All that said, be wary of link-spamming too. Like Jack pointed out constant links can get annoying to a regular member of your audience. Sometimes it’s better to cut down your blogs into content that can live and be consumed on Twitter itself. Find the right balance for you.
A3: (2/2) What's more, consider the value of pushing to your dot com. WHY are you driving traffic there? Are you sure more of your site content should've natively live on Twitter, then only drive to site when you're pushing services? #TwitterSmarter
— Jack Appleby (@JuiceboxCA) August 8, 2019
Twitter is a place for news. More often than not, people look up things and trending hashtags on Twitter before double checking with a traditional news publication. It’s just the reality of modern communication. That’s why it’s essential to engage on Twitter.
A4a. Twitter is where Social Media users go for up-to-the-minute news & information. It's a near real-time news feed for what's important to them or what they are interested in #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/G7R1cAkM5W
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
As a brand, you get to share your opinions, values, and announcements with your network in real time. Not only will you communicate your messages quickly, but you’ll also build a community that trusts your authority on a subject matter.
A4b. By engaging your audience here, it shows your brand is committed to your industry & its consumers, as well as being an active participant in news, events or breaking stories that might occur that are important to your audience #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/G7R1cAkM5W
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A4c. It also helps define your brand as an authority in your industry as your audience turns to twitter for breaking updates, news & other events that happen within your niche #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/G7R1cAkM5W
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Aside from the instant statistical benefit of engagement, you also make a lot of good friends. Social media is about being sincerely social—it’s about making connections, catching up with them, and showing you care. And the best thing is that these relationships are long-term—they stay with you throughout and help you boost your references. Because Twitter is an open platform and anyone can see each other’s Tweets, you can even reach individuals who aren’t directly part of the network.
And remember what Derek said, unless you’re interested in others, they won’t be interested in you.
A4: Engagement hopefully leads to affinity, affinity hopefully leads to conversion. You have to show interest in others for them to be interested in you. #TwitterSmarter
— Derek Hauk Is Making Things Again (@ThisDerekHauk) August 8, 2019
It sure can, as most of our community members vouched. The important thing, though, as Eddie said, is finding the right angle.
A5a. YES! Blogs are some of the best ways to increase your engagement on Social media. The key is finding that element that separates your content from the rest #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/GeRaL4fq4R
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
There’re so many people on Twitter sharing thousands of blog posts every minute. To stand out from the noise, identify your unique point of view and answer questions and topics that your audience wants to hear from you.
A5b. That might mean finding a unique angle, including more depth, adding more detail, improving UX or just giving away more information. It will improve the user experience & help generate more engagement #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/GeRaL4fq4R
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A5c. This is a screenshot from my own brand’s website. As you can see, 7 out of the 10 most visited pages today alone have come from sharing blog posts on Social Media, accounting for 134 visitors #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/GeRaL4fq4R pic.twitter.com/7cmt08O6Lg
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Plus, a blog is your content arsenal. As Kelli put it, it gives you something to launch your tweets with. When you’re running out if ideas to share, your blog’s got your back with evergreen content you can always repurpose.
A5: Definitely. It give you some content as a jumping off point. Plus you can only say so much in a tweet. #TwitterSmarter
— Kelli Koladish (@kellikoladish) August 8, 2019
Aside from all that, though, having blog also gives you some other advantages:
Every link you add to your tweets or other social posts is a referral back to your website. Each blog post you share increases your chance of being discovered, read, trusted, and re-shared. It builds an immense network of links that search engines seek in trustworthy websites.
A6a.
1. Fill in your Profile
2. Promote your Blog content
3. Make your content easy to share
4. Focus on sharing visual content
5. Post when your audience is active#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/4EjevhWwTp— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
A6b. Every time you share a piece of content on your Social Media channels, you have the opportunity to build relationships with your audience, improve your SEO & create an opportunity to send referral traffic to your website #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/4EjevhWwTp
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Some other ways a social media presence increases traffic:
And most importantly, get the basics right. Fancy tactics won’t get you far unless you have the essentials set up well.
If you can't/don't cover the basics you are setting yourself up for failure from the get-go #TwitterSmarter Everyone tries to set themselves apart all the time & misses out on basic fundamentals the average Social Media user is looking for #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/j9Vq3FRfNS
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Eddie’s top advice is to create original and useful content. Nothing beats helpful content that people can rely on and learn from. Similarly, paying for fake engagement—like followers and likes—are a big dampener on your genuine traffic. Not only do social channels discourage these false practices but the practice also throws your statistics out of balance. You might think 80k followers is a good number, but what’s the use if 70k of them are bots or fake profiles who’ll leave when you stop paying?
A7a.
1. Not creating original content
2. Paying for fake fans & likes
3. Spamming your audience
4. Getting "too" personal
5. Not tracking activity with website traffic, goals & ROI#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/GnhtOFBnFn— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
That’s also why it’s essential to track the effects of your activities. It helps you make well-informed decisions about your strategy.
A7b. Is your content reaching the right people? Is it effective in driving traffic? Are your efforts generating some kind of ROI? Without consistently monitoring these things, you will not be able to see the effectiveness of your campaigns #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/GnhtOFBnFn
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
And as always, hate speech and overly sensitive topics like politics and religion can harm your brand’s reputation. Consider your goals and strategy before you post anything.
A7c. Sharing your brand's personality is essential, however engaging in too much negative feedback or sharing sensitive topics like politics, religion, etc. can harm you brand's reputation & turn off your audience #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/GnhtOFBnFn
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Our community shared a number of other mistakes that can harm your traffic:
We’ve all seen people who share the same post over and over trying to increase a page’s reach. For a regular follower, that can be annoying. Twitter may even ban such repetition. Alberto suggested a great alternative: do what Gary Vee does.
I agree on this, automation allows some brands post the same over and over again without any sense.
Look for creative ways to share the same piece of content, maybe by using the @GaryVee content model!#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/I3uiuYdgXP
— Alberto Gómez (@alberMoire) August 8, 2019
Gary Vee regularly posts videos on his channels. He then cuts each video into smaller bite-sized elements and posts them as separate videos. This is a brilliant way to repurpose content and make sure people are returning to see what you offer.
And to that we respond with a resounding yes! Consistency is the soul of branding, and so like Eddie said, your digital presence across all channels should have a similar look and feel.
A8a. Your brand should strive to have a consistent look & feel across all digital platforms. That includes your Social Media channels as well as your website #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/hPfucXBADV
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
Keep aspects like your mission statement, logo, colours, profile photos, profile name or handle, and target audience the same.
A8b. However, the two are different platforms & should be treated as such. Although, you don’t want them to be so different that your audience feels as if they have gone to the wrong website from your Social Media channels due to your branding be that far off #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/hPfucXBADV
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 8, 2019
However, it’s also true that each social platform is different. You can’t shove thirty hashtags into Twitter—that’s just spammy. You need to have different strategies for each platform. Plus, like our friends from Synthesio mentioned, social media is about being conversational. It allows you more room to be informal and friendly in your tone.
A8: Yes, to a certain extent. Your social media pages should definitely reflect your brand's image and values.
BUT social media also allows you to get a little more personal and fun so you can connect with audiences on less formal setting.#TwitterSmarter
— Synthesio, an Ipsos company (@Synthesio) August 8, 2019
Well, folks, I hope this summary did justice to that amazing chat. Feel free to join our next #TwitterSmarter chat on Thursday at 1pm ET.
About me, Narmadhaa:
I’m a writer of all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.
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