Connecting the Dots: How to Connect Social Media to Your Website

Just about every business has a website, and many are working on creating social media identities as well. Some businesses have an extremely well developed social media presence, however have seen a drop in visit to their websites. The aim of this paper is to study tactics and techniques on how to integrate the two and increase response and conversions.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA

Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, just to name a few, are common places for businesses to create social profiles & identities. Creating profiles on social media sites has many positives, including but not limited to: increased search engine rankings, increased visibility, two way interactions, & an opportunity to spread information in a viral manner. But the question that comes to mind is, once an end user reads your 140 character tweet or views your video on YouTube, how do you direct them back to your site and convert them into leads & prospects?

The ultimate goal of all businesses is the same, increase revenue through sales. It’s great to be able to spread your message on social media sites, but without conversion it’s just another form of branding that requires a lot of time and effort. The goal is to connect the two (social media & websites) so that once a user has read your Facebook status they are inclined to learn more by visiting your website or a landing page.

DIRECTING TRAFFIC: ADD YOUR LINK

The easiest way to direct traffic from social media sites to your website is by adding links. Most social media profiles enable you to add your website address in the profile area. Be sure to fill out this information. It is the number one way to get users back to your site.

DIRECTING TRAFFIC: LINKING BACK

When posting status updates on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn, be sure to add a link to your site where users can learn more:

_EXAMPLE TWEET: __HOW TO Start a Small Business Social Good Campaign -http://bit.ly/cLOQAc_

Using tools such as http://bit.ly/ and http://tinyurl.com/ you can shorten your URL to stay within the standard 140 character limit.

WHAT TO LINK TO

So now you’re directing traffic to your site, but in order to convert its imperative that you are asking for information. A common technique is to offer information in return for the users name and email address. By doing so, you are growing your list of prospects which, with further marketing, could turn into deals.

Consider building a landing page and every time you link someone to an article they are required to offer their information. Keep the page clean and easy to understand. Do not bog down the landing page with too much information. The goal of this page is to capture audience information and deliver an article. The form should be clean and simple as well. Ask for information such as: Name, Email Address (be sure to have a link to your privacy policy) and one other question that gives you information that you can use to categorize users (i.e. what information are you interested in?)

The other option is to link them to a page on your site that gives more information about the status update on the social media site. When doing this, be sure to have a contact form or a sign up form that is easily found.

Author: Rahil Pirani, President of Pirani Marketing Group