Traffic seems to be the main reason that motivates businesses to create social media platforms. Driving your customers to your website is important because it is the center of all your marketing efforts. Questions are answered and relationships are strengthened on your website. Acquiring a large followership on social media is only one part of your target. The other harder aspect is converting those followers into paying customers. Say you pump out quality blog posts regularly, send out newsletters or are advertising your latest product on social media. Your message is reaching your audience but for some reason, nobody seems to be clicking. That is to say that you embed a link to your blog, website or online store in an email or tweet but no one clicks them.

1. Social Media Tips: How to Increase Your
Click Through Rate
September 8, 2015 by Khalid Ibrahim
Traffic seems to be the main reason that motivates businesses to create social media platforms.
Driving your customers to your website is important because it is the center of all your
marketing efforts. Questions are answered and relationships are strengthened on your website.
Acquiring a large followership on social media is only one part of your target. The other harder
aspect is converting those followers into paying customers.
Say you pump out quality blog posts regularly, send out newsletters or are advertising your
latest product on social media. Your message is reaching your audience but for some reason,
nobody seems to be clicking. That is to say that you embed a link to your blog, website or
online store in an email or tweet but no one clicks them.
That could be for a number of reasons. Sometimes all you need to do is give your customers a
little push. Let’s find out how.
Calls to action

2. Image courtesy of FrameAngel at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This is a very common mistake a lot of people make. A call to action is the instructions you
give people when they come across your content. It should be designed in a way that will
redirect your followers back to your website. Clickable images help greatly in this regard say
for example you share your latest blogpost on facebook.
You should always look to separate your clickable images from your generic (stock) images.
Including a call to action on a clickable image will significantly boost your click through rate.
Give people a reason to click through
Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

3. Whatever you decide to share with your followers should either be informative or add value to
them. After all, you are reaching out to them to make deeper connections and engagements
with them. This means that you have to share quality content.
It doesn’t end there. Sharing just a link could put people off as it may appear boring. Instead,
when you share content on social media, put in your thoughts about the link as well to make
the post seem more personal. It makes you seem less of a robot and more like a human who
wants to add value in peoples’ lives.
Sharing your content on social media is fine and good but the real power of social media is
realized when you get other people to talk about them. So in this regard it is important to build
connections with thought leaders and experts in your particular field. People will click on posts
from people they trust.
Timing is everything
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The time of the day you share your content can have a huge impact. Content that is shared on
a Thursday or Friday gets more engagement than any other days of the week. Sharing your
content in the afternoon will get you more shares and clicks as opposed to sharing in the
mornings.
How about the frequency you share your content in a week? Studies show that sharing your
content on social media once every other day will get you more clicks as opposed to you sharing
content multiple times a day.
Have a clear message

4. Image courtesy of nokhoog buchachon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Having a clear and concise message is important to grab peoples’ attention. You can imagine
as people scroll through their various social media feeds and they come across a disjointed
message. Perhaps the title is inconsistent with the message of the post or the headline itself is
confusing and difficult to understand.
As you are crafting your next social media post, always make sure to determine whether the
headline you are using fits the image that accompanies it or if the calls to action fit your goals.
A study from HubSpot revealed that a clearly stated message got 18% more clicks and a further
29.8% more shares than a ambiguous message.
This also underlines the importance of your headline. Since social media posts are meant to be
short and straight to the point, your headlines really need to be captivating. Headlines are so
important that advertising expert David Ogilvy said? “Unless your headline sells your product,
you have wasted 90% of your money.”
To create the best headlines, it has to be short, should ask a question, have explanation points,
should contain on superlative (best, most, easiest), include a number (odd) and shouldn’t all be
in capital letters.
This is where you do a little research to see what content you’ve shared in the past has gotten
the most engagement. When you have found that, create similar messages to get the same
response again from your followers. If you are consist with that, you will begin to see
improvements in your click through rates.
Create an exciting landing page

5. Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If you have followed every step I have listed so far you would have grabbed your readers’
attention. Now that you have it, how will you use it? Where do your visitors go when they get
to your website? Having a good landing page is worth all the effort to get your readers excited
about what you have asked them to do.
Your landing page should serve other purposes like providing more information and obviously
another call to action to get your readers clicking. Your landing page is also a good opportunity
for you to exchange something of value like a free e-book or article in exchange for their
contact information like an email address. For more about landing pages, I wrote a great post
on that.
Engagement
When you do share a post on Facebook or Twitter, some people will read them and leave
comments. When this happens, you should always try to respond to the comments as that will
have an impact on your click through rate.
An engaging post generates interest which in turn will generate more clicks for you. To be
clear, don’t like, thumbs up or +1 a comment, respond to them.
Conclusion
Your click through rate is dependent on the relationship you have with your followers. The
stronger the relationship, the more clicks you will get. You foster that relationship by posting
high quality content that add value to your readers.
Be consistent with your messages. Your social media posts should have appropriate headlines
and clear calls to action. Be conscious of the time and frequency you share your content and
responding to comments will ensure that you begin to reap the benefits in no time.
Do you have any other ways to increase your click through rate on social media? Let me know
in the comments below.

6. Image Credits
Feature Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
In-post Images: FreeDigitalPhotos.net