In the past decade, social media has opened a world of opportunities for new businesses and businesses that already have their brand successfully established. The Web and Social Media have grown up together, and the technologies for web social integration have become more seamless and powerful than ever before. The importance of social media as a vehicle for business cannot be denied; according to Curator, over 80% of small and big companies worldwide are leveraging the power of social media to make their business more attractive. Many companies integrated social media and websites to create a seamless experience, better brand exposure, and sales opportunities. Today we’ll explore the benefits, strategies, and pitfalls of this seemingly simple but crucial connection that can have a massive impact on your business.
So, what is web / social integration?
Web and social integration are typically viewed from one end or the other:
- The process of expanding your marketing by making your social media accounts more accessible to your target audience via your website. This process means sharing social media links directly on your website, typically shown as little icons/widgets or including the entire social media feed.
- Enticing and directing your social media audience to engage with your website
Let’s dive deeper and look at the opportunities, strategies, and mistakes that come along with social media and website integration.
Opportunities
- Reach a larger audience & gain exposure: Whoever is looking at your website has the opportunity to view your social media (and vice versa). Especially if you post on various platforms, you could get a new audience from multiple backgrounds.
- Drive traffic to your website and social media accounts: Continuously having website visits be your call-to-action on your social media allows your site to shine! The same goes for having your social media links on your website. Your audience will see those links and immediately be curious about how you represent yourself on your social media platforms.
- Increase social media followers: Following your social media accounts will become easier! When people have the ‘follow’ button right in front of their eyes, they’re more likely to engage.
- Create a brilliant customer experience: Let your customers see the products/services in action! They’ll be able to dive deeper into how other people are reacting to your social media platforms, establishing a good reputation, and increasing trust.
- Build a brand image: If your social media branding and style is the same as your websites (as they should be), it will paint a simplistic picture of what your company’s all about!
Strategies
- Add social media widgets to the bottom of your website: The links to your social media accounts are staring the viewer right in the face, making it easier to access additional information on your products or services.
- Embed a social media feed onto your website: Including a feed of social media posts to your website can catch the audience’s attention and intrigue them to take a look at the rest of your content. This feature will keep them informed when updates to your social media pages while browsing your website.
- Place social sharing buttons: Give your viewers easy access to sharing your blogs or product pages.
- Showcase social media reviews: According to Taggbox, product or service recommendations and positive reviews have been trusted by 79% of customers, increasing sales and website conversions.
Mistakes
- Colorful icons in your website’s header: When a website visitor comes on and immediately sees a bright ‘Instagram’ logo, it may detour them from checking out the rest of the website. Add the logo at the bottom of your pages, or make the icon a neutral color.
- Linking to inactive accounts: What’s the point of connecting to an inactive social media account or an account that doesn’t contain meaningful content? If you don’t post on a platform consistently or engage with people on the social network, it’s best to leave it off of your website.
According to SmallBizGenius, social sales accounted for 50% of revenues across 14 major industries, and 48% of companies identified expanding reach to new buyers as a benefit of social sales. To say it would be a poor decision not to integrate your website and social media platforms would be an understatement.
At Prophase Marketing, we design websites with your business in mind, and all of our packages include web social integration. On the flip side, if you need to ramp up your social media content, check out our Social Media Management service! Let’s work together to build something great for your business.
Reach out to us here or give us a call at (866)-288-4959 to learn more about our Website Design & Development and Social Media Management services.
