Now that the search engines are doing much better at incorporating social-network pages and signals into search results, and analytics packages are becoming more able to track social-originated website traffic… it’s a good time to bring your website up to social snuff.
You don’t need to go all the way to building a private social network …even though there are now tools such as EPIServer CMS to simplify that. Posting on Social Media Today, Ashley Hedlund identifies a number of things you can do fairly easily – beyond blogging, which you definitely should be doing – to make your website more social and engaging, without losing its top-notch level of control and flexibility. The first few are fairly obvious; the rest, perhaps less so…
Use share buttons to spread content
If you place content-sharing buttons such as Facebook’s “Share” or Twitter’s “Tweet This” buttons on your key pages, visitors can post your content on their networks, encouraging their colleagues to visit your website. Put them on all blog posts, articles, photos or videos that are posted to your website.
Feature social links on your homepage
Place your social icons right on the homepage where it’s easy for visitors to find; don’t bury them only on subpages within the site.
Allow users to login through social networks
Ashley: “If you allow users to log in and interact with your site using plug-ins like Facebook Connect, then any activity will be automatically published back to that users’ social channel, encouraging their friends to engage with your website as well.”
Embed videos using a YouTube player
By adding a YouTube player to your website, you can create a presence on YouTube while adding video content to your website. Video is a terrific way to keep your visitors engaged, and the player is easy to manage directly from your YouTube account. Oh, and let’s never forget that YouTube is the world’s 2nd-largest search engine…
Install a floating social bar
Remind visitors to become a fan of your Web pages by installing a floating social bar that sticks with the user as they browse your content. (For a nifty example, check this site and try not to watch the social bar at the right edge as you scroll…).
Stream social updates
“Use the Twitter widget and Facebook stream plugin to allow visitors … to view your social updates directly from your website. This might encourage them to “fan” your pages if they happen to see a tweet or status update that interests them.”
Encourage visitors to submit content
No doubt, it’s a major challenge to keep your website full of fresh and engaging content. Why not try inviting customers and other visitors to submit content to your social channels …some of which you may then be able to feature on your website? It should lead to improved recognition of / tighter social bonding with your company or brand.
Connect blog to website
Make sure your blog is fully integrated with your website, so that the latter will rank on the fresh and growing content posted to your blog. Clearly, this helps with search engine optimization (SEO) and draws traffic to the site. You should enable blog commenting, and deploy the social plugins mentioned above.
With these tips working for you, your website will be one of the more sociable on the block… and that’s way more than just a status symbol. As Ashley concludes: “With search engine optimization constantly changing and social media continuing to become a large part of marketing, it’s important to build a social corporate web presence on your website, so that you are positioned for better rankings, more social activity and potential leads.”
Has anyone tried socializing their website, with these or other devices? …why not let us all know how it went in the Comments.
It’s very important to be involved in social media and to feature social links, however you don’t want to feature them too prominently. The main website should still be the foundation of your online marketing strategy. You want to use social media to increase website visitors, not the other way around.
Social media has witnessed an explosive growth in recent times. It makes sense to cash in on the exponential rise in its popularity. Useful and brilliant tips.