…Is Greater With Integrations
It’s now well established that social media can be a valuable traffic source, after all Twitter turns 11 this year (2017), and there’s a reason it’s managed to survive so successfully for so long.
YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are other social veterans that are firmly established as key components in most digital marketing strategies, and the slightly younger generation of social media channels such as Snapchat, continue to develop and grow from strength to strength.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder the internet is riddled with articles highlighting the “social media trends that will take over this year” and giving you advice on “how to build a social media strategy that works” and rightly so, there’s a lot to learn.
But one area that’s not covered in quite so much detail, is the role of social media web integrations, which after a longer than expected introduction, is really what this post is about. The power of social media really is greater if you have
the right integrations in place to really start making it work for your business. Here’s how and why…
Increase Your Social Reach
All too often, social media is used in isolation for brands and companies to simply broadcast their latest messaging and distribute their content. What can enhance this power even further are social sharing integrations such as the aptly named ShareThis and AddThis.
This connects your social channels with your website in a way that goes a step further than simply having links to your social profiles in the footer. ShareThis and AddThis give users the ability to share and post your content directly to their own social profiles. This essentially increases the social reach of your content exponentially. It also leverages the influence that individual has over their social circles and lends it to your brand.
Strengthen Your Web Content
Going back to those social media links in your website footer again though, another way to entice your website visitors to click through to your social profiles, is to actually integrate with them. Actually pull through your latest tweets or perhaps your most popular Instagram posts directly onto your webpages. This gives your users a sneak peek at the kind of content you’re publishing and can get them engaged with your social channels before they even visit them.
If used well, these types of social media integrations can also support the content on your website as well, strengthening your brand messaging and adding dynamic content to the page that keeps it fresh and relevant.
Improve Your User Experience
Users love convenience. Most of us will have at least one social profile and that means we already have at least one set of login details to remember. If you’re website has a login area, allowing social logins can help improve your user experience by dramatically reducing the registration process, and saving your users the hassle of creating and remembering another set of credentials.
In fact,
Hootsuite reports that 73% of users prefer to log in to a website using their social logins, rather than providing an email address and creating a new account.
Prove Your Trustworthiness
It’s no secret that customer reviews are a key component that potential customers use when making their online purchasing decisions. But did you know that a
BrightLocal study conducted in 2013 found that Facebook and Twitter were the key recommendation channels showing strong growth?
This means when you integrate
social proof with your website, you are strengthening how trustworthy you are perceived by potential customers. Social proof includes integrations such as Facebook’s “Like Box” which uses the power of numbers to convince others that if lots of people already like you, then they probably should too.
Other examples can be more specific such as citing notable social mentions from customers who believe in what you do or leveraging social testimonials and combining these with the user’s profile picture to create more believable, relatable content. However you choose to do it, integrating social proof with your website can ultimately increase your online conversions.
So, the next time you’re thinking about your social media strategy, just spare a thought for how you can take this a step further, with the help of social web integrations.
If you’re already interested in how integrating your website with social media can work for your business,
contact our experts today.