Its safe to say that in today's world, everyone has heard or personally used some kind of a social media platform whether its Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Youtube or a any other web based platform through which people can exchange ideas and information. The reason social media gained such popularity over the traditional web page internet usage is that it allows people to express their ideas, experiences and share information across international global communities and networks. Social media is superior to traditional media when it comes to reach, frequency, usability and permanence.
As web development consultants, we cannot stress enough the importance of integrating social media into your websites. Today's web users demand some sort of a "humanistic" feel from websites and tend to return to these web sites over and over again as they do not only server as a one-time information source, but as a hub where people can exchange knowledge and past experiences. Moreover there's the human reliance factor which also plays a considerable part in your web site or ideas going viral. When people see other people whom they trust or have respect for share your particular site or mention it in their blog or their posts, it is more likely that they will also visit your website, increasing your exposure and market presence.
How to Inject Social Media into your Website?
In previous blogs, we discussed how you can improve your general architecture, optimize data access in your system and other ways how you can develop a cutting edge web solution to give the user a pleasant experience when browsing through your website. However here at Incredible Web we don't just stop there. We aim at helping you (our readers) create a whole complete solution, including how you can improve your web presence globally and invite your web viewers to come to your website over and over again. Lets take a look at some ways how you can transform your website into a social media community.
Social Media Buttons
Links to social network websites. One might ask: "Why would I send people to other websites after I managed to finally get them here?" Traditionally this used to be considered moronic and unbeneficial to the website's traffic. Why would you send people away after working so hard to get them to your website in the first place? The answer to this question is a simple fundamental principal of modern marketing, "Long Term" vs "Short Term" customer relationship. The idea must be weighed against the short term risk of sending your users away. By allowing your users to follow you on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to your YouTube channel, you have the possibility of maintaining an open line of communication with your customers long after they leave your websites. Always make sure you have a Social Media profile page or Channel so as to keep sharing your ideas and promoting your services even when your users aren't necissarily browsing your website.
Add a Blog to your website
Whether your blog shares a domain with your own website or not, you can always improve interactivity on your web site through blogs. Continuously posting information related to the services or products you're offering will educating your target audience will eventually improve your credibility and presence in the market. People often do some research before purchasing a product or service, and if your website isn't ranked high enough on Google's results, maybe one of your blogs is, either through relevance or other means.
Make your website Sharable
We've seen it in our news feed over and over again; "Share this" and "Share that". It might seem ineffective or tedious but people who are concerned about what you're posting will actually share it because they probably know other people or communities who share the same interest. That's what social media and social networking is all about, exchanging information through common likes and interests. Adding a "Share" button on your website is easy and most of the social media platforms will automatically generate the code for you. All you have to do is add it on to your page, and there you go.
Add Presentations and Videos to your website
If a picture says a thousand words, a video can transmit a million! It might be more time consuming but lets face it, you've invested money in your website, you've invested time in Search Engine Optimization, most probably you can invest some more time in creating a simple clip even if you don't produce it from scratch yourself. You can get ideas from other clips or just demonstrate how people can you your website and what message you're trying to communicate to your audiance. It can even be an existing Youtube video clip. As long as you believe that it will help your customers understand better your mission and statement, its all good material to put on your website.
Before injecting social media into your website, make sure which channels are best suited for your website. In general these pointers are all applicable to most of the web websites out there but some of them may obviously be omitted if deemed unfit or irrelevant. The most important thing to remember is that you must always help visitors and users interact with your website and share as much information as possible making your website more reputable and rich in resources.
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