Using Twitter to Drive Online Traffic
Each social media platform has its strength and weaknesses. The major strength of Twitter is the ability to drive traffic to online destinations of your choice. The question is; as a business, are you doing this yet?
Twitter links compared to Facebook and Instagram
All social media platforms can drive traffic online but Twitter is far more efficient. This is particularly true when compared to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The reasons for this come down to the individual makeup of each platform.
Facebook, for example, wishes to keep its users on their platform. This allows them to generate more advertising income. Facebook achieves this by applying a low score to updates that contain links. A low score means the update is shown on fewer timelines and to fewer users.
In summary, this means a link on Facebook is seen by fewer people and therefor clicked by fewer users.
Instagram does not facilitate links within their copy. The only link any user may add to their Instagram is located within the bio section. Instagram is a closed network and does not wish to serve any online traffic.
Pro Strategies for Driving Traffic via Twitter
Building an online content strategy and managing this strategy on a weekly basis will lead to significant improvements in traffic to your website. Use the following quick tips to develop your own bespoke strategy.
1. Set your target
Where do you want to send people online? We recommend writing your own informative blogs and sending users to your website. This leaves you in control of the outcomes and keeps your brand at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
2. Call to action
Give your users a reason to click on the link. You are limited to 280 characters on Twitter so get straight to the point. They do not care why it will benefit you so tell them how it will benefit them.
3. At least one link a day
A good Twitter profile will publish a mix of content from interactions, informative tweets, photos and links. Make sure at least one update a day is a link. This will significantly improve your chances of regular clicks.
4. Test, analyse and test again
Like so many things on social media it is about testing to see what works. What time is best for maximum clicks? What day is best? What kind of link works most effectively? For example, some studies have found a link placed in the middle of a tweet performs better than being placed at the end.
5. Check your analytics
At least once a week. Twitter has a fantastic analytics section built into the platform. Make sure you have a look at it every week to see how many clicks you are generating.
Start linking on Twitter and see how it goes. You have the opportunity for free traffic so why not make use of this opportunity?
