Social media has quickly become one of the most vital elements for creating an online presence. Individuals and businesses are finding that they have to be fairly active on a few social media platforms in order to continue driving forward traffic and sales coming from their websites and blogs.
There are times however when you are trying to increase your social media presence, but find that they are having little effect. This is usually because of the use of tactics and methods that don’t really drive up traffic the way you would expect. Here we will take a look at the tactics that are now proving to be obsolete, and so should be avoided at all costs.
Don’t Overdo It
Naturally, upon hearing that social media is a great way of increasing traffic on your site, the first thing you want to do is sign up for every social media site under the sun and start posting. There is nothing wrong with having the drive to grab the bull by the horns and get cracking, but you should slow yourself down a little bit. There is actually such a thing as having too much of a social media presence.
If you are active on three sites then this should be enough. If you have more than three social media buttons on your website, people visiting will get the distinct impression you are trying too hard and will turn away. If you have just three, however, they will see that you are active but still professional at the same time. On most occasions, people find that using Facebook, Twitter, and one other site is the best way to reach their audience, however that depends on the kind of website you are running. If you have a lot of pictures, for example, you might find that using sites like Instagram will have a better effect.
The best thing to do is try a little research into which social media sites are the best for websites like yours. See what competitors are doing and if you can do anything similar. Chances are though, Facebook and Twitter will both feature in the three sites you use, so try and make sure that the final outlet you pick is right for you.
Posting Only When You Have Time
This is probably the mistake that most people make. Posting onto social media whenever you have the chance does seem like the best thing to do, however, it can be very detrimental to your web traffic. Just because you are free doesn’t mean that the majority of your followers are online. If you post on something like Twitter but the majority of your followers do not log on for another few hours, then they will miss your tweets completely.
This is why it is so important to do research into your social media accounts. There are a variety of online tools that help you measure when your followers are most commonly online. Then you can figure out when is the best time to be posting social media updates. Timing is everything when it comes to posting updates online, so try and make sure that you are posting regularly when most of your target audience is online. Remember that just because you are online doesn’t mean that your audience is as well.
Trying To Sell Directly To Your Audience
When you have quite a few followers, the temptation is to simply post a link and ask your audience to buy your product or service. This very rarely works, as most people simply move it along as spam. Unless you are offering some form of discount, most people will ignore your pleas for business.
The best thing to do is try and get as many email addresses as you can from your followers, and then start selling to them through direct emails. The reason this is more effective is that by giving you their email address, potential customers are making a small commitment to use your products or services. This way when you try and sell them what you are offering, they will be much more likely to say yes.
Essentially, the important thing to avoid is being too forward on social media. Never come across as though you are trying to sell something. Always make it seem like you are there to connect with your audience and join in a conversation with them.
Following People So They Follow Back
On sites like Twitter, the amount of people who follow large numbers of people so then they follow back is surprisingly high. Some users even spend money in order to get thousands of followers instantly. This may look very cool and appealing on the surface, but this actually damages how effective you are in reaching your audience.
The solution is to do a little research. Take a look at your competitors and see what they are tweeting and posting. If they have a lot of followers and the number of people they are following is a lot less, then they obviously have the right approach. See how you can incorporate their posting style so then you can follow suit.
In most cases, if you are able to avoid these bad practices then your social media strategy should be okay and require very little maintenance. As long as you are willing to do a little research into what to post and when to post it, then you should be able to reach your audience more effectively than you have done in the past.
