Adding Social Media to Your Website
If your company has a website that you are optimising using SEO and content marketing strategies, it’s important that you integrate your social media activities with your existing online presence. By adding social media to your website, you can create a more interactive experience for website visitors. In addition, you can increase traffic to your website and social media profiles and create an even more unified and recognisable brand online.
Include “Follow Me” Links to Your Site
You should incorporate the social media icons with your company contact information (ideally, this should be in the top right corner of your websitehomepage). Now think about the social media profiles you currently have and are actively using. Download graphical icons representing each technology.
There are a number of resources online where you can download free social media graphics. Then have your webmaster update your homepage with the “follow us” links. It’s also a good idea to add the “follow us” links to your Contact Us page
Allow Visitors to Share Your Website Content
Another way to incorporate social media to your website is by adding “share” links to each page on your website. This will allow visitors to share your website content with their networks with just a click of a button. By providing a seamless method for visitors to share your website content with their friends, colleagues and connections, you will increase brand visibility, content syndication and website traffic. In order to incorporate “share” links on your site, your webmaster or a qualified web developer will need to insert a unique code into your website.
Incorporate Social Media Feeds Directly on Your Website
Websites tend not to get as updated as they should be. To keep your website from remaining static, you could include feeds from your social media pages directly on your site. There are widgets that you can turn on or plug in that will allow you to do this. This way, people who visit your website can see your latest Facebook updates, Twitter messages or the first few lines of your recent blog posts directly on your site.
You can also include links that direct visitors to visit your Facebook page, Twitter page or blog for more information. By adding this feature to your site, anytime you update your social media page, the feed will automatically appear on your website. No manual updating is required.
Create an Interactive Experience with Video
The Internet world is all about engagement and one of best ways to engage people online is by offering them an interesting video to watch. Embedding a video on your site is simple. Just upload it to a video hosting platform such as YouTube. Then take the “embed” code provided and have your webmaster incorporate that code into your website. You can do the same with your company blog.
Here are some video ideas to consider:
- Product demos to highlight its features and benefits
- How-to videos with tips and ideas that will help your customers solve a problem
- Video testimonials from satisfied customers
- A message from your company president or spokesperson
Allow Visitors to Contact You Easily with Live Chat
Another way to create an interactive social experience for your website visitors is by allowing them to speak with you directly while they are on your website through live chat. Instant messaging has now become one of the most common ways to communicate online.
So why not make it easy for your website visitors to contact you on the spot? You can answer questions, resolve issues, collect feedback and monitor visitor paths around your site in real time with live chat.
Below are some free open source tools you can consider:
- Crafty Syntax: Offers a comprehensive range of features, particularly if you want to go beyond customer help and monitor paths through your website – http://bit.ly/hfxe9o
- LiveZilla: Contains an enormous number of features and also has operators for your own 24/7 chat if you are short on human resources to provide the service – http://bit.ly/fPGnTZ
We are always happy to answer any questions. Contact the team by phone on (01) 808 1301, or email us at info@emarkable.ie
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