August 2015 - TSO Media

Are You Missing Out On Web Traffic By Not Using Twitter?

While Twitter is one of the best social channels a small business owner can leverage, far too many I speak with want little to do with it. That’s an absolute shame.

When I look at the effectiveness of a social media strategy, I’m looking to see how much web traffic is being driven more than page growth or post activity. Those numbers are valuable, but in the end, your relationship building, page growth, and likes, comments and shares have one end goal – increased sales. Since most social posts don’t usually convert directly, they, along with your activity elsewhere on these social sites, need to drive traffic to an external lead generation point – your website. Of course, you still need the traffic to convert but that’s the role of your website and sales teams, not your social pages and profiles.

How well a social channel does at driving traffic to your website depends on a number of variables, but all things being equal, or at least similar, Twitter is one of the best social platforms for that purpose. Since I have active and engaged profiles on each of the six major social sites and I post similar content, it’s easy to see just how well (and easily) Twitter works.

So how well does Twitter work?

Twitter drove more traffic as reported by Google Analytics than the other 4 big sites.
Twitter drove as much traffic as organic search over the same time period.
Twitter was actually the 2nd highest source of web traffic during the time frame measured.

What’s even more impressive:

Twitter had the lowest percentage (58.04%) of 1st-time visits meaning it drove the most repeat traffic (and if they’re coming back, you know your content is on the mark and your tweets are crafted properly).
Twitter had the 2nd lowest bounce rate (Google+ was tops in that category)
Twitter had the most pages per session and the highest measurable onsite time (Not a valuable measure in and of itself but notable for comparison purposes)

To be fair, Twitter’s conversion rate for goals I have set was minimal BUT anecdotally, it drove the 2nd most business (behind LinkedIn). The low numbers could be due to the goals I am measuring and/or how Twitter users chose to reach out to me when they decided to purchase. Twitter users may simply have chosen to come back by going directly to my site rather than through Twitter. With direct traffic being the second highest source of website views, the lowest bounce rate and the highest conversion rate at close to 17%, the latter is certainly plausible.

Direct traffic is a good indication of effective branding.

Unless someone knows your site URL (generally through traditional marketing, networking or social activity), they wouldn’t be going directly to it. In my case I haven’t done any traditional advertising and do (as of now) minimal networking. The majority of my branding is done via online activity (and I’ll add – none of it paid).

What makes Twitter’s ability to drive traffic even better? The ease of using it.

How Easy Is It To Drive Traffic Using Twitter?

The beauty of Twitter is in how little posting, and therefore time and effort, it takes to drive traffic. You still need good content and to learn how to craft your Tweets to attract attention, but master it (heck, just moderately excel at it) and you’ll be surprised at how well it works.

Over a 90 day period, I post just 514 Tweets from content on this site (the smaller light blue circle).

Those tweets earned 44,617 impressions and 53 link clicks (the smaller circles)! My following at the time? Roughly 2400-2600; a relatively small number by standards.

How Little Work Was Actually Involved?

Think about it. Only 514 tweets over 90 days. That’s less than 6 per day! Since my content was already written, all I did was leverage my previous work. My tweets came directly from work I already did. Posting time? My Tweets were scheduled via Hootsuite‘s bulk scheduler reducing the actual time spent posting to maybe an hour one afternoon per week! (Not sure how to do this?)

Here’s a better graphic showing just how much value I received from only a handful of Tweets. You can clearly see the number of impressions relative to the number of tweets.

Disclaimer:

Simply posting a handful of 100 -140 character snippets from your blog posts probably won’t drive the traffic you need but it will get you on the right track. I’m actually tweeting 15+ times per day. It’s the additional posting, the sharing content of others and being social, which has helped increase my following and build the great relationships which have contributed to my results.

Yes, it does mean more time posting, but since there is no stress on me to find or post content, I spend more time reading, engaging, being social and having fun. That makes it easy and enjoyable to find a few minutes at various points during my day to Tweet. It’s actually time I look forward to having. As an added bonus, it has made finding content almost effortless too! (Things tend to fall into your lap when you’re not really looking.)

The bottom line

Twitter is phenomenal for building relationships, creating visibility for you or your brand and driving traffic to your website.

If you’re not using it, why?

Facebook Is Still A Viable For Lead Generation!

Updated July, 7, 2016:

The original article below provides an excellent example of a Facebook post directly responsible for a lead. To show this is not an isolated example, I caught (through social monitoring) a post I wrote and published for the same client on March 29th of 2016 generate a lead more than 3 months later!

What makes this example an even better testament to the value of Facebook:

The link shared was NOT from my client’s website.
The original post was not ‘boosted’ or part of a paid ad.
The original post had very poor initial reach.

Facebook works.

Original article:

Yesterday I posted an article to Facebook for a B2B consulting client, Darling Geomatics.

It included a quick snippet, a link to an article run by the Sierra Vista Herald written about a particular project they recently completed and a thank you. The post itself was completely non-promotiona. No CTA. No “how could this help you?” Just a simple informational post.

After allowing the post to ‘run its course’ for a few hours, it was strategically (and inexpensively) boosted through targeting. Just 20 hours later it has:

44 likes
2 shares
5 comments
An organic reach of 404
A paid reach of 2851
Has generated 2 new likes

AND…….

It resulted in a request for services:

Keep in mind that this is for a local business with only 355 Likes prior to the post!

Why did this post work?

That’s hard to assess and on quite honestly know why. I’m not sure I could even duplicate it on purpose. It could simply have
been the right post, the right targeting, and some dumb luck. The point though – social and specifically Facebook – can and do still generate direct leads and sales when used properly.

Without question Darling Geomatics’ approach to how they use Facebook creates the foundation for such successes:

The strategy for the page (and all of their social profiles) is branding and to be informational and educational around their services, not promotional.
The content is quality. Consistency and regularity may be critical but quality content still trumps both if you have a loyal following.
Following: It’s not bought. It’s been earned through what they post and their reputation. Page growth is primarily driven by offline channels.
Paid advertising (boosting) is limited and strategic.
Tactical engagement (how and when they engage)
It was posted based on the optimal time according to their insights and my experience monitoring when they see their best engagement, NOT at a time the ‘experts’ say is optimal.

Does Facebook generate leads for you?

Most overlook the platform, though, based on the notion it’s not where the decision maker is active. There are 2 issues with the thought process.

First – you’re focused solely on the decision maker. Ever wonder who influences the decision maker? It could be a lower level manager, the office manager or even his or her spouse. Back in the day, to get in the door, I ‘sold’ the office manager. I let them sell the person controlling the checkbook. I focused on the influencer.

Second – Facebook, more so than any other platform, is a social destination. It’s where people go to hang out, keep up with friends and family and look for referrals/advice. Small business owners are present on the social media site. They’re employees certainly are.

A few final notes

Make sure you have a monitoring system in place or having a reputable firm doing it. Once a lead comes in, your timing in how it’s handled can make the difference between getting and losing the sale. In this case, the comment was initially acknowledged and responded to within 38 minutes. That allows time for a follow-up later without the client thinking they were ignored.
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While you should not look to social channels as a sales tool and not every post will perform this well, a good strategy, smart posting tactics (that do not revolve around ‘expert’ generalizations) and monitoring works.

Archive for month: August, 2015