Boost Your Social Media Traffic

Whether you are an experienced blogger or are just getting started in the industry, it is important that you extend your blogging efforts to the social media arena.
Why is social media so important?  Well, for one thing Twitter gets over 100 million people visiting its site daily.  Not to mention the millions of hits that other social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Plurk, Digg, Stumble Upon,(the list goes on) gets daily as well.  Staying connected is an obvious answer to grow your blog traffic or site traffic.
Make your blog as social as possible.  Giving your readers an opportunity to click the “Tweet” button or Google+ is important!  Allowing them to be involved in your posts and showing them that their opinions matter to you by means of a “Like” tells the visitor that you want them to show your recent post to their friends!
However, there is a small problem with social media.  You can’t be at 50 social media sites at one time updating.  We all know the simple fact that once you tweet something or update on Facebook, then its gone after about 20 minutes or so depending on the number of people that are connected with you.  
Yes, updating on social media sites can be a full time job.  How can one expect to stay visible on these sites in order to get the traffic?  If you are not on the top of the page when that potential visitor logs in, then you are out of luck!  Like I said before, having a social media precense is important.  However, if you can’t get noticed by other people they will not come to your site…and this is going to be remedied!  
I am about to show you ways that you can get Followers, Friends, Searches, and Traffic to your site basically overnight through social media, and the best part about it is…you don’t even have to be there to get it!

Using Social Media Dashboards
Remember when I mentioned that it would be a full time job to stay noticed on these social media sites?  Keeping your URL updated so people can actually see it is important for traffic to flow.  However, you cannot stay on these sites all day long updating!  You have a blog or a website to run and you have other responsibilities to perform besides worrying about whether or not your update was just refreshed and is no more!
There is a tool that will be helpful to you called “dashboards”.  This will be your best friend in the coming months, and will drive more traffic to your site than you have ever imagined!
Social Oomph- This is probably the best dashboard online.  When I first started using this tool I only had 120 followers.  But I got over 1,000 page views in 2 days from it!  Very easy to use.  It is free, but only for Twitter.  I recommend that you spend the $30 and upgrade to the “Professional” version of this package because it intertwines all of your social media profiles from this one site.  In other words, you can update to Facebook, LinkedIn, Plurk, Twitter, etc. and not have to leave this site at all!
Social Oomph allows you to log in and save your updates.  It has an automatic URL shortened embedded in it so you don’t have to go to an outside source for your tiny URL’s.  This makes it really easy.  Once you have all of your updates saved, you then proceed to manage the times that you want them sent out, and on which social media platform.  Boom!  It’s done!  You can walk away from it and forget it because it will then proceed to post your updates and keep your URL in front of potential visitors who might not have been able to see it otherwise!
Tweet Adder- This is basically the same principles as Social Oomph.  However it only allows you to schedule updates via Twitter.  I am hearing talks of adding other social media sites as well, so that may be a plus.  This is not a expensive as Social Oomph, and if you are trying to save a little money and still get great traffic I recommend this one.

Getting Social Media “Search” Traffic
There is one thing that you need to familiarize yourself with when publishing updates on social media sites.  It is the hashtag(#).  A hashtag is simply a relevant word or series of characters preceded by the # symbol. Hashtags help categorize messages and can make it easier for other Twitter users to search for tweets.
When you search for or click on a hashtag you'll see all other tweets that use the same hashtag. Only others who are interested in the same topic thread will likely be using the same hashtag.
For example, if you search for #Apple, you're less likely to see tweets that include references to the fruit and more likely to see information about the technology company.
Keep in mind, however, that Twitter is a real-time platform and its search function only goes back one week. If you want to pull older conversations, try using third-party services, such as Topsy, that archive messages sent over public social networks.
Why Use Hashtags
Twitter is an open social network, and anyone can see your public tweets provided you haven't set up your account to be completely private. But few people want to follow everyone in the world. Hashtags can make it easier to discover other Twitter users who are interested in the same conversations you like.

For instance, by conducting a Twitter search for #NFL, you'll see only the tweets with that hashtag for the National Football League.
Why Use Hashtags
Twitter is an open social network, and anyone can see your public tweets provided you haven't set up your account to be completely private. But few people want to follow everyone in the world. Hashtags can make it easier to discover other Twitter users who are interested in the same conversations you like.
For instance, by conducting a Twitter search for #NFL, you'll see only the tweets with that hashtag for the National Football League.

Because you can use any hashtag you want, your tweet about how awesome singer Bruno Mars was on the Grammys could be seen by more than your 150 followers. If you used the #Grammys hashtag, the droves of people who were following that hashtag could have seen your tweet.
If you said something insightful or answered a question, others may respond and engage you in conversation by using the hashtag you used. Conversely, if you're following a certain hashtag, you can tweet a question to others who are observing that conversation stream, engage other interested users in real time or find people to follow.
When using hashtags it's important to consider scale. Doing a search for the #NFL on Sundays will most likely subject you to a litany of tweets and keeping up with the conversation may be difficult. But if you still want your opinion thrown out there with everyone else's, use the hashtag.
How to Use Hashtags for Business
By creating your own hashtag, you can use it to drive conversations about your business. Are you having a spring sale at your furniture store? You can tack #SaveBigAtMurphys on to your tweets, for example. Encourage your Twitter followers and others to use the hashtag. Maybe even do a daily giveaway or prize for the person who tweets the funniest pitch line for the store and uses the hashtag. At the end of each day or the end of your sale, you can do a scan for the hashtag and measure how many tweets were posted using it and how many Twitter users you reached.
If you're hosting a business event, you can create a hashtag for it, too. Encourage attendees to use the hashtag when tweeting about the event. This will help organize the Twitter conversation while also promoting your brand.
How To Get The Most Out Of HashTags
For new Twitter users, and even we veterans, figuring out what a specific hashtag is being used for can be a major chore. When a hashtag starts to trend, it gets even more difficult to parse the information stream.
So what’s the most efficient way to figure out those nasty hashtags? Luckily, there a few great tools that can assist in hashtag enlightenment:

What the Trend?: This useful little service makes it really easy to learn about trending hashtags. When something starts trending, What the Trend? will provide a quick blurb on what’s going on.

Twubs: Twubs, which we recently reviewed, uses a wiki system to help disseminate information on a hashtag. It aggregates tweets and imports pictures to help illuminate the topics being discussed.

Hashtags.org: While not the best at helping you understand the meaning behind a tag, Hashtags.org is good at showing you its use over time and recent tweets, which oftentimes is enough to figure out the meaning behind the tag.

Tagalus: Tagalus is a simple dictionary for hashtags. It’s very easy to find information on thousands of hashtags as defined by other users. ou can also define a hashtag by tweeting makemyblogmoney.What’s buzzing on Twitter right now? If you’re a tech journalist, marketing professional, or just a person interested in trends, there are many useful tools and techniques to keep up with the Twitter conversation via hashtags.
If you’re trying to track tweets from a hashtag in real-time, Monitter and Twitterfall are good choices. Once again, Hashtags.org provides graphs and hour-by-hour information on top hashtags.
One last tip: if you need to track a less popular Twitter hashtag, try setting up a Twilert to get a daily email of the use of a specific hashtag.
For more, be sure to check out Another Twitter Post on my blog.
Don’t Overuse Hahtags
Although not terribly complicated, hashtags have some unwritten rules. The primary one to remember: don’t overuse them. If every one of your tweets IS a hashtag, you dilute the usefulness of them by fragmenting the conversation. In addition, many people will shy away from you because it seems spammy.
Another simple tip: give your hashtag context. Most people won’t actually know what your hashtag means, so give a quick explanation in one of your tweets or, if you’re making a hashtag, make it very apparent what it’s talking about.
Finally, if you’re looking to create a hashtag, be sure that it adds value for yourself and your followers. The best way to utilize them is when you need to organize information. Conferences, major events, and even reminders (i.e. #todo) can help organize specific tweets and make life easier on you and your followers.
Get Original!
If you’re about to put on an event or are looking to take your event to a new level, here are some useful tips for hashtag organization:

- Choose a single hashtag early: This may seem simple, but it is vital to get right. Choose a simple hashtag that represents your event or brand. If your event is the Business of the Calling Ducks conference, don’t use #businessofthecallingducks as your tag. How about #bizducks instead?

- Remind attendees of the hashtag constantly: On your website, on your Twitter feed, at the opening remarks, and throughout the day, make a friendly reminder about your hashtag and that you can track the conversation through it.

- Provide a website widget: For anyone who isn’t using or knowledgeable with Twitter, provide an easy conversation tracker tool on your website. You can make one via Widgetbox or Tweetgrid.

All in all, the social media traffic will happen for you.  I know that this seems like a lot of info right now, but it is very simple to understand and apply.  Use your keywords and your hash tags well and you will start to see an enormous flood of traffic daily to your site.
The most important thing in this whole ebook is the fact of the social media dashboards.  Get one!  This will not happen until you register for a social media update scheduler.