Don’t Worry, Be Happy about using Social Media to Increase Your Website Traffic

I know this is really confusing for some of you, and it was for me as well until I saw the light. Let me share those bright rays of sun beams with you.

You have a website, and of course you want to keep and increase traffic to your website. You’ve thought about promoting your website on Facebook.com, Twitter.com and local Indianapolis social media websites and blogs. But, you don’t want your traffic to go somewhere else, you want to keep all that Internet traffic for yourself!

What good is it if my customer is visiting another site to learn about my company? I want them to read my website pages I have worked years refining and improving just for this occasion. Why should I copy and paste that information to a generic looking Facebook page?

What if the majority of your users start visiting your Facebook.com page instead of your website? They read your Facebook updates, get comments from you . . . why do they even need to visit your website? They already feel like they are connected and up-to-date with you. Could this kill the traffic to your website? Could this destroy the internal social media (discussion forums, comments, reviews, etc.) you’ve already started on your website?

These concerns are natural, and it is alright to feel this way. I worried about some of the same things. You want to be the king of your own domain! It’s the way we’re wired, and almost instinct, but with a few more paragraphs I’ll prove why you (and I) were completely wrong.

Social media sites won’t take away traffic from your website, they will increase traffic and bring new visitors. Nowadays, these young punk whipper snappers check Facebook daily, or hundreds of times a day depending on their level of addiction. They will see your Facebook or Twitter updates, links to news on your website, conversations between friends, clients or other companies, and will be reminded about your business. You can even start conversations on social media sites and build new and better relationships.

Think about your website for a moment. Do your visitors have a reason to visit several times a day? Unless the site is already very popular, and has new content throughout the day, probably not. But a lot of them will visit Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites several times a day without question.

So let’s address some of the concerns we had:

1. What good is it if my customer is visiting another site to learn about my company?

They may have never found your website otherwise! This will give them an opportunity to learn about you on a website they are always on, and they can click your website or news links to go directly to your website. You are gaining traffic, not losing traffic.

2. I’ve been spending a lot of time, effort and money on improving my website. Why copy and paste all the info to my Facebook website?

A social media site is not a second website, it is a place for you to network and interact with potential and existing clients. It can’t hurt to remind your friends and clients about what you do, and meet new friends who you can turn into new customers. Facebook.com is not the ideal place for business, but I expect it to change (how about a Friend Wall and a Work Wall – Facebook?) Other social media sites like Twitter.com, LinkedIn.com, Plaxo.com and local sites like SmallerIndiana.com are more appropriate for business today. However, there are some companies that are currently using brilliant marketing and customer service strategies on Facebook and Twitter. It really depends on your business.

3. They are learning everything about you on Facebook or Twitter, why do they even need to visit your website?

Because like Paul Harvey, you give “the rest of the story” on your website. Social media users will see a sentence or two of your news announcement, or blog post, and will be compelled to click on the link and learn more if it is interesting. Interesting = traffic.

4. And a new question, should I start my own internal social media efforts on my website?

You could, and it probably can’t hurt. But, if you don’t have a lot of engaged users or customers, it may not help much either and could hurt by giving the impression of tumbleweeds being pushed along by the wind. Depending on the amount of visitors your website receives, you could allow comments, use Facebook Connect to attract Facebook users, start an internal social media site, or even start a Ning type site on a subdomain with a lot of social features that you have complete control of.

So now that your worries have been put to rest, the question changes from should I to how should I? The strategy for creating your social media empire is more important than starting it. Effectively communicating your brand and message through these social media avenues . . . coming soon to a blog near you (if you’re close to this one.)