In previous posts on this website I’ve talked about the ‘synergy’ between your website and your business or organization’s social media page. Here are some specific examples of what I mean.
It’s not enough to just post on your website or to just post on your social media page. The best result comes from using both in concert with each other.
Biting off what you can chew
Tom Stier
The first step is to start, or perhaps start once again, with a posting schedule that you will be able to comfortably manage, depending of what you can do on your own, or with help.
Don’t begin right out of the gate by doing multiple postings in one short go followed with a ‘fallow’ period where nothing appears either on your site or your social business page for a long time.
Try scheduling a month where you commit, for example, to doing one post a week on your site. You may even want to prepare the posts beforehand, and schedule their appearance on your website and social media page.
I don’t know what to write about
A frequent response I hear when telling clients that they need to post is “I’m not really a writer” or “I don’t know what to write about.”
Then, on further discussion, I find that a sometimes significant portion of their time is spent responding to customers via email – answering questions and talking about their business.
So, It may be helpful to think of a post on your website and social media the same way – as a response to your customer.
Instead of responding to a single customer, your response can become a post that helps promote your business to all potential customers. That’s what I’m doing now with this post.
Of course, if it turns out that it really is that difficult for you to talk about your business yourself there are other options. For instance, I provide ‘proxy’ posting services where we can do it all for you.
Post it on your website, then share the post on social media
‘Post it on your website, then share the post on social media’ is the basic method of driving traffic from social media to your website. If you analyze the majority of postings on social media made by companies and organizations you’ll see that this is exactly what they are doing.
Start with a post on your website. If you use WordPress software, always make sure an image larger than 400x400px is entered for the Featured Image.
After the post is Published on your website, take the exact url to the post (https://www.tomstier.com/art-teaser-wont-believe-well-secret-method-works/ is the exact url of this page) and paste that into the add post popup at your Facebook Business page.
But wait you are not finished, don’t post it yet!
The art of the teaser
The step that you absolutely need to do before you publish on Facebook has a little bit of an art to it – the art of the teaser. The teaser has to entice people to find out more, to click through to your website. All it takes is a sentence or two, but it has to accomplish two things.
First, it has to accurately portray the ‘gist’ of the article.
And second, it has to tease! You don’t want to give a synopsis, this is not Cliff notes, but you want to say something that gets folks to click through, leave Facebook, and go to your site.
For an example of what I mean, go now to my Facebook business page and see the teaser I’m using for this post. Oh, and while you are there, ‘Like’ my post and ‘Like’ my page!
Getting sociable
While ‘Post it on your website, then share the post on social media’ is a fine basic routine and should be done regularly, it should not be the only kind of posting that you make on your Facebook business page.
While these url posts are effective, they do fall somewhat into the ‘hard sell’ category of posting on social media. Obviously, your desire is to get people to your website, but you don’t want to appear ‘unsocial’.
It’s also important to post softer sell ‘in-between’ posts on social media. Are you interested in sailing, a charitable cause, music, other related organizations or businesses, share posts about it.
So, you’ll share other posts, while making sure you add comment so your viewpoint can become known. You’ll also need to respond to comments people make on your posts. You’ll even have to like and comment on other posts. This activity, if done in your business persona, helps builds expert status.
If you think of social media as a place where you occasionally post something and then leave, it’s really not going to work for you. Whether you think social media is silly or not, it is a place where a lot of ‘eyeballs’ are and they represent potential clients for your business or service.