— Jennifer Karpus, Tire Business reporter and social media blogger, and Alaina Scott, Tire Business online manager, contributed to these answers:
“Sometimes on social media it's not the length of time that you are on a site, but rather how active you are on it. For instance, if you have been on the site for a year and a half, but only post once every couple of months, that could greatly affect the success rate of your page.
“People want that social interaction. Such things could be something simple like posting a new recipe you are going to try over the weekend. If everything is about you and your business, you may turn people off from liking your page.
“Social media is a two-way street. Just like you would not ignore a customer in your store, you don't want to ignore your followers on social media. With that, it's also important to factor in the 6:1 them-to-you ratio—meaning you want to post six things for or about them in comparison to one thing about you.”
What is the best way to track the traffic driven to my website from social media (Google analytics, etc.)? Do I need to create a custom landing page in Facebook for this?
“First, you do not need to create a custom landing page in Facebook for this because Facebook's domain will be used to determine how much traffic is generated from the site to your own.
“Google analytics, Omniture, Piwik and ClickTale are among some of the most widely recommended website analytics tools. These have a tool for traffic sources or traffic referrals and you can set to see the top or all of the sites from which your audience came.”
I'm in manufacturing and see from our insights that the post with the most reach is when we had someone dressed as an “Easter Bunny” in a photo wishing our customers a Happy Easter. Other fun ideas you can suggest for a dry manufacturing subject? Seems the “fun” things get shared!
“It's great that you are using the insights that Facebook offers. It definitely helps you see what posts are more popular, so you can strategize what type of content to post.
“It's really important to remember the social aspect of social media. If you are on a site like LinkedIn, then people want to know the more mechanical, strictly business side of your company. However, people who are on Facebook and Twitter are more likely to be scrolling through their news feed when they are waiting in line somewhere. What would catch your eye more: a riddle, joke, a funny picture—or an article about proper tire maintenance?
“Both are important for you to share with your audience, but without the fun parts, you might not get as many people clicking on your page. It's that 6:1 ratio previously mentioned—six things for/about them and one thing about you.
“It also depends on who your core audience is. As a tire dealer, most of your followers will be consumers, but if you sell merchandise to other businesses, then you may want to focus more on some industry-specific links that are really relevant to your industry.”
How is Twitter content different from Facebook content?
“Both Twitter and Facebook can have similar content because they are both designed as social sites. However, there are different demographics on the sites.
“For instance, Twitter has a younger demographic than Facebook, so that is something to consider when posting. As a point of reference, on Twitter nearly half of all users are under the age of 34 and only 30 percent are over 40. Facebook differs because 45 percent of users are over age 45.
“Also, because Twitter has a 140-character limit, you have to get your point across in a much briefer format than on Facebook.
“It's also more of a 'real-time' site, meaning that most of the action on one tweet is going to happen within one hour. After that the chances of people seeing your tweet starts to go down.
“Facebook, on the other hand, is more of a site where people can catch up in a day or two.
“So on Twitter, you may want to repeat posting of popular or relevant topics. You don't want to follow that same rule on Facebook.”
(For more answers to your social media questions, check out the July 8 social media blog post at www.tirebusiness.com/section/ BLOGS.)