Having an ample amount of followers is certainly a flex nowadays in the social media savvy world we live in. Having all those followers is a great start to building a brand or small business, but getting those followers to take the next step and click the link in your bio, well, that’s a different story. How do you get your social media followers to your website to engage further with your brand?

A large following is a GREAT start, but if your website traffic is much lower than those numbers, it’s time to consider taking steps to get your followers to your website.

After all, your website is where all the good stuff happens.

First and foremost, make sure you are making the best use of your time and resources and post to the RIGHT social media platforms. When choosing the best social media channels for your business, make sure the chosen medium is aligned with your business goals. 

Reminder: You don’t have to be on all social media channels, just the ones that best help you accomplish your goals. Because even though setting up a profile won’t cost you anything, managing it will cost you time! 

After choosing your social media networks and fully filling out your profiles, the next step is to create and publish posts that will pull your social media followers to your website. But how do you do that? The easiest first step is RESEARCH. Research your niche, your industry, service-based topics, your competition, etc. Pinterest is a favorite resource over here. Compile as many ideas and avenues as possible. Then begin to narrow down what will matter most in regards to your goals. Establish and hone in to your brand voice

And just START. There is nothing wrong with adjusting and shifting your content as your audience grows and you learn more about how to best engage.

Collect as much data as possible – no matter how small it is – to ensure you are going where your audience is and engaging in the best way possible.

And keep in mind what platform you are posting to. Adjust the content based on the platform. I.e. Instagram is the best platform for sharing visual content with followers. In this case, posting visuals that attract the attention of your followers is key. LinkedIn will garner more attraction to slides and presentations. Facebook is a free for all of content – as long as it is posted accordingly.

Here are some more tips:

• Facebook – There are many ways to share your content here. Share relevant graphics, images, or a video (uploaded directly to Facebook, not an outside link) that are relevant to your conversion purpose (product, blog, service, contact). Facebook will always favor images and videos over graphics with heavy text. Include a captivating but to the point caption, and a link to the blog.
• Instagram – You have more freedom over here. Graphics, photos, video are all game. Reels are the most popular right now, but please ensure your reel is more than graphics and photos on the screen. Your content should be purposeful and not forced to try and fit into that bubble. In any form, include a captivating caption that is informational but not too wordy you’ll lose interest. Direct your audience to your stories or bio for direct links.
• Stories – You can make it as simple as sharing your Instagram post directly to your stories. However, we highly recommend creating detailed graphics specifically for stories. And always use that LINK sticker to directly send viewers to your website.
• Twitter – Create a quick and snappy caption with a direct link to your website or blog. Make sure the image card on the link is engaging and stop-worthy.
• LinkedIn – You can either create a slide deck using relevant graphics or create a well-versed and informational post content. Always include a direct link to your website.
• Pinterest – Create properly sized graphics that match the content of the blog or webpage and link directly to the post.

As we’ve mentioned before, you don’t need to be everywhere to garner attention for your brand and conversion to your website.

How often you’re posting can either help or harm you. It is important to consider the ever-changing social media algorithms. Instagram will be your biggest battle in terms of gaining attention and engagement. You will need to experiment with what works best with your industry, content, and ideal audience.

Remember: There is no ideal number or limit to your stories! Utilize this space to effectively and purposefully share multiple avenues of content DAILY.

On the other hand, Facebook doesn’t really like you posting multiple articles a day, your best bet is to post a smaller number of posts, but make sure they are top-quality posts. You can also garner more engagement by creating your own group or participating in others that are relevant.

Keep your audience in mind. If your ideal audience is nationwide, you’ll have more freedom to when you can post to engage with them. If your audience is more local, you’ll need to post accordingly, thinking about the typical layout of their day. Also consider who they are – parents vs. business professionals, students vs CEOs. This consideration will drastically change what times of the day they are active on social.

TIP: Share valuable and actionable content more than once, even 1-2 weeks from the initial posting. Don’t make the mistake to use tools that share your content every hour; filling people’s news feed with your posts will make them think “spam” and unfollow you. There’s no need to force the relationship and lose it all together, right? But you do want to make sure your content is seen.

Simple: People want value, not feeling like they are being sold something every time they see your post. Followers will trust and engage more when they feel an authentic connection with your brand. That trust builds a relationship that creates a natural course to _______ (sales, reviews, referrals, clients, etc.)

By writing a blog, you are pulling people to your website to read about your business, or a product, or information on other resources you offer expertise in.

One thing to keep in mind when blogging is to keep the content relevant to your audience as well as valuable. To increase your SEO consider adding a video and / or photos to your post – remember to dive into the meta of each.

SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. Think back to your different social media platforms and the best way to share the blog on each.

This is a MUST in every social post that you have. The CTA should connect your followers directly to your website. This allows a natural progression to happen. Your social media followers are drawn in by your post and then are led to your website when they want to know more.

Along with having a call to action at the end, it is important to create a hook in the beginning of your post to draw the audience in and lure them to your website to learn more.

Remember, keep it simple for viewers – lay the steps out for them in the simplest way. This way they are less likely to do their own research that would potentially lead them somewhere else that is not your content.

Keep your CTA relevant to where you are posting. For example, on Facebook you will not want to use the “link in bio” CTA, but rather a direct link.

What better way to increase traffic to your website than having more people know about it?! When creating posts on social media, be sure to encourage your social media followers to share your post or links with their followers. Tag any and all involved or mentioned parties – staff, creators, businesses mentioned, original sources, talent involved, etc. Don’t over tag to try and garner attention!

The number of people seeing your content increases greatly with user-to-user sharing. To boost shares, be sure to have content that is engaging and the sharing occurs naturally!

Use Google Analytics, in-app insights, and website data to track your results in social media traffic and develop the next steps of your social media strategy from the “numbers” you discover.

Beyond just sending social media followers to your website – give them an incentive to keep coming back. Whether it’s a free product, introduction guide, sample graphics, free consultation, printables, content calendar, VIP content, etc.

These resources can be built into blog posts, webpage content, landing pages, newsletters, and more!

Taking that next step to get social media followers to your website can be daunting, but has proven to be rewarding. The above options are great starts to increasing traffic from social to your website.

Need help taking the next steps? Pathfinder is always here to help!