One of the most important goals of any social strategy should be to increase website traffic. Blogging provides a great opportunity for businesses, as it can do wonders for driving traffic to a website. The problem with a great opportunity is that everyone wants a piece of the pie. More and more businesses are starting to blog. And more and more blogs are fighting for web users’ attention and cluttering social networks.

Nevertheless, your website will help potential clients to determine whether they want to work with you, or buy from you. So, it’s still very important to point people there whenever you get the chance. In the midst of congested social networks, let’s examine how can businesses drive more targeted visitors to their websites.

Increase clicks with Twitter.

So, you’re finally done writing that blog post and you’re ready to promote it online. Instead of inviting people to “check out our latest blog post”, tweet the article title instead. Just to be clear, there isn’t anything wrong with inviting people to “check out our new blog”, but you should describe what they’ll be reading. In most cases, the article headline summarizes what the article is about, which is why you should lead with it. It will encourage more clicks. Just don’t forget to include the link.

Before we move forward, lets take a step back. If you’re going to grab attention with an article title, then you’ll have to make sure it’s intriguing enough to pique your audience’s interest. It’s always a good idea to make sure that your article heading is descriptive, promising and actionable. For example, here’s an actionable headline for an otherwise generic health-related article: Eat these foods to significantly improve your health in 6 months. The title describes what the article is about and offers a promise to its prospective readers (it will greatly improve their health in 6 months, given they eat the food). This article headline is sure to catch the attention of those looking for this exact information!

"Research shows that visual Tweets obtain far more engagements (clicks, likes, re-tweets, replies) than text-based ones."

 

Increase link clicks with Facebook.

Including a call-to-action on Facebook can be very beneficial. It entices people to interact with your content. So, when you post something that links to your website, it’s always a good idea to invite people to click the link. ALWAYS include a call-to-action for content that is timely. Special offers and discounts are usually time-sensitive and should always have clear call-to-actions. Let people know that they’ll WANT or even NEED to act fast to take advantage of what to have to offer.

You can also include calls to action for content that you share, but that you didn’t create. If someone else’s content is of value to your audience, then share it! Don’t forget to credit the original author.

Posing a question is also a very conversational way of capturing attention and encouraging link clicks on social media. Questions resonate with individuals by getting them to think, evaluate and form an opinion. And everyone likes to give their two cents. It’s also a very warm and “social” way to involve someone in a discussion, because you are demonstrating that you care about what they think –you are treating them like a good friend by asking for their advice. So ask away and make sure to include links that lead back to your website. It’s a fantastic tactic.

Some may argue that #hashtags are ineffective on Facebook, and as much as that may be true for one company, it may not be the case for you. So, use them anyway! Experiment by choosing specific hashtags to include in your posts and monitoring them to determine that for yourself.