An entire course could be created on how to use social media to increase traffic to your website. This article will give you just a couple of ideas about how to maximize your time on social media if free traffic is your goal. You will probably find that it is very difficult to turn social media into a traffic source if you don’t go the paid advertising route, and that is something that is not recommended unless you have a firm grasp on Facebook ads and other social media advertising platforms.
Social media can provide a lot of free traffic. However, there are so many worthwhile social media websites out there, you have to be careful not to spend the bulk of your time chasing this low-converting traffic. Regardless what social media “gurus” will tell you, the return on your time investment trying to get people from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn back to your website to join your list is not very high.
How to Engage Social Media for Traffic
People go to social media sites to hang out. They are socializing. Make sure you approach them in a social manner. Don’t ever attempt to sell on Facebook or the other social media sites. Engage. Show funny videos. Ask people to share their favorite recipe or movie. Then whenever you have a new blog post, share it on your social media accounts.
It should be noted that some entrepreneurs do a really good job turning Facebook Groups into a steady stream of free traffic. In almost every case, this is because they are paying for Facebook ads targeted to a specific audience. Be very wary of spending money on Facebook, or any other social media site, unless you are absolutely certain you know what you’re doing. This article is about free traffic, so understand that social media sites can provide free traffic, but you should spend minimal amounts of time pursuing this low-converting free traffic source.
When Should you Post on Social Media for the Highest Engagement Rates?
HubSpot studied tens of thousands of posts and updates on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sites. They discovered the best possible times for you to engage your audience. Those times are listed below (as of June 2016).
-
Facebook:
- 3 o’clock to 4:00 PM on Wednesdays
- 1 o’clock to 4:00 PM on Thursdays and Fridays
- Noon to 1 o’clock PM on Saturdays and Sundays
2. Twitter:
- Noon to 3:00 PM on Mondays through Fridays
- 5 o’clock to 6:00 PM on Wednesdays
3. LinkedIn:
- 7:30 o’clock to 8:30 o’clock a.m., noon, and 5 o’clock to 6:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
- 10 o’clock to 11:00 o’clock AM on Tuesdays
4. Pinterest:
- Evening hours every day
- 2 o’clock to 4:00 o’clock AM every day
- 5:00 PM on Fridays
- 8 o’clock to 11:00 o’clock PM on Saturdays
5. Instagram:
- Anytime between Monday and Thursday, avoiding 3:00 o’clock to 4:00 o’clock PM
* Understand that multiple factors will influence whether your content is shared, liked, commented on and develops engagement. However, if you stick to the times just mentioned, you give yourself the best possible chance of driving a lot of free traffic to your blog or website.
Create Your Own Memes for Your Social Media Marketing Efforts
Memes are those graphics and pictures you see on Facebook that have funny or interesting text, quotes and comments overlaying the graphics. You will be ahead of your competition by miles when you use a free meme generator to create your own, one-of-a-kind, customized memes.
The following meme generators are free to use, you can create original content literally in seconds, and posts on Facebook and other social media sites with graphics or images drive engagement more successfully than posts that only have text.
- MemeGenerator.net
- Imgur
- QuickMeme
- DIYLOL
- Meme Center
- Make a Meme
Conclusion
Social media will take some time from other activities so make sure your Return-On-Investment is worth it. Once you have a good number of followers they have the same function as a good email list with some advantages like not having to worry about your message not being delivered. So, there are a lot of positive and negative aspects to spending time and money on a social media approach, so take your time to study each and make the best decision for your business.
