Social media can be a great way to drive traffic to your website, but only if you use it right. Unlike the other tactics in your marketing arsenal, social media requires you spend time interacting with people instead of just pushing links out. Here are six tips that can help you get the most out of social media.

01: Create an active social media presence.

By creating a social media presence, you can connect with your audience personally where common interests and experiences can be shared. That may seem simple enough, but so few companies do this consistently to make an impact. An online presence helps you build trust and meet needs before the big ask of doing business with your brand.

02: Engage with your audience.

It’s not enough to post things—you have to interact with your readers and followers too! Make sure you’re responding to comments on social media and answering questions in a timely fashion. It shows that you care about the people who matter.

03: Don’t forget about videos!

People on social media love video content—it’s quick, dynamic, and easy to consume. Today it’s called “snackable” content for your audience to learn about your brand in small segments, long enough to capture their attention but short enough to want more. “Video Shorts” are becoming all the rage. Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram are great places to capture the attention of your audience while “showing off” your capabilities. Here’s a video short we created for Portrett Pharmaceuticals. 

04: Find out what your audience likes.

Find out what your audience likes—and give it to them. If you’re posting a lot of inspirational quotes and lifestyle tips instead of product info and sale updates, that might be all your followers are looking at when they scroll past your posts (or worse—they might unfollow you). So put yourself in their shoes: what would YOU want to see as followers? Probably something that would lead directly to a purchase or a sale notification!

05: Use hashtags wisely.

Use hashtags and keywords so that people with those interests will find you when searching for related topics online; this will help expand your audience! A #perfectly #curated #hashtag strategy can help your posts reach the right audiences. But don’t go overboard—using too many hashtags won’t make you look cool; it’ll just make you look like a spammer. Understand and embrace the timing of your posts.

06: Use keywords strategically.

Hashtags can be effective if used correctly, but if you jam yours full of random words in hopes someone will find them someday, there’s no point in using them! The best strategy is to stick with three or four posts so that people looking for specific content will see it without having too much clutter on the screen all at once.

Takeaway: If you use these tips, you’ll have a much better chance of making social media effective for driving traffic to your site.

Ultimately, social media may never be a good traffic source for an individual website. However, it can be a valuable tool to promote a designer’s work and drive traffic to its portfolio site. There’s no point in starting network-building on every platform right away. It can be time-consuming, confusing, and challenging to get any return. Start with one or two media that fit your target market and your niche as a designer. Focus on creating a quality profile and post frequently. Engage your followers and find ways to give them value by using your social media pages. The more value you provide on social media, the more you will build connections with the audience that matters most for your work—and the more likely they’ll be to visit your site when they’re looking for new design inspiration.