Social Networking for Success: Simple Ways to Increase Facebook Traffic & Drive...

Social Networking for Success: Simple Ways to Increase Facebook Traffic & Drive Sales

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Social-Networking-Column

With millions of people sharing billions of posts daily, how do you break through to increase your Facebook traffic and drive more sales for your business? Let’s take a look at a few techniques that will give you an advantage to cracking the social media code.

Taking the time to analyze your Facebook Insights section can provide some valuable information as to why some of your posts are working, while others simply are not. With so many companies doing such a great job with their Facebook posts, it can be a challenge to drive relevant traffic to your page—and ultimately your website. Keep in mind that the quality of your posts is just as important as the quantity of posts you share. You need to stand out, look professional and be of interest to the audience you want to attract.

What people love about Facebook is the social interaction. You can like, share and comment on a post from a friend to show your support. It’s a way to communicate with people you may not talk to on a regular basis and even maintain a regular flow of dialog without much effort.

Tips to Drive Facebook Traffic

What kinds of posts do people react to the most? Think about incentives, offers and giveaways. They make sense for your business and are a feel-good for your followers. Moreover, they have a great chance of being shared by your followers.

Entertainment is also a key. Mundane product information may get a view from your followers but is not likely to be shared. Mix in entertaining posts that are fun and still informative about your products and your business. Did you take a new camera out for a test-drive? Show a behind-the-scenes look on Facebook of the video demo you created for your website.facebook

People also love to share inspirational quotes. Take the time to compile great quotes that coincide with your brand’s philosophy. Then sprinkle them into your feed. They don’t necessarily have to come from the imaging industry. Give a reason why this quote motivates your team, motivates photographers, motivates storytellers. By tying this into your company’s mission, you can gain traction with shares.

Remember, your customers, and potential customers, want you to succeed. They want to support your brand, but at the same time, they want something in return. While you create fun and informative posts, be sure to keep those offers coming.

Posting for Success

Once you have great content to post, the work doesn’t stop there. How you post to Facebook can have as much impact as to what you post. It’s not just what you say but how you say it that can have a profound impact on the post’s shareability. Are you guilty of copying a link from your website or YouTube channel into a Facebook post and hitting the button? This can doom your post from the start. Sure, metadata will pull in some copy and a photo, but the problem is the photo often appears small, and the text is not inviting for social media sharing.

The best way to create a post is to take a few extra minutes and create it from scratch. That way you have ultimate control. Upload a beautiful photo directly, write a few lines of catchy copy, and include your link. This will look professional and will garner more shares for your effort.

Post Videos Directly

With billions of videos being watched on Facebook each day, this is an area you can’t afford to miss. How you share your video with your audience, however, can make a huge impact on its success. One of the biggest mistakes is to put a YouTube link directly on your Facebook post.

Not only does Facebook encourage you to post video directly to your page, they will actually show the video to more people if you uploaded it directly. What a simple win for you! Get your videos displayed to more potential customers just for posting it directly to Facebook.

After you have uploaded your video, you have the option to set up a call-to-action. Don’t miss that opportunity. This will add the option to click on the screen to learn more, or even shop now with a link to your website or online store. This is how you can drive more traffic to your website through the videos you post on Facebook. You can also choose the thumbnail for the video, allowing you to select something powerful and catchy to draw people in to watch.

When Is Just as Important as What

Now that you are creating successful posts, the question comes up as to when to post them. Knowing the best times to post your content can make or break it. Fridays are one of the best days to post if you want the most comments, likes and shares. If you are only posting once or twice a week, make Friday one of those posting days. Weekends can also be better for reactions than weekdays; so simply scheduling a post you created during the week to go live on the weekend can increase your chances of interaction.

If you are looking to three days a week to post, consider Sunday, Thursday and Friday. Posting between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. is also the most optimal time of day to get your message out. You will get more engagement during this sweet spot of time. Of course, every audience will have it’s own idiosyncrasies. So take a look at your company’s Facebook analytics to see if your specific audience has an interaction spike during the week. Then add that time into your post schedule.

What’s Old Can Be New Again

A final thought to help you get the most from the hard work you put into your social media. Once the traffic, views and reactions to a post have died down, and you are seeing the fruits of your labor drift away, there are ways to make that post work for you again.

Simply resharing the post onto a personal page can bring it back to life. You can also comment on older posts to bring them back to the surface and get them back into a customer’s feed. The comment can be an update or new revelation, or even a discount or promotion for the product featured in the video. While you may have a new post for that promotion, commenting on an older post where that product or service is mentioned will help you get more life out of the older post. Moreover, it will make the most of your social media effort.

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