When a visitor sees a URL that would take him to a website, three things can happen. The visitor might ignore the URL altogether, and not even reach your site. Alternatively, the visitor can click on the URL but lose interest as soon as he comes to the landing page and close that window quickly. Alternatively, the visitor might navigate your website, take in the messages you want to convey and maybe even do some transactions on it, or at least bookmark it return later. When you read some numbers of visitors to your website, the last two categories would be counted, but only the last category is actually useful to you. So, the quantity of visitors to your site is essential, without doubt, but the quality of visitors is even more critical.
What Do the Numbers Say?
It is estimated that less than 10% of a website’s visitors are drawn to it from some social media post, so it would be wrong to say that a business can generate website traffic only if it has a bustling social media presence. There are many other sources for a website to get traffic, like direct visits, search engine results pages, referrals, etc. Therefore, it is imperative that social media push is done smartly so that it gives results.
Does A Post Generate Interest?
A teenager just out of school might have an Instagram account just to show off her cool pictures. However, a business trying to generate revenue needs to offer something of value to its followers for Instagram, so that they look for its website and go there. Merely having business profiles on social media will not help, unless each of those profiles has a specific call to action that nudges the visitor to their website with an intent to buy.
How Personal Can You Be?
You must remember the most crucial word in social media – ‘social.’ Social media is all about real people looking to connect with other real people. Your business will not be able to gain if you use social media as a static noticeboard to display your company’s latest brochures. The social media posts of your company can only drive website traffic successfully if your content on social media shows the human side of your company and its products. Post pictures of employee picnics on your Facebook page, post a picture of your oldest employee on Instagram, and only after such posts start generating traction can you start talking about your products or invite people to your website.
It is evident that social media cannot be the only way you can drive traffic to your website. You will also need other sources of traffic. However, because of the unique nature of each social media app and its users, you can do some of the few things listed above to generate some additional traffic for your website.