Many people have their own description of what the Social web might be. The Wikipedia definition is “a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web.” My definition relates to how your website interacts with people through the social websites. The social web links your core information (website) with your followers through social websites like Facebook and Twitter therefore spreading your information through your social links and directing them back to your website.
Your Website Should be at the Centre of your Social Web
What is your strategy to get traffic to your website? Do you even have one? Unfortunately many people fall into the trap of building a website and then hoping that it will be found by a prospective client. This is a waste of time.
If you had a big marketing budget you could spend thousands on advertising to try and get traffic to your website. No small business or individual can afford to spend that type of money. If you have lots of information to share with your audience, the best way is to keep writing.
You should have a content-rich website on your own domain and this is where you’ll spend about 80% of your content marketing time and energy. You should use your website as your content hub for all your information. The more you write about what you know, the more you show yourself as an expect. It is still not good enough just to keep writing though. You need to spread that information as far as possible.
This is why your website should be at the centre of your social web. You will develop your ideas by writing which will become your unique selling proposition. The site becomes a valuable business asset and over time develops a reputation with human readers as well as with the search engines. This is why everything that you write for your website should be optimised for both search engines and potential readers.
Now to help with the traffic. Do you spend time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even YouTube? Have you used it for your business? If you haven’t already, you should start.
Your website should be at the centre of your Social Web – @jkkruger – Click to Tweet
Drive Traffic to the Centre of your Social Web – Your Website
Now having a WordPress website will help to drive traffic to your site as it includes powerful mechanisms for social connecting and sharing.As a result, you can foster conversation and keep an eye on what your audience finds interesting.
Nowadays, great content gets more Likes, Shares, Tweets etc. which helps drive your website up the rankings, which in turn brings in more traffic. The more times you produce great content, the more likely that it will be shared and hence also increase your expert status.
So if you are using social media sites, are you using it to get your content and message out?
When writing your content on a WordPress website you can automatically get your article on the social media sites without any more effort with the correct WordPress plugins installed. The plugin will post a link on your social media sites and hence bring the readers back to your site.
The more great information that is shared on your social media sites via your website, the more likely it is that people will talk about you therefore increasing the popularity of your brand.
There are many other ways to direct traffic to your website. Not just through Social Media.
If you are publishing your own traditional book you could include links to landing pages on your website designed to to create lasting relationships with those readers.
In addition, if you have a report that you are hoping will go viral, pack it with links to material on your website.
The best way to create deeper engagement is through an email list. You should have an opt-in box on your website to capture leads. Once you have a client’s email address you can create a lasting relationship over a longer period by sending periodic emails with great information. Do NOT try to sell anything straight away. This will just turn people away and they will either unsubscribe or you will just end up in the deleted folder.
So focus your time and energy on driving traffic to your website and make sure you have it optimised to capture them in your email list.
So, make sure you leave a comment letting me know how you plan to leverage this new insight.
Related articles
- Social Media as the Next Web (briansolis.com)
- Are You Taking Advantage of Search and Social Synergy? (greatfinds.icrossing.com)
- Reach the Always-On Consumer with Search, Social, and Content (thecontentlab.icrossing.com)
