A key strategy to driving traffic to your website will be the content that is available on your website. If visitors find nothing more than a sales message, you’ll have a hard time getting them to come back.
Think of the reasons you visit a site. Usually, you are looking for tips or answer to a pressing question. If you can host that type of content, you can both refer people to it and have the search engines display your website prominently.
Blogging can be extremely helpful in these content creation efforts. Fresh content not only engages your Facebook community, but it also has the potential to bring more SEO love to your website. Google loves fresh posts and will display them higher in the search results. A blog also gives you a reason to send people to your website on a regular basis.
Many corporate brands blog for just this reason. Bigelow Tea, for instance, offers recipes, highlights contests and even adds some social posts about celebrities. In Facebook, a key strategy to getting more ‘Likes’ and connecting with your audience is to provide helpful information. If you can be the source of that helpful content via your own blog, all the better!
When you publish a new blog post, you can go to Facebook and post the link there. If your post is helpful to your audience, it will get shared with others. You can save some time if you make your blog posts publish automatically to Facebook. There are several applications that can help in this process.
Here are three of the most popular Facebook applications for bringing in an RSS feed to your Page: • NetworkedBlogs • RSS Graffiti • Social RSS Geeks and Bloggers also offers automatic social media sharing links as part of website, making content easily spreadable via the buttons found at the bottom of the pages.
One word of caution on third-party applications that automatically post to your Page: often the posts coming from an application are collapsed in the News Feed with other posts from that application, so they are not as visible. However, this may be changing, as Facebook may be altering its algorithm (which happens often, as you know). Posting directly to your Page is always best, but some automation is not a bad thing.
When people click on the post, they are taken directly to your blog entry, and your traffic stats reflect the fact that they came from the NetworkedBlog application, so you can track the effectiveness of your postings.
What if you don’t hav e a blog?
If you don’t have a blog (or are just starting with blogging), think of other existing content that you can publish to your Facebook page. For example:
A frequently asked questions page Every business has ten or more frequently asked questions. Rather than retyping the answers every time someone posts the question on your Facebook Page or inquires by email, list the answers on an easily accessible page on your website.
Special articles How about updating your site monthly or quarterly with some special articles about your business? You can then use these articles for a monthly newsletter as well. A monthly newsletter gives you the opportunity to connect with your audience through email while also putting new content on your website. The articles don’t have to be long – 500 words is absolutely acceptable. The key is to be consistent and make it work for you. Keep it manageable!
Examples of your work Any time you are able to showcase your work, you are providing more information that will allow your prospects to make a better purchasing decision. Take pictures, post videos and give concrete examples of your work to show potential clients.
Testimonials Testimonials are the most powerful form of marketing. Whenever you do business with someone, ask for a testimonial, or better yet, a LinkedIn Recommendation. Connect with the person on LinkedIn and then go to Profile, then Recommendations. Click the tab that says Request Recommendations and select connections that have used your business. When you request the recommendation, ask if they would mind if you posted the recommendation on your website with a link back to their website. Now, when they give you a recommendation, it will be displayed on your Linkedin Profile, you can use it on your website, and your customer gets a link to their website. Win-win-win!