With the explosion of social media the last several years, the internet is becoming even more interesting. People just like you and I are building big brands and building their blogs, on a platform that costs zip, zero, nada, just some time and effort.

Just the other day I came across a post titled “Top 10 Reasons to Care About Social Media” and here are just a few of the statistics:

• 2/3 of the global internet population uses social networks.
• Social media is the #1 online activity, beating out porn and email.
• If Facebook were a country, it would be larger than the US and the 3rd (yes, 3rd) largest country in the world!

Social media isn’t just some fad…it’s where the internet is shifting and where those who understand it and use it, can make big things happen.

If you’ve been following Nick’s blog, you see that he puts out consistent content to really help you blog better. What I wanted to do was come in and touch on some ways to build your blog through social media and have it be much more of a good traffic source.

Step 1: Make sure people have a clear idea of what you do/write/do videos about and where they can find that content.

I’ll see people all the time who just throw a link up that goes to one of their “social profiles” account and that has a link to their website. Screw that! If you want people to really see your content, put your website up where everyone can see and so that site will be associated you. That way, when they come across your Twitter, Facebook, etc., they’ll be like “Yeah, that’s the guy from robsfriedchickentips.com”.

Step 2: Setup a way of getting your content posted to your social networks (consistently) and at good time intervals.

Like I replied to someone recently about this, “If you throw up a billboard in a small populated area, you’re not going to get nearly as many eyeballs as if you posted it downtown.” You want to make sure your posting your new content at peak traffic times. I myself find the best times to be between 12PM and 6 or 7 PM. Of course this isn’t the same for everybody, just a good gauge that you can start testing with.

Step 3: Make sure your blog is “optimized” for that social media traffic.

The downside of social media traffic is the high-bounce rate. Considering that most of that traffic consists of people wanting something and wanting it NOW (very distracted most of the time too), you’ve got to make a clear focus to the content. A bunch of ads and all these popups will just frustrate the reader and then they’ll get back to what they were doing.

On my blog where I talk about business, success and social media strategies, you’ll see that there is a clear focus on the content. I’m not saying that to brag but it’s very important because that’s what really matters at the end of the day. I found that by de-cluttering my site, I was able to bring my bounce rate down 9%. Not a huge improvement but it helps…

In further optimizing your blog, make sure you have easy ways of sharing that content on AT LEAST Twitter and Facebook. You can support more than that but you want at least the basics because it’s great that people read your content but it’s even greater when they share it with their friends and followers.

Step 4: Always be testing.

You want to always be working on and improving what you do and how you do it. If you sit still and don’t do anything differently, nothing will likely happen. They say the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” Don’t build your blog through insanity…build it through some good ol’ testing and consistent action, not just in social media but in general.

Discussion

What ways are you capitalizing on social media traffic. Do you have any unique or different ways of getting more eyeballs to your site through social media?