Follow the Leader: Achieving Branded Traffic with Social Media Links
Social media can be a valuable part of a company's marketing strategy — it’s a low-cost way to connect to your customers. The best way to harness the power of any social platform is social media links. These are links placed on networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more. Because most social media networks have such a broad audience, you have the potential to reach hundreds, and potentially thousands, of people in your target market.
Reap the Benefits of Branded Traffic
Using social media marketing has several benefits. The first is cost. Social media is much less expensive than other forms of marketing. In fact, many social media platforms are free. However, if you choose to use premium versions, you can expect to pay a monthly or annual fee. For example, LinkedIn charges $7.95 to $74.95 per month for premium accounts. Social media links also have the potential to "go viral," which means that users share your content with others, causing the links to attract a great deal of traffic rather quickly. Other advantages of social media links include increased visibility, more interaction with your target market, and the opportunity to improve your company's rankings with major search engines.
However, before you can reap the benefits of social media links, you need to decide which platforms will give you the greatest return. If you have a product-based business, especially one in the fashion or home goods industries, Pinterest may be the right platform. Pinterest allows users to pin photos to a virtual bulletin board and share their interests with other people. When people pin your product photos, your business gets more exposure. If you have a service-based business, Facebook and Twitter may be better options. These social platforms allow businesses to post social media links and share articles of interest with their followers. Twitter and Facebook are also great platforms for sharing business expertise, as you can use the tools to answer questions from your followers, share information about new products and services, or explain how your products and services help others. All of these activities will encourage your followers to link to your company's website or share information with their followers.
Innovations in Social Media Marketing
Another benefit of using social media links as part of your marketing strategy is that you can work on your campaign from almost anywhere. Most social media tools have mobile applications that allow you to post links and check your results from mobile phones and tablets. And because you can check your social marketing campaign metrics in real time, you can quickly shift approaches if the strategy you are using isn’t producing results.
Pitfalls of Social Media Links
Although using social media for marketing has many benefits, there are also some potential disadvantages. One is that there’s a learning curve for someone who has never used social media. You may have to invest some time in learning how to use the tools effectively. Another potential pitfall is that inexperienced users may make significant mistakes. Copying content from other sites, posting inflammatory content, and posting content that does not resonate with your followers are just a few of the mistakes you must avoid in order to use social media links effectively.
If you plan to use a social marketing campaign to spread the word about your business, be sure you understand how social media links work so you can effectively promote your products and services. Investing in books about social media or attending seminars and workshops about building a social marketing strategy can help you avoid some of the most common mistakes.