Social media can be overwhelming. Each platform is starting to offer more to each of their applications. Sometimes those bells and whistles they keep adding on can add to your frustration. Thankfully, if you just take a moment to understand why these little additives are so important to you and your company, you can stay ahead of the times and right in front of your followers with no difficulty.

2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least. To keep you distracted from the news and the hours of scrolling we have all been doing this past week, we wanted to keep on chugging with business as (mostly) normal. We want to give you something to think about while you're working remotely from home or while you're focusing on the next step of what to do. So let's get right into it, and talk about one of our favorite social media platforms; Instagram!

Instagram can be a place of joy, frustration, confusion, and an amazing advertising tool. We've talked about the importance of staying on top of digital marketing trends and how they can truly benefit you and your company if you stay on top of them. One of the biggest trends happening on Instagram right now is the use of the story option. You can add pictures or videos to your story, and it's an interesting and unique tool that more and more companies are starting to take advantage of. Companies are posting pictures and videos of things at the moment and connecting to their followers in ways they never have before. What's exciting about them is that they give your audience and your followers a real behind the scenes look into the heart of your company. Stories give your followers a sense of humanity because they can see the people at the heartbeat of the company and product they care about so much. It's comforting and endearing. In a world drowned out by social media and that is taking away our human connection from one another, this incredible tool and trend are turning us into beings that crave this insight and are pushing us to be apart of it all. In this two-part blog post, we are going to be discussing why using Instagram stories can be very helpful to your online business, and why you should be using them in your Instagram account.  

Ready, Set, Engage!
Are you still skeptical about using stories on Instagram? Does it make you a little uncomfortable to think about as an option for your social media, or you see no point in it? Well, the first huge benefit of this particular tool, is that it will give you page top-notch engagement, and allow that engagement to be consistent. Stories aren't something that lasts forever on your profile, they only stick around for 24 hours and then disappear. You can decide to keep them on your Instagram page as a Permanent Highlights if you so choose to (which, if it's great content - then we encourage you to place it into your permanent highlights. The key is to reuse content!) they'll be around as long as you want them to. You can use Instagram Stories to get your followers excited about your product and to stay in contact with you. It's a great storytelling tool, and a great way to add excitement to what's happening right now. You can build up the excitement for every story by mentioning in your Instagram profile that if you watch these videos or look at pictures, your followers might receive special deals, get exclusive looks at new products, and be the first customers to hear new information. Automatically, your followers get excited about being a part of this "in crowd" and will keep them coming back for more. They will check in on your actual profile more often to see when the next video will appear, and while they're visiting they will get to know you and your brand better. Even though not everyone will get a chance to see these Instagram stories, everyone who will see them will get excited.

No Point in Perfect
The great thing about going posting in your stories is that every video or picture you post to it never has to be perfect. They still need to follow proper business etiquette, but if the video quality isn't the best, if the lighting isn't perfect, or the weather didn't turn out that day to do an outside shoot, that's ok! These imperfect moments shows real humanity to the whole situation and in your company. You are just like your followers, posting videos and content that comes from the heart and is going with the flow of life. Do you know how refreshing that is in comparison to perfectly cut little videos that took hours and cost tons of money to make? You can find those everywhere! But where is the heart in those?

These videos and pictures can also be seen and will be seen as real-time moments and action shots. Plus, if this is fun or important information and it doesn't look quality perfect, that's also ok. It's the heart of the content that matters and what your customers, followers, and viewers will remember. The message will still be delivered without messing up the flow of your profile, too. Your Instagram profile can be kept picture perfect and on-brand with the consistent and professional flow you've built, all while still using the stories to show off your brand in a more personal style.

Algorithms of My Heart
Instagram has been seeing a lot of big changes in the last year or so. Now that Facebook owns Instagram, we are very confident that there will still be many more changes to come. One of the biggest changes we've seen is how posts are displayed and what determines the order that they are displayed in. They used to be shown in the order of when they were posted. Now, they are shown in order based on what the built-in algorithm believes you will enjoy the most. This is based on your interests, what you look at regularly on your Instagram page, and what you have created as your personal demographic. If your company doesn't fit into this algorithm, then your posts and account could go unseen for some time, or maybe not even at all. The great thing about using stories or going live in this situation is that they are posted in real-time and are posted in the order that the users post them in. Your followers will have a better opportunity to see you pop up on their feed without getting lost in the shuffle if you use Instagram stories. The more you post in your stories, and the more they're clicked on, the more often your posts will be seen in your follower's feed. This will help click you into their algorithms, and help to become a permanent part of what they see every time they open the app.

That's all for now! What do you think about Instagram stories so far? Are you already using them and this blog post made you appreciate them a little more? Are you getting excited to try out an Instagram story for the very first time? Or are you still a little confused about what it all means?  Keep all of this in mind until our next blog, and please feel free to reach out and ask any questions you might about this topic. We are here to start that conversation with you. Until then, stay safe, healthy, and smart. We love you, Summerville!

Gaining online traffic to your website can be a little tricky, but the more you understand the different types of traffic and how to get them to your website, the more you can build your business online and off. Take the time to continue learning about the different types of traffic and how it can help you and your company!

February is here! We mentioned how much we love love, and we wanted to continue that with you. In our last blog we started the conversation about what online traffic to your website is and the different types there are out there. Remember, many different types of traffic can visit your website, but we are focusing on the four most popular. In our last blog, we talked about direct and referral traffic. In this blog, we are going to be finishing out with talking about organic and social traffic. These two are some of the most tangible and easiest forms of traffic you can implement into your company and very easy to add to your online advertisement goals.

TRAFFIC TYPE THREE: Organic Traffic!
This type of traffic comes from an online search. An online user isn't specifically typing in your companies name, because they don't know who you are yet. But they are searching for a specific product or service and want a recommendation for something. They type in something that relates to your business, and if you use this type of traffic properly, your company will pop up in the top three website options for them to choose from. The best way to increase this type of traffic is through SEO - (S)earch (E)ngine (O)ptimization. This will place your business at the top of a Google search, so, likely, your website will automatically be picked first by the online user. SEO labels you as being the authority and pro on the topic you're being searched under and helps increase your Google and Online ranking. It is very easy to track this kind of traffic, and the more work you put into it the higher the return you will receive. The big factor in putting work into this and making Google recognize you as an authority is having high-quality content. You need a beautiful and well-designed webpage and Social Media pages, a very safe hosting site, and written blogs posted to your website at least twice a month (AKA what we provide to our clients!). Being very present and active on your Social Media Pages will also help dramatically with this type of traffic too.

TRAFFIC TYPE FOUR: Social Traffic!
This kind of traffic is cultivated by people visiting your website by finding you on a social media platform. They are so interested and intrigued by your brand, that it causes them to visit your website through a link you've provided in a call to action or posted on your social media pages. The more followers you gain on your social media platforms, the more of this type of traffic you can gain. What helps is posting at least once a day on your platforms, being on-brand and consistent when you post, and staying connected with your followers. You need to interact, communicate, and respond to any posts and messages. It can't be a one way street of communication to be successful in this type of traffic. Don't be selfish in this form of traffic. Don't just post to gain followers and traffic. Your goal should be to create a vibrant community that you're proud to be apart of and that your brand is proud to be a part of. This is what social media was created for. If you see that a certain type of social media platform is working better than others for your company, adjust your time and budget accordingly. Post on all platforms, but be realistic in what is bringing traffic to your website and what is not. This reflects the demographics and age range of who is visiting your website, which is ok! Just be aware of these factors.

You not only need to be aware of each of these forms of traffic and understand how they work, but you also need to know how they help and how to achieve them. You need to track the success of each form of traffic that is coming to your website as well. Google My Business does track these numbers for you and you can find them in your information account under the Acquisition Tab. After you open this tab, you can find it in the Overview section. This gathered data can help you see what types of traffic you're consistently doing well with and the ones you're not doing well with. If there is a type of traffic you want more than others, then it's time to switch up your plan on how you are marketing yourself to gain the traffic you want. Have better offline marketing for the direct traffic or perfect your social media platforms to gain Social Traffic There is a trick to each of these types of traffic, and depending on what works best for you and your company, is what you need to put your focus on!

We hope these past two blogs have helped you understand a little bit more about online traffic and the importance it can bring to your website and company. Understand that each of these types of traffic is important and necessary to grow your businesses. You need to add goals of gaining traffic to your website to your goals of online marketing, and you need to understand your audience and the demographic you are wanting to target. Once you can harness these ideas and understand what type of traffic works best for you, then you'll be unstoppable.

Keep working hard, driving forward with your goals, and staying caffeinated!

Not all traffic is created equally. Some of it we dread at 5 PM, while others we work very hard to bring to our websites to grow our brands. Do you know the different kinds of traffic that come to your website and the ways you can help them flourish? Take a moment to sit back and enjoy the ride through this particular kind of traffic!

Valentine's day is almost around the corner, and we just love celebrating love. Love of one's brand, love of one's growth, and the love of one's ad campaigns. These three things might be difficult to love because they can take a lot of time and effort to become prosperous. But so does an important relationship. You often spend more time working at your job and helping it grow than you do with your family and friends. Understandably, you need to nurture and support these aspects of your company just like you would a budding relationship. One very popular way to grow your company is to understand the four different types of traffic your website can have to gain followers, new customers, and keep returning customers coming back for more. Remember, your website is a gateway to your business. it's the first introduction many people will have to your brand and what you're selling. If you can increase the number of people who come to your website, potentially you'll have more followers, customers, and purchases.

But building a website and hitting "publish" won't automatically bring visitors to your website. Getting people, and a large amount of them to visit your website isn't an easy task. There are billions of websites out there and infinite amounts of information readily available to you at all times. If you don't have the right tools or don't use the right tools to gain proper website traffic, your website could easily be losing traction and not getting the attention it deserves. Understanding and using all forms of traffic for your website isn't a quick and easy fix. There isn't one solution to make your website the most popular website ever or to get the number of visitors you want right now. Your business and advertising strategies need to have a few different tools working at the same time to optimize your website and to get those visitors you want and need.

We completely understand that online marketing is or can be overwhelming. That's one of the reasons why our company exists. We are here to take away that worry and stress and do it for you. But if you're taking this on by yourself and you're handling it all on your own, it's easy to fall into a pit of despair. But don't fall prey to it. There is a good amount you need to know to be successful in gaining the right amounts of traffic to your website, and sometimes it's hard to know where to start. There are admittedly many places to start and many great tools available to you. But start simply with one goal, getting more traffic to your website. If you start there and continue to grow, there is nowhere to go but up.

In the big scheme of things, four big types of traffic visit your website. There are others, but in this two-part blog, we are just going to be discussing the four main players in bringing traffic to your website. So sit back and learn, and let's get some traffic to your website!  

TRAFFIC TYPE ONE: Direct Traffic!
This audience is specifically looking for you the minute they look for your website. They sit down at their computer and type in your website or specific type in your business name into their browser. They have heard about you and went looking for you directly. This audience and type of traffic already know, is very familiar with, and wants your brand. For companies that have been around for some time and are established, this kind of traffic is the result of years of cultivating an audience through branding and pushing to make themselves a household common name. If a much younger business is getting this kind of traffic, it is thanks to very smartly placed ads and a well-branded marketing plan that understood and knew their demographic right at the very beginning. This type of marketing doesn't mean online marketing. Its benefits come from an offline marketing strategy. If your company is getting a large amount of this kind of traffic to your website, but you're not seeing any sense of return in purchases or new clients, then it might be time to rethink your brand. Always make sure your brand matches what you're selling and who you're selling it to.

TRAFFIC TYPE TWO: Referral Traffic!
This type of traffic comes from visitors visiting your website by outside links that are placed across the internet. If you place your links on popular webpages or forums where a lot of traffic already exists, the more likely you are to also lead this traffic to your website. If you publish an article, popular post, something that grabs an audience's attention with a call to action to visit your website, then you might find some big success using this type of traffic. Be very careful with this type of traffic though. Google can flag these posted and shared links as bots or scams. Which is the last few months, has become a very strict regime. Make sure your links have value and quality, and you post them on reputable sites. Avoid creating or posting on gimmicks, scams, and cheesy advertisement to get followers for the sake of followers. That will blow up in your face before any success comes your way.

Think about this. These are just TWO of the four ways to optimize traffic to your website. They are in-depth, but not out of reach. How are you feeling about these two types of traffic? Do they sound familiar?  Are you using them in your everyday drive to bring more traffic to your website? If you're not, try and add them to your traffic intake, and see where you are when we post the second half of this blog. You should experiment and see what you can gain by using them. Remember, you won't be losing anything by spending time cultivating these types of traffic. Try something new in your ad campaign this month. It might just completely turn around the traffic to your website, and get you on track to exactly what you want from your online business.

Until next time, work hard, stay inspired, and stay caffeinated.