Social media and online marketing is a tough sell for a lot of business owners. I get it; I really do. Instagram seems like such a “Millennial” thing to do. Facebook is just full of cat photos. Why would you, as a business owner, waste time and resources on social media?

Social media by nature is more personal than business. Or is it?

I looked at my own website analytics for the month of June, and I’m going to share my traffic breakdown with you, based on referral source. In plain English: I’m going to show you how people found their way to my website.

Here’s the scoop:

That’s right – 35% of visitors to bluewhalecommunications.ca last month came directly from social media, meaning those visitors would have clicked a link on my Facebook or Instagram profiles.

That’s more than a third of the total traffic. Can you afford to give up a full third of website visitors? I didn’t think so.

In today’s world of hyperconnectivity, smartphones, and social media, it’s important to remember what your customers are doing when they are not shopping in your store – and use that information to get them there. Canadians with smartphones check their phone a whopping 85 times a day – don’t you want to be one of the things they see when they do?

Here are 5 tips to making Social Media work for your business:

• Social Media platforms are like mini search engines. Use keywords in your profile and hashtags in your posts to help customers find you.
• Invest some time into generating interesting, high-quality images – even for Twitter.
• Think about providing value to your audience. What questions do they have? How can you help them? Think of social media captions as pint-sized blog posts.
• Tell your story. Potential customers want to know more about you and the business – not just the products you sell.
• Engage. Engage. Engage. Social media is supposed to be social. Talk to people, answer questions, respond to comments. Become a part of the community, just like you would ‘in real life’.

If you’re having trouble setting up or optimizing your social media profiles, let’s chat. We can help get your business moving in the right direction – up!