Why Social & Content Means More Traffic

This article was written by the Director of Digital Strategy, Scott Rosen, for Ve Interactive, North America. Below, Scott will explain how the combination of social media marketing and great content production will generate more traffic for your website.

Upon arriving to the office one morning, I was met with a pleasant surprise. We had earned the most prominent, front page link that day for one of our clients on a popular, industry oriented website. Most astonishing was that it was for an article that had just been posted the previous day.

I am a firm believer in inbound marketing – that great content drives top search engine rankings, referrals from visitors to their peers, and quality backlinks. Nonetheless, I know that it can take time for even the most engaging article to generate the type of SEO traction that all digital marketers seek.

Confused, I ascribed our fortune partially to the quality of our content and partially to an intrepid web editor diligently combing the internet for new, relevant links for the industry site.

While I was touting our achievement to our digital marketing team, our social media manager spoke up and informed me that she had actually directly engaged the editor of industry site via Twitter. She had informed him that we just posted the new article.

This news was even more exciting. The coveted link wasn’t the byproduct of good fortune. It was due to our own social media initiative. Yes, the content was interesting, and yes, the web editor had to make a decision to backlink to us, but we played an active role in expediting an otherwise slow and nebulous process.

Make Content Marketing Faster and More Effective Through Social Media

The theory behind inbound marketing is that providing visitors with quality information for free will drive qualified traffic to your site and boost your credibility. This will eventually lead to conversions.

Given how the Google algorithm has evolved, this isn’t just a method for generating search engine traffic, it’s the method. There’s just one problem: It takes lots of time and effort to build the content necessary to rank for coveted keywords in Google.

Unique and frequently updated content will always be a must, but an effective social media campaign can expedite the process.

By reaching out directly to either an existing audience or to those who will likely be interested, you don’t have to wait for other people to stumble upon your blog article, eBook, or white paper. You can broadcast them across the social media sphere and literally reach out directly to people.

Here are some tips for sharing your content via social media:

• Post your content to your company’s Facebook page with a great teaser line or interesting picture. Don’t forget to ask people to “like” your article!
• Post a link to your content via Twitter. Don’t forget to ask for retweets!
• Search for relevant Twitter channels and reach out directly with a link to your content. You never know when you’ll earn a retweet or quality backlink.
• If you have an interesting image or infographic within your article or blog post, make sure to include it on your company’s Pinterest page.
• Does your content have important business tips or industry information? Share it via LinkedIn!
• Does the content correspond to a YouTube video your company has posted? Make a clickable link in the video description to your article.

Give Your Social Media Manager Something to Talk About By Posting Great Content

Just as social media can promote quality content, great content can enhance your company’s social media efforts. Chances are your social media manager has occasionally struggled about what to promote.

Events that are relevant to your company itself (company retreats, personnel changes, etc.) probably aren’t that interesting to a wider audience. Directly promoting your products (at least consistently) doesn’t engage people.

Unique content that offers interesting tips, humorous anecdotes, or thought provoking analysis will do a much better job capturing an audience’s attention.

This means more followers, more fans, and a more engaged social media community. If you can attract more eyeballs and interest when promoting engaging content, you’ll be able to do a better job holding their attention when making a business pitch or promoting your products.

Social media has already changed the way we interact. Now it is in the process of changing how we think about SEO. Digital marketers who fail to use social media to promote the rest of their digital presence are going to be left behind, but social media hasn’t replaced traditional SEO. Good content is still necessary. The marriage between quality content and effective social media is something marketers need recognize and embrace if they want to generate the maximum amount of traffic and conversions for their clients.

Please feel free to reach out Scott Rosen for any inquiries regarding digital marketing.

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