Almost nine in 10 marketers say increasing website traffic is a benefit of social media marketing, according to Social Media Examiner.

It’s the second most frequently cited benefit, just behind brand exposure and well ahead of lead generation:

How can you reap the web traffic benefit and more? Here are nine ways to help.

1. Optimize your social profiles
When people look to understand more about your brand, they turn to your profile or bio section. It should quickly communicate your brand value proposition while establishing your tone and style.

The more distinct your bio is – without sacrificing clarity – the more likely you can catch the attention of and resonate with your ideal audience.

Don’t make the mistake of writing your entire business story in your bio. Just a couple of lines will suffice. Then, connect the bio to your site with a call to action for your home or landing page.

2. Use social proof
You can also use social credibility to enhance your site’s value. Just like any review or testimonial, social proof brings the human voice into your brand experience. Whenever someone is about to make a purchase or is shopping for something they want, they look for reviews, recommendations, referrals, and input from others who have used the product or service.

Incorporate reviews, social comments, feedback, etc. into your social media content and website. Your about-us page can work well for this. Make sure to only use social proof you have permission to repurpose. Don’t forget to include third-party media coverage of your brand too.

TIP: Be brief. Keep viewers curious to click on the “learn more” button.

3. Use less popular platforms too
If you want to fast-track your web traffic and social media focus, two actively growing social platforms could help depending on your audience and topics – Pinterest and Reddit.

Pinterest
Pinterest saw 478 million monthly users in the first quarter of 2021, a 30% year-over-year increase. For content marketers, Pinterest proves its power in consumer discovery of trends and community-based features. It’s also a good platform for brands targeting women as they represent six out of 10 Pinterest users.

Skyram Technologies generates traffic by pinning its blog posts to Pinterest.  Given the visual orientation of the platform, the brand used their own images, including infographics, for some posts and stock photos for others.

Reddit
Reddit and its 52 million daily active users represent another social opportunity. You can easily find subreddits (i.e., forums) in your niche. Engage in the conversations. Post your own queries, share long-form educational perspectives, and comment to cultivate connections. If people find your advice helpful, they will want to explore more and likely to turn to your site.

TIP: Don’t use Reddit for direct promotion and marketing. Provide value. No one wants to read a written advertorial with a self-serving purpose. That likely will yield negative comments in the forum.

4. Time it right
You can’t drive traffic to your site if you post social content when no one engages. Pick the most effective time for optimal views. Instead of using best practices for social post timing, look at your own data. See when your target audience is most responsive. You can use automatic schedulers like Tailwind to suggest optimal posting times based on your profile’s specific algorithm and analytics.

5. Make share buttons obvious
Let’s say a person came across your blog post and absolutely loved the content. They ponder sharing it, but glance and don’t see an easy way to do that. They leave.

To prevent that from happening – and encourage sharing of your content – embed sharing buttons close to your content. Show the number of shares to date as proof that others find it worth sharing too.

6. Promote your content
Often, content marketers don’t use social media enough to promote blog or other relevant content on their sites. You don’t want to tout your content all the time, but you should promote all high-quality blog posts to increase their visibility.

To drive traffic to your site, publish excerpts or teasers on social media along with a link. That can incentivize the viewer to go to your website to read more.

Social media also is a good place to promote older but still relevant content that will intrigue new followers.

TIP: Promote the same content multiple times to catch those who might not have seen or noticed it the first time.

7. Engage your audience
Make sure your social media content revolves around your target audience instead of you. Offer content that’s valuable to them. Engage and inspire them to help them achieve their objectives.

Focus on asking open-ended questions when creating content to boost engagement. Ask questions that trigger a reaction. Ask yes-no questions or go multiple-choice style. Host a poll. Organize interactive quizzes and award prizes for winners.

8. Be responsive
Make an effort to reply to every comment on your social posts. That makes your audience feel valued, and sometimes your response can include a link to your website, which offers more information on the topic.

Expediting your responses can also be a brand differentiator. Another company could have a higher marketing budget or create better content, but if you’re responsive, engaging, and genuinely build relationships, your brand is going to win.

Incorporate customer service into your social media so your brand can respond to queries and complaints promptly. The customer’s experience not only matters to them, but it offers proof to prospects on how your company is going to treat them too.

9. Get visible
Social media users respond to visuals better than text-only, from images and infographics to videos and presentations. They are a suitable medium to develop an emotional connection or trigger a strong reaction. They can also make your content more interactive or easier to consume.

Use images as standalone entries or alongside text. Avoid stock imagery in favor of more authentic images that help viewers connect more to the people in or served by your company.

Infographics can reimagine your content in a refreshing way. They are especially helpful to translate detailed or complex information. Make sure the data is easy to consume at first glance. Otherwise, you probably won’t see the boost in shares that infographics can provide.

Don’t forget video – recorded and live. As Vertical Measures’ Arnie Kuenn explains: “(I)f you aren’t consistently producing videos on all of your social media platforms, you are already far behind the competition. Focus on creating content that aligns with your customer journey and considers content amplification. The more users that make a connection with your brand, the more engagement, and followers you will ultimately receive.”

Live videos have been shown to bring even better interactions. How about hosting a Q&A session every week to interact with your audience? It could be a standard live format or you could ask the audience to submit questions in advance to ensure you’re properly prepared to answer them. You can also create video webinars or similar presentations and design them to convert viewers to your website.