Since the previous Google algorithm update, social media isn’t just an option. Instead, social media had transformed into a necessity which will impact your website traffic and SEO ranking.
And this is no secret either. The right social media platforms will help you build authority and web traffic to your site.
I had written an article on why social engagement is more important than SEO and if you have yet to read it, I suggest you do it right now.
There are more than 30 social media sites that you can choose from nowadays and you don’t have the time to find the best ones.
I get it … totally.
That’s why I have compiled the top 7 platforms for social media that will not only increase your blog traffic, but as well as assist you in terms of building authority as a blogger.
Note: Thanks to Adam, I would like to emphasize that the criteria used to determine the standings is no other than the number of users it has. Yes, I am fully aware it is debatable but I believe this could be a good guideline for bloggers to determine which social media platform is the best for them.
Before you start reading, here’s a quick video recap on this topic. I hope you liked it and please share it! *p/s Do accept my apologies for the ‘loss of words’ towards the end of the video.
The countdown for the top 7 social media platforms
There are probably so many social media sites that you can choose from but the trick here is to ensure that every involvement or social engagement done have a high chance of success. Some call it ‘Return Of Investment’ aka ROI.
You know, taking into consideration of the time spend and the traffic gained.
An important tip I would like to share is that each social media platform works in a very different way. Therefore, you need to have the proper game plan in order to really stand out from the crowd.
Here, I would highly recommend you to have a look at what Dave Kerpen wrote on Likeable Social Media which gained over 300 satisfied readers on Amazon itself.
The 7th most influential social media platform: Pinterest
With over 70 millions users world wide, Pinterest has proved to be a great competitor to Tumblr especially in the photography world.
How to do build web traffic through Pinterest?
Alike Tumblr, Pinterest is a great social media tool for everyone if you uses it correctly.
Pinterest works in very similar ways when it comes to attracting readers.
Here’s a simple example: The hottest girl in the class will always get the most attention from boys.
Does this makes any sense to you?
You have to remember that Pinterest is another social media tool that could deem very useful. Before you can actually earn some traffic and money from Pinterest, you got to practice the right techniques to display your ‘artworks’ like what Maddie Alexander said.
The 6th most influential social media platform: Tumblr
Tumblr as we all know is a great social media platform in terms of photography and images.
It is doing extremely well especially by having more than 216.3 million visitors a month and 108.9 million blogs on the site.
If you want to generate enough web traffic from Tumblr, you need to change your social media game plan … completely (almost).
Tumblr is rich with images … and images only. You could do well in terms of text but the results wouldn’t be (at most times) that great.
If you are looking for a trick or the ultimate Tumblr guide, you definitely came to the right place.
Here’s the trick: There … isn’t … any trick!
What?!
Before you grab your 12-gauge shotgun and take an aim on me, spare me a moment to think. Tumblr is all about images and does that make sense that you need to focus on that (just) one thing?
And yes, you are most welcome.
Take a look at some of Tumblr’s popular blogs. You will see that they have great images and basically, that’s it!
So the social media lesson here is —> If you want to gain traffic from Tumblr, start focusing in marketing your images. Ensure that these images are on high resolution and there’s a link back to your website.
Again, remember that majority of the readers are looking for great images and NOT text. So, play the right social media game correctly and you will see a steady flow of traffic.
The 5th most influential social media platform: LinkedIn
Until date, there are about 238 million active users and this makes LinkedIn, the top 5 social media site in the world.
I don’t use LinkedIn that much and I got to admit that.
Depending on your niche, investing time into building a social authority with this social media platform could be a complete waste of time.
What?!
LinkedIn is great if you are running a business but if you are just a blogger or anything else that doesn’t really relate to business and the corporate world, you will probably not get much return from this.
In order to benefit most out of LinkedIn, you got to know:
- How your product could attract others?
- What makes them (potential readers) to click on your link?
As you can see above, you can’t just do the usual ‘social media techniques’ that never fails with LinkedIn.
In order to ‘sell’ on LinkedIn, you need to think like a corporate user. Bear in mind that you are going to reach out to many corporate members.
That’s why you got to change the tone and the approach methods in order to gain promising results.
LinkedIn has quite an upper hand advantage especially when it comes to social media authority and traffic. Since the platform evolves around the corporate world, each social shares are taken seriously by others.
Does this ring any bells?
You are bound to get more authority and potential traffic if you are able to get social shares from large organizations. And you can probably find most of them ‘lurking’ away in LinkedIn.
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The 4th most influential social media platform: Google+
Google+ is trailing closely behind Twitter with 343 million users and this makes everything more interesting.
Some people say Facebook and Twitter are for the masses while Google+ is for specific audience. Personally, I got to agree with that.
So, what makes Google+ so different from the rest?
Unlike Twitter and Facebook, Google+ brings social media to the next level. There are Google+ communities where you can join and these are very specific community.
Let’s take this community for as an example:
Sharing a related blog post or article here could mean having over 900 of targeted traffic
You might be wondering right now that 900 plus active users isn’t going to make the cut right? Think again.
What you have here is 900 plus of active users who are (and possibly) very interested with the related topic you are going to share.
Does this makes any sense to you?
There you go; Google+ is a social media platform where you are able to target very specific audience for your blogs, business, niche and probably, anything else you can think of.
Related read: Get Traffic From Google Plus
The 3rd most influential social media platform: Twitter
This is my favorite social media platform … ever. For the record, Twitter is the third largest community for social networking with over 500 million users.
Sending out a highly optimized tweet could easily reach hundreds if not thousands. And, we have not even count on the total number of retweets and favorites.
Twitter is a great social media tool if you are looking for:
- High possibility of huge traffic (quantity over quality)
- Wide range of recipients
- Word of mouth (thanks to retweets)
You see, Twitter is for the masses. The goal is to reach out (not send out) to as many readers as possible with the hopes of reaching the right audience.
Generally speaking, you can’t really specify who you are reaching out due to the above factors. This is definitely something you must consider if you are trying to make an epic appearance on Twitter.
For me, Twitter isn’t a very good source if you are looking for specific traffic (as I call) but with the right tune up and social media plan, you can turn that weakness into a huge marketing success.
Social media management techniques for Twitter are rather easy and straight forward. You got to:
- Compose a tweet that is highly optimized
- Within 140 characters only
- Possibly with one #hashtag
Now tell me. Are you doing the above?
The 2nd most influential social media platform: Youtube
Let’s take a look at the stats. 1 billion users and over 4 billions views a day <– Oh wow! That’s epic!
I would be speechless if the stats aren’t able to say anything for themselves.
Honestly, I had just involved myself in this Youtube business recently. Until date. I had only filmed and published less than 5 videos which you can find the list of videos here.
Doesn’t seem like a world record to you right?
The biggest question is, “Can we classify Youtube as a social media platform?”. Probably yes and no but for me, my answer would be a definite yes (hint: watch the numbers).
People talk about how to get a Youtube video go viral or how to make a video that attracts. Truth is, there isn’t any logical way to achieve that since it depends solely on us (readers and viewers).
Now, how do you make Youtube works for you?
There’s a few ways I could think of which are:
- Create a good quality video
- Make sure the audio is clear
- Provide annotation if possible
- A killer title
- Video descriptions with a link back to your site
I am very curious here. Are you using Youtube as a social media platform?
The MOST influential social media platform: Facebook
Facebook is the world’s leading social media platform with over 1.15 billions users world wide.
Oh Lord, I really hate Facebook! It all started out with by facing problems accessing my account etc and … okay I’ll stop it now. 🙂
Regardless how much I hate Facebook, it is still an extremely important social media tool for bloggers.
Look at the stats again, kid. Over 1 billion users and counting … yes there are 9 zeros at the back.
Do you see the potential that lies within it?
You should use Facebook if you want to build a strong authority in social media and with the number of users using Facebook, I don’t think I would need to explain it’s advantages.
Social media technique for Facebook is not that straightforward because:
- You need to know who your target market (audience) is
- What to promote and when to promote
If you think that Facebook marketing is all about composing a message, placing a link and press the submit button, you are absolutely wrong!
There isn’t any point sharing information to readers who aren’t interested with the topic. Therefore, make sure every shared information are craved exactly to and for the targeted audience.
Over to you
Out of these 7 social media platforms, which are your favorite(s) and are you using any of them?
Tell me what you think simply by replying using the comment form and could you please share it for me using the red button below?
