When it comes to Social Media Networks, Facebook is still king and it’s unlikely to lose its crown anytime soon. According to Statisa, as of September 2016, Facebook was the first social network to exceed 1 billion registered user accounts. Sitting at a whopping 1.71 Billion active users, Facebook towers over the nearest competitor – WhatsApp (1 billion). It’s no surprise then that Facebook drives more website traffic for businesses than any other social sharing platform. It also reigns supreme in terms of audience reach and engagement.
As a Squarespace website owner, it’s essential then to refine your Facebook marketing efforts to leverage the power of Facebook. Here are 8 ways to use Facebook for increased website traffic.
1. Tweak Your Facebook Page for Websites Clicks
Facebook page optimization is crucial. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stumbled upon a Facebook page – had the desire to find out more about a company – but could not, for the life of me find a link to their website.
Make sure you include your website link where it makes sense! For example, your “About” tab, in product and image descriptions, timeline milestones (if there’s a milestone where you introduced a new product), page posts and even event pages.
Also consider including a call to action button, that takes visitors directly to your site or sign-up page. Squarespace does this perfectly on their Facebook page below:
Another option is to include various tabs on your page, such as a blog tab. By adding a blog tab, your blog articles are automatically streamed to your tab page.
2. Make Your Facebook Images Big
Include photos in your posts as research shows that engagement increases by 120%. By including large photos, your engagement will be even higher; meaning more likes, shares, comments, click-throughs and traffic to your site. Here’s a great example from the Squarespace Facebook page:
Here are a few guidelines to remember:
- Upload images directly via Facebook.
- Analyze page insights and metrics to see what’s working and make adjustments
- Use a shortened link to keep text clean.
- A rule of thumb is to set images to 1200×628.
3. Write Short, Compelling Updates
Concise and witty is what you want. Short and witty updates, typically get the most engagement and traffic to your website. With so many people using smartphones and reading content on the go, short content is also more geared towards the mobile market.
Some guidelines to follow:
- Keep updates to one sentence, preferably below the 140 character count for Twitter.
- Make your update a summary of your blog article, if that’s what you’re sharing.
- Write out several variations of your update and choose the most compelling and enticing one.
- Remember your mobile market in terms of text, images & website.
4. Be Creative: Include Questions and Quotes
Aside from concise and compelling updates, consider how else you can tweak your text. Be creative; the options are infinite. For example, use questions and quotes.
Questions invoke interest because they naturally require a response. Again, though, when asking questions, remember point three: make it compelling. Below is a perfect example, from the Bablic Facebook Page:
Some tips for asking questions:
- Keep them concise.
- Use curiosity invoking questions.
- Play with different question types e.g. searching for an opinion, trivia etc.
Unlike questions, Quotes are some of the most shared content on Facebook. Here are some tips for using quotes:
- Find a quote that summarizes your article.
- Combine the quote with an image of the person you’re quoting – creates personalization.
- Where applicable use a quote that invokes controversy – creates, even more, engagement, click-throughs, and traffic to your site.
5. Use Video
Through embedding video in your posts, your Facebook fans know what your article is about. And if it’s enticing enough, they will click on it, driving, even more, traffic to your Squarespace site. Also, keep video’s short. The Squarespace video below is 15s! When using video, remember that most people initially have the volume turned off, so adapt your videos to that.
A few quick pointers to bear in mind:
1. Keep videos short.
2. Make sure the video is embedded directly on your post for engagement.
3. Consider personalizing it with faces and products.
6. Delete that link!
It’s not necessary to keep the link in your post as the image and summary of your article is clickable. Adding an additional link has been proven to actually lower your reach based on Facebook’s algorithm. Here’s an example:
- Make a Facebook update with a link to your content:
2. Highlight and delete the link:
3. Hit publish, for a clean post:
Take note: The only time you’ll need a link is if you’re using a full-sized image.
7. Share other people’s content
Why on earth would I do that, you may be asking? Yes, on the face of it, it seems rather counter-intuitive, like you’re increasing traffic for your competition. However, this is a superb strategy to increase your traffic. I’ll explain why.
Sharing articles that are relevant to your market and relate to your business, makes your business look more willing to share simply for the benefit of your followers and not only for yourself (improves reputation). Not only do you gain reciprocal fans (increased following), your customers appreciate your informative content (increases your authority) and the businesses whose article you shared will be more likely to return the favor and share your content (improved social media presence and more traffic to your site).
As an example here is a post by Bablic, sharing an article by Entrepreneur:
Social media is all about sharing and this applies equally to your business, not just your customers. So share away! But keep these pointers in mind:
- Share other content when you feel it’s relevant to your market and can benefit your readers.
- Share when it’s from a trustworthy source e.g. if you share stats about a specific industry trend and it’s not from a credible source your credibility can be dented.
8. Use Facebook Advertising
Whilst you can generate traffic without paying a cent, also consider increasing your reach through Facebook advertising. This is increasingly important as organic reach for business pages on Facebook is decreasing. Many businesses have reported this fact. This is not a post about this issue, but feel free to read up on it here if you’re interested.
Facebook ads will allow you to achieve more reach among existing fans, new markets and even target your competition’s followers. You can promote posts, your page, and even your web-site, all of which present opportunities for increased traffic and conversions.
Your target market can be selected via a wide range of metrics such as age, gender, demographics, location and interests. You can target, right down to the niche. And from as little a $5, you don’t need to spend a fortune to achieve a return on your investment. Make sure you engage in A/B testing to see what’s working and what’s not.
With the reach Facebook has it’s important to refine your Facebook marketing strategies for increased engagement, social sharing and ultimately increased traffic. There are many ways you can do this as was highlighted above.
Pro tip: When using Facebook ads, translate your Squarespace site using Bablic, you can then target new/other markets and achieve a cheaper cost-per-click compared to English speaking users!
What other techniques do you use?