Driving Traffic To Your Site Through Social Media

Driving traffic to your site is still one of the main goals today.  More meaningful and effective traffic means more conversion and more money.  The internet is changing rapidly and if companies today are unwilling to adapt to the changing technology, in a few year they will become obsolete.  More people are using social media to buy online.  If the company or product comes recommended from friends or family, then people are much more likely to buy that product.  Referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value and are two times more likely to pay attention to recommendation from their friends or family. Also referred customers are much more likely to refer your product.[1]   Using social media is one of the most common ways people refer products in todays digital age.   One such site that is based purely on referrals is Pinterest. Pinterest allows people to post and pin creative ideas or cool looking products to their profile for other people to see and share.  Many of these pins have links to company websites which is a good source of driving business and can also be tracked effectively.  

In 2013 a man planned a wedding using his girlfriend’s Pinterest board.  His wife had pinned 260 creative wedding concepts and he took each of those ideas and planned a proposal and a wedding on the same day.[2]

This is just one example on one website.  The whole wedding was planned on Pinterest and I can guarantee you that at least one item was bought because of a referral from Pinterest. Not having these products on Pinterest would have most likely put the products out of the loop.  That being said, social media is one of the best methods to drive conversions.  So why are companies still spending so much money on online ads when they could be spending more money to build up their social media profile? It usually takes some time for established companies to adapt to changing environment, but more and more companies are starting to see this benefit to social media and social media management. They are starting to spend more money on social media management systems such as hootsuite, sproutsocial and viraltag.   Viraltag is a management suite for pinterest allowing a company to upload content and get insights on how it is performing.  It allows integration with google analytics and campaign tracking for a minimum plan of $4.99 a month.[3] 

A company having many tools available such as sproutsocial which can track facebook, twitter, and other social media sources while also using tools such as viraltag for pinterist can put that business a step ahead of their competitors.   Since many of these tools provide campaign tracking, they can be integrated to google analytics or other analytical program.  Having tracking enabled will allow such company to be able to see which social media sources are providing the most value to the company and then shift around resources accordingly. Doing your research is a must.  According to an article on mashable, Pinterest drives more traffic to publishers than twitter, linkedin, and reddit combined.  Facebook and pinterest are the top social media sites for referral traffic.  From this data, it would be best to put more of the marketing spend into Pinterest and Facebook.[4]. 

Social media management is a new area for many businesses today, but it can be valuable for a business if they are willing to invest a few resources and jump into the social media presence. Since there are so many tools available for social media management that are inexpensive, it seems only logical to have a presence in social media.  If one product goes viral on pinterest and is pinned and shared throughout the site, your company could increase revenues drastically. There is no reason to miss out on that opportunity. Start managing your social media campaigns today and start driving up revenue.  Check our a few of the social media management software.  Try the free trials and pick the best one for your needs. 

• SproutSocial
• ViralTag
• HootSuite

Works Cited

1. Timlin, Hillary. "The Buzz: Referral Marketing: The Stats You Need to Know." The Buzz: Referral Marketing: The Stats You Need to Know. Buzz Referrals, 24 July 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
2. "Viraltag | Pinterest Management Tool for Brands." Viraltag | Pinterest Management Tool for Brands. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
3. Waxman, Olivia B. "NewsFeed." NewsFeed Man Plans Wedding Based on Girlfriends Pinterest Board Comments. Times, 3 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
4. Fiegerman, Seth. "Viraltag | Pinterest Management Tool for Brands." Viraltag | Pinterest Management Tool for Brands. Mashable, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.