Getting traffic with social media is a great way to get more targeted, loyal traffic, and do it a lot quicker.
Think about that. You’re connecting directly with individuals. That gives you a huge opportunity to prove yourself, your business and your worth.
Here are the 8 tips for how I use social media not only bring me more traffic, but help me intimately connect with individuals and turn them from visitors to loyal followers.
1. Write a Great Profile
When you create your your Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo or other social media accounts, spend time on your profile. Write a genuine, candid profile that describes who you really are. Make it interesting enough to peak a reader’s curiosity about you. That’s how the relationship starts.
Include a link to your site on your profile page.basic This will give people a reason to click through from the social media site to your website or blog. A good enticement would be to make a free offer that provides them with some type of solution.
Also include a picture with your profile. A trick I use is to hold my camera at arms length in fro
nt of me and snap. Voila, you’ve got a picture you can add right now.
2. Get More Traffic by Interacting Daily
Being social means interacting with people. Never just post content and then move on. Spend a few minutes, maybe even a half hour or so each day interacting with individuals.
Try saying a few encouraging or inspiring things that people appreciate related to your niche. I sometimes open up a training guide I’ve purchased and pull out a good tidbit of information that might help my audience.
Things like this go a long way for not only getting followers but impressing the ones you have 
Also link your social media accounts together. For example, link Twitter to your Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, HubPages and other social media pages.
3. Make a Request to your followers to “retweet” and re-post
If you create a great post on a controversial or hot topic, ask for feedback on it. People love controversy and will respond. Then ask folks in your social media networks to re-post it. Similarly, ask your Twitter followers to “retweet” it.
If you don’t ask the answer is always “No”, right?
4. Grow Your Network Daily
I like to spend at least 15 minutes each day growing my network. I know, just one more thing to do right? But including this task in your daily routine can bring in big results by the end of the month.
Unfortunately everything does take time, but in about 6 months you’ll be amazed at how your network can grow, and believe me, by the end of that six months you’ll be glad you did it.
5. Use your real name
Some people are hesitant to use their real name, but people who want to do business with you won’t take you seriously if your name is “Webgirl2″ Using your real name helps build trust and makes you believable. It also makes it easier for others to find you on the web.
6. Post Useful Content
Social media isn’t totally about networking, it also includes sharing information. If you can share your best information with your network and followers, you’ll be building trust and respect as well establishing yourself as expert in your niche.
Those are the things that will bring you more sales 
7. Optimize your content for Getting Traffic
Social sites like Squidoo and Yahoo! Answers are regularly indexed and crawled by the search engines. So optimize your content for the search engines by writing effective SEO copy that uses relevant keywords and on page optimization strategies, your content will take you a lot farther.
8. Don’t Waste Time Using Social Media
Interacting with people online can be a time ‘suck’, so instead of trying to interact and build relationships with thousands of people, build your relationships with just a handful of partners. One good partner can send you hundreds or thousands of prospects and customers.
The bottom line is…
Social media isn’t going away. The search engines, Google especially, are using it more and more to determine the usefulness and popularity of a site, so work it into your daily marketing routine. There’s so much to be gained and so little to lose.
Twitter: VictoriaBPhoto
on September 26, 2011 at 9:02 am said:
Another great article Liz. I know I could be much better at posting useful content and working on growing my network daily…. “note to self”
Interacting is definitely a BIG part of boosting traffic on social media sites. I find that the more I interact with people, the more interaction I get in return… It sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people just don’t realize that it’s necessary!!
Hey Sara, Working online at your own business definitely requires discipline, it’s easy to waste time with email, social media and surfing the web.
Start with reading email at the end of the day, that’s helped me a lot. Next, plan out your day. Look at the things that have priority in your business right now and make a plan to get those things done. Make a list of things to do each day and give yourself a time limit for each, setting a timer. The list should be realistic, in other words, don’t make a ‘wish list’, make a list that you can realistically complete in the time you give yourself.
Do one thing at a time and stay focused. Don’t wander off the path of focus, if you do, you’ll waste time. Start there and see how you do.
Would love to see more about using time wisely on the internet. I feel like I am on the internet all day and don’t get much done.
Open to suggestions,
Sara
Social media is now a proven technique to drive valuable traffic towards your site.
Social networks, social media, online advertisement and review writing will be very helpful to give you exposure in competition. I am getting handsome traffice by implementing all your suggested tips.
Social media is tricky, but this is all great advice! Especially the first two – I feel like a lot of people neglect the profile, but I’d be way more likely to interact with someone who had a profile I was interested in reading than someone who didn’t… That’s why I try to keep mine fun and engaging, myself!!
With the number of blogs online growing every day, it is increasingly difficult to stand out and achieve success with your blog. In the end, many bloggers that start out with high hopes and expectations wind up deciding that blogging really isn’t worth their time. Those who have some patience and a plan to achieve specific goals with their blog will have a much greater likelihood of long-term success.
Very good article post about social media. But I think one should not focus so much on now. It may already be a nice promotional tool if you do it really clear. But to advance white relationship with search engines good traffic coming to good old loving only helps link building.