Drive TRaffic Using Social Media
In this lesson, we’re going to show you how to use Social Media to drive traffic to your sites. We’ll cover the following topics:



Building traffic with Facebook
Building traffic with Twitter
Other Social Media networks
Let’s get started!


Building traffic with Facebook
Facebook is currently the largest social media network. If you’re serious about using social media to drive traffic to your sites, having a page on Facebook is a must.

Creating a Facebook account and page
Returning to our Stover Tree Service example, the first thing we’ll need to do is create a personal account on Facebook. (If you’re not sure how to create a personal account, click here for instructions.)

Tip: Creating a Personal Account
When setting up a Facebook page for your client, we recommend that you create a personal account for them first, even if you already have a personal profile on Facebook. This will allow you to turn the entire account over to your client if they decide to manage it themselves.

Once we’ve created an account, we’re directed to a page where we can enter our client’s email address to find their contacts on Facebook:

Adding friends in Facebook
Adding friends in Facebook
This is an important step, as these contacts will be our initial source of traffic to our Facebook business page and, ultimately, our client’s website. Once our client’s personal profile is completed, we can then create a business page in Facebook:

Creating page in Facebook
Creating a page in Facebook
We’ll select the ‘Local Business or Place’ option since Stover is a local business. We can then enter Stover’s company info and click on the ‘Get Started’ button:

Entering client's company information
Entering our client’s company information
We are then walked through several additional steps to complete the setup of our Page. Once it’s completed, we can begin to invite Stover’s personal contacts to “Like” their business page. We can then begin adding content to their business page, and this content will be available to their contacts.

Using Facebook effectively
Here are some tips that will allow you to get the most out of your Facebook page:

Provide valuable content 80%-90% of the time.
Promote your business, product or service – by including promotional copy and a link – only 10%-20% of the time.
Be someone who is likable and trustworthy.
Share other people’s content so they’ll share yours.
People can also like and/or comment on your updates, photos, videos, etc… You want to encourage their feedback and responses and get a lot of interaction going on.
Make an effort to frequently like and comment on other people’s posts in your News Feed. You can also post directly on their Timelines to gain exposure to their friends.
Tip: Accessing Timelines
You can see someone’s Timeline by clicking on their name. This will direct you to their profile, and their Timeline will be the first page displayed.

Don’t link to your website in a comment on someone’s Timeline. You’re simply trying to build relationships – not promote your service or product on other people’s Timelines.
When you get a new friend request, take a few moments to visit their wall and leave a worthwhile comment. This is not the place to plug your services, it’s just a nice way to start building a relationship.

Building traffic with Twitter
Twitter is somewhat unique in the social media world, as your posts here are limited to 140 characters or less. This represents a great opportunity to gain exposure for your clients quickly and efficiently.

Creating a Twitter account
It’s very easy to create a Twitter account – simply go to the Twitter Home page and enter your client’s name, email address, and a password. For Stover Tree Service, it looks like this:

Creating account in Twitter
Creating an account in Twitter
Once our account is created, we can begin posting. Twitter has a very simple and intuitive interface, but if you have any challenges, you can review this resource for helpful tips on getting started.

Using Twitter effectively
Let’s begin with a few of the basic features on Twitter:

Followers Twitter uses the term ‘Followers’ to describe those you’re connected with. (This is similar to ‘Friends’ on Facebook.) Always follow anyone who decides to follow you, as this will increase your exposure.
Favorite By clicking ‘Favorite’ you are adding that Tweet to a list of your Favorite Tweets that anyone can access. This is not a list of people, only a list of the Tweets you clicked ‘Favorite’ on.
Tip: Using Favorites as Testimonials
Any time you get a positive comment or testimonial via a Tweet, click the ‘Favorite’ link. Before long, you’ll have a whole list of Testimonials that others will find on Twitter.

Reply Clicking on ‘Reply’ allows you to respond to what one of your followers Tweeted. This reply will appear in your Twitter Feed for all your Followers to see.
Retweets (displayed as ‘RT’) Use this feature when you want to repost a Tweet from someone you are following so your followers can see it. It’s similar to forwarding an email message, except it goes to everyone who is following you.
Twitter also has a few unique features that you’ll want to be familiar with:

@Connect This feature is used when someone Tweets and mentions you by including the ‘@’ symbol followed by your Twitter username. For Stover Tree Service, their Tweet would include ‘@StoverTreeService’. They can either be replying to something you Tweeted or simply mentioning you in their Tweet.
Hashtags Hashtags are defined as community driven conventions for adding additional context and metadata to your Tweets, and are displayed as ‘#’ followed by the name of the Hashtag. An example of a Hashtag Stover Tree Service might use would be ‘#treeservice’. When you tweet about something specific, you can use a Hashtag to make it show up in the results if someone else searches for that Hashtag.
140 character total With Twitter, each update can be no more than 140 characters. A character is anything you can type… all letters (a-z), all numbers (1-9), all punctuation (.@#%^&wink and even spaces. They all count toward your 140 character limit, so use them wisely.
Tip and Resource: Embedding Links
Links embedded in your Tweets are a great way to drive traffic to your site. But links can take up a lot of valuable space, and count against your 140 character total.

We recommend using Bitly for shortening URLs so they take up fewer characters. Simply copy and paste the URL you want to shorten onto Bitly’s website, and click ‘Shorten’. Then copy and paste the new URL into your Tweet.

Finally, here are a few general tips to increase your exposure on Twitter:

Follow people who Tweet using a Hashtag that is relevant to your business. You can also click on people’s followers and follow their followers.
Don’t follow more than 100 people in one day, or you may appear as a spammer to Twitter.
When someone follows you, follow them back.
Don’t just update. Interact.

Other Social Media networks
Here are a few additional networks you may want to consider:

YouTube YouTube is a great opportunity to drive traffic with video. For Stover Tree Service, we could create a video series showing how homeowners can maintain their trees with preventative care.
Google+ Google+ is a growing network, and is used by many businesses to promote their products and services.
LinkedIn LinkedIn is a professional networking site, and content is exclusively centered on business subjects. This is a great network for increasing your client’s connections among other business people, and you may also find LinkedIn Groups related to your client’s business.
Instagram Instagram is a very popular network with young users, and may be a good fit for your client if their product or service is targeted to a younger audience.

If you have any questions on this lesson, you can contact support here.
You can also share your process, questions, suggestions – or whatever you’d like – in the comments below…

source: http://www.zolamandesign.com/tutorial/daily-tips/38-drive-traffic-using-social-media