Social media has matured as a marketing channel over the years and is often paired with other channels like websites, blogs, videos and more to accomplish a specific business goal. I believe there are essentially six social media goals worth considering. In a previous post, we discussed brand awareness and community engagement. In this post, we will explore using social media to grow followers and drive more traffic.
Followers
When we talk about followers we are talking about people that make a conscious choice to receive your content in their feeds. Depending on the platform they may be called followers, fans, friends, subscribers or connections.
Having followers means that they think enough of your brand to want to consume your content on a regular basis. Having followers means that they trust you. Most often followers are interested in what you have to say and want to be reminded each time you add more valuable content. However, this trust can easily be broken if the content you post drifts toward too much self-promotion and not enough good old fashioned value.
We all have products or services we want to sell, however, when it comes to social media we need to provide way more valuable content than promotional content. While everyone has their own media content rules, most fall into the category that around 10% to no more than 20% of your content should be viewed as a sales pitch or you risk being unfollowed.
I feel the main reason for having followers is to have an engaged audience that really wants to hear your message. However, when someone is at the crossroads of either following you or not, many people view the number of followers you have as social proof. They assume that with more followers the content must be valuable.
We are often lazy in our decision-making processes and figure that if lots of others choose something that perhaps they have knowledge that we do not have and we choose to just follow the crowd so we don’t miss out. This gives rise to many businesses buying followers just to provide social proof.
So, if growing followers is your goal recognize that there is a distinction between quality (followers that really like your stuff) and quantity (followers just there for social proof).
Traffic
When we are talking about traffic in the context of social media goals, we are generally talking about driving prospects with a link to your website. Since our ultimate goal to get the “click-thru”, we have to present them with something of value that will help them make that first micro commitment to leave where they are and follow a path to your website. Generally, that involves some type of an offer or creating a compelling enough message that they want more.
Eye tracking research found that most people view the headline first. Therefore, the social media post’s headline is where we need to start.
I once published a book using a publisher from New Jersey. After spending many months writing the content of the book the publisher said that what he really cared about was the title and the cover. He said that a buyer will make their decision to buy your book based on the title on the spine first followed by the front and back cover of the book. That is the same with any social media post with a link. The headline is what they see first and if it does not trigger a desire to want more they move on. Therefore, your headline is the most important thing to get right if you what traffic to follow the link you provide.
Personally, I use the free headline analyzer by Isitwp. I try out many different headlines to find one that produces the best score.
Next, the image after the headline needs to be catchy so as to draw attention towards the viewer. We often use an image that is not very compelling. I think there is an art to finding an image that makes you stop scanning and take notice.
There is a reason GoDaddy chose to use Danica Patrick who is an attractive race car driver as their attraction character. She is the gal in the post image. As a guy, it is hard not to stop scanning a page when you see a pretty woman. It’s a hardwired emotional appeal that commands our attention.
I would also argue that to create an effective click-thru tactic you might want to create mystery around your headline that compels the viewer to click thru to discover the answer.
Are your social media goals to grow your followers or to get more traffic?
