How to use Social Media to promote your website

10 ways to promote your website using social media

The following 10 strategies are all designed to promote your website before other strategies like search engine optimization (SEO) take effect.

1. Join Groups on LinkedIn

While your LinkedIn company page cannot join groups, you can participate using your personal profile.

Join a few groups that are relevant to you and your company, such as a national association related to your industry.

Once you’re in a group, share content from your site that other members will find helpful, like your latest blog posts or a recent whitepaper. Engage authentically with the group to avoid coming off as spammy or overly promotional.

2. Build a Social Media Presence

Do you already have a social media presence for your business? If so, and you have followers, you’re on the right track!

If not, don’t worry—you still have plenty of time to build your social media pages and establish your online presence.

First, determine which social networks are most suitable for your company. Not all e-commerce B2C businesses will thrive on LinkedIn, and not all technical B2B companies will work on Instagram.

Once you’ve identified the appropriate networks, create your accounts. Aim to keep all usernames consistent across platforms. After setting up the accounts, ensure you fully complete your profiles.

Include a photo of your logo as your profile picture and add a cover image. Fill out the about section, store hours, address if applicable, email, and phone number. Don't forget to include your new website’s URL. Begin building followers by inviting friends, family, employees, and any known customers to like and follow your profile pages.

Make it a habit to post regularly, featuring engaging and fun photos and videos, and include links to your site in the post captions.

3. Create Video Content

If you haven’t already decided to create a YouTube account for your business, you might want to reconsider. YouTube is unique as it serves as a video hosting site, social network, and search engine. Owned by Google, it offers a great platform for posting videos and ads about your company.

Getting your YouTube channel up and running is relatively straightforward. The most challenging part is generating ideas for videos to post. However, you have the flexibility to post virtually any content that comes to mind. How-to videos are always popular, and you can also showcase your products, satisfied customers, or even your team. For example, a robotics company using social media (think Boston Dynamics!) might post videos of their robots performing dances, runs, and other activities.

Take advantage of all the features YouTube offers. Include links in your profile, channel art, and video descriptions. Utilize tagging when uploading a new video to increase your reach. With numerous optimization options, YouTube can quickly become a significant traffic driver for your new website.

Bonus: You can share the video content you create for YouTube on your Facebook and Twitter channels as well. Video is a huge driver of engagement and traffic on social media, so make sure to cross-post any video you create to all of your channels.

4. Promote Your Website with Ad Spend

Every major social network offers a variety of advertising objectives you can use to promote your new website. You can choose from Facebook boosted posts, Twitter or LinkedIn website click ads, Pinterest promoted pins, and more.

You can target your ads based on people's interests and other demographic information you provide. Additionally, you can use information you already have to target past or current customers through email lists or geographic information. These ads direct qualified traffic back to your website, allowing you to convert them into customers.

You can set strict budgets for each ad, ensuring you won't go over-budget while attracting new potential customers.

5. Share Customer Testimonials

Even if you haven’t been in business long, if you can get a handful of people to share testimonials with you, make sure to ask.

Collect and keep all your customer testimonials in one place so that everyone can read about your business from a customer's perspective. You can then create images using quotes from the testimonials to share on your social media pages. In the post copy for the image, link to your testimonials page so that people can read more. People trust other people, and they’ll be interested in seeing how others feel about your business.

6. Consider Getting Help from Influencers

Influencer marketing is a growing trend on social media. Influencers are individuals with successful blogs or strong social media followings who are willing to collaborate with brands and companies to promote their products and services for a fee. They offer a variety of services, making them suitable for different types of business goals.

7. Use Social Listening to Connect with Potential Customers

Finding new customers can be as simple as conducting a search on Twitter. By searching for words or phrases related to your industry, you can identify potential customers. For instance, if you’re a bank, searching "new bank" can help you find people looking to join a new bank, allowing you to reach out and introduce your company and its services.

On Instagram and Twitter, regularly search your company hashtags to see if anyone is sharing user-generated content. Additionally, search for terms and follow people similar to your target audience. Engage with them authentically by commenting on their posts, saying things like, “I know what you mean!” or “Same here!” It’s crucial to get your brand noticed to generate buzz for your brand-new website.

8. Utilize Trending Hashtags

Have you ever seen a trending hashtag and thought, “I really wish our company could join that trend”? Now is your chance.

If you have a blog on your new website, write a post about something pertinent to your industry that relates to a trending hashtag. Sometimes, you can predict what will trend, such as #TBT (Throwback Thursdays), when Twitter users post photos from their past with the hashtag #TBT.

Write a post that fits #TBT, such as the story of how your company was founded, and add the hashtag to your tweet when you share the post on Twitter. This way, millions of people could potentially see your tweet and visit your website.

Use online tools to research popular hashtags on Twitter. Some, like #TBT, occur weekly. There may even be weekly trending hashtags related to your industry, such as #SmallBusinessSaturday for entrepreneurs or #SlowCookerSunday for those in the food industry.

9. Develop a Contest and Market It Exclusively on Social Media

Everyone loves a great giveaway or contest. To drive traffic to your website, consider using a contest to draw attention to your brand.

Create a contest landing page on your website and promote the contest to your social media followers. Offer participants the opportunity for bonus entries by asking them to promote the contest on their social media pages with a shareable link. This strategy can help you gather new email addresses for your marketing campaigns and allows participants to easily enter for a chance to win something, generating buzz through social shares.

10 Create Teaser Images to Build Anticipation

Build buzz and anticipation for your new site launch by creating custom imagery on social media that entices people to check out your brand-new website.

Take a screenshot of your homepage and use photo editing tools to blur the details or use a red curtain image vector as the link preview photo. Then, create engaging copy encouraging users to click to see the new site or site redesign.