To Integrate Social Media Into Your Website
2
What’s Your Facebook Brand Page?
We all remember those halcyon days of the 90’s, when having an ad in the Yellow Pages was scoffed at in favor of having a dot com. Now, we’ve moved into the social realm, where if you don’t have a Facebook brand page, it’s almost the same as not having a dot com address. Print and outdoor ads no longer reference a website – the focus is all on the Facebook URL. Many brands put time and money into their social efforts. They also invest heavily in making their website the ultimate user experience. So why not integrate the two?
Why Optimize Sites for Social? Increase return visits and site-stickiness. Your SEO or Paid Advertising efforts brought users to your site. But if they’re not buying now, who says they’ll come back again? Having them as your social fans forever will make sure they come back, when the deal or time is right.
Nothing gets a customer on board like word of mouth. You took the time to drive a qualified customer to your site and they love what they see. Whether it’s a product or an article, make it easy for them to share it with their friends. Milk the conversion for all it’s worth – get new customers on board via social sharing of the product, page Or article.
Grow your community with brand advocates. You can spend all the time in the world creating content and building engagement through social media, but it’s only by growing your community with genuine fans that your overall brand presence can grow. Fan advertising on Facebook is a great way to expose your brand to new potential customers, but why not get your existing customers who know and love your brand to join you on social? They’ll be the customer brand advocates that you need to convert the new potentials you picked up on the backstreets of the Internet.
4
How to Integrate Social With Your Website: 1) Add social media buttons to your website header and contact information. You probably currently list your phone number and email address, however it’s time to consider making your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest buttons just as prominent.
Note: By clicking these buttons, users are then directed to visit your Facebook page or Twitter feed, where they have an option to Like or Follow.
f in
t
5
It can be bold and bright Pringles,
for
example,
incorporates
and
YouTube branding with the fun look and feel of Pringles, asking users to visit their pages on social networks and download their App.
Simple and subtle Like Target’s site;
Featured on every page Or Taco Bell, which features buttons on the bottom side of the page, which remains on every product and landing page.
6
2. ADD A LIKE BOX Showing a visitor which of their friends already Likes the page makes it one step easier to convince them to click the button. The ability to click a Like button on the site, using Facebook’s Developer Tools, means users don’t need to click through to your page, as with the Facebook or Twitter buttons. Some sites, like Mashable, use a simpler Facepile style to group all their social media buttons together in one place. The Like Box functionality even enables you to pull in a stream of recent posts.
Monster Energy Monster Energy’s edgy and extreme branding is evident throughout the styling of their home page. Under the main slider image of the homepage, users are able to filter across blog posts, news, galleries, music and videos. On the sidebar, they are also invited to follow Monster Energy on various networks or subscribe to the newsletter. Underneath, individual Instagram and Facebook boxes are installed to enable users to engage with the social networks immediately.
7
3. Feature social streams Why keep your social community separate from your website community? Encourage web visitors to join you on social by seeing what they’re missing. Show visitors the type of content they can expect by displaying a sample of tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos directly on your site in a social stream. Hershey’s Reese’s homepage features both Facebook and Twitter streams on alternating tabs.
8
Hello Kitty, which relies heavily on an integrated social community, utilizes most of their home page with streams of the latest blog posts, Facebook and Twitter posts:
Even for a simple site, social streams can be integrated. Not only does this demonstrate the inherent value in networking with the company on social, it
9
A “Like” or “Share” button will not grow your fan base, but it will help people see the page. Once these buttons
are
clicked,
users can share a link to
your
product
or
article page with their social
networks
by
“sending” in a private message, posting on their timeline, or posting on another friend’s timeline. There are currently dozens of plugin toolbars that are available to enable sharing on pages. The toolbars can also be customized to highlight specific social networks frequented by the user’s demographic.
10
A
well-placed “Pin It!” button is ideal for product sites with great imagery. Increasing Pins for the product
on
not only grows organic interest in the product across social channels, but could assist in the visitor coming back to complete the purchase at a later date. Facebook Like buttons also work well for promoting products or articles. When users click the “Like” button underneath the product, a popup box will ask them how they want to share this news with their friends. They might be seeking an opinion, or better yet – setting a trend! As for Pinterest – which e-commerce site wouldn’t want products pinned to a “Gift Wish List”, perhaps?
11
For content sites,”recommend” or “send” buttons are ideal for encouraging readers to share an article with friends in a personal message. MTV, for example, has scaled down a standard plug-in toolbar to focus on theGoogle+ key social for sharing content: Facebook, Twitter, andnetworks Email.
The standard article “Like” button doesn’t only have to be on the article page. It can be implemented from preview pages too. This means more sharing from people who might only skim the article.
Make sure the Like button opens up a pop-up box, where users can add their own
comments
before
posting on their wall. This increases chances of it being seen by their friends in the news feed.
12
4. Offer incentives to share the sale Take the next step beyond encouraging your customers to share your product with their friends. Once they’ve purchased, give them a chance to get benefits – like discounts, ‘credit points’, or even the entire product free by sharing it with their social networks.
At popular beauty deal site Lifebooker, members can share deals, or the
site
as a whole, with their friends using a personalized share link, or the standard Facebook/Twitter/email
buttons.
The
first time a friend signs up; the refering user gets $10 off their next beauty booking or “Loot” purchase. At Living Social, not only are customers encouraged to share that they’ve purchased a deal with their friends with an easy Tweet and Share button – they are given a unique link that will get them the product for free, if it’s purchased by three friends or more.
13
6. Add the Recommendations Box Or newer Recommendations Bar for higher click through rates Sites that are content heavy, such as news sites or blogs, can increase social sharing by embedding a recommendations engine into the sidebar on the
page.
Not only does this indicate the overall popularity of a recent article by number of recommendations, it shows users a personalized view of people in their social networks who recently recommended the article. Facebook’s Recommendation Box has been around for a while. For content-heavy sites, it enables users to see which articles were most recommended – and on a personal level, which of their friends more recently recommended an article or story. Coca Cola features this on their home page, showing the highest trending stories: Recently, Facebook launched the Recommendations Bar, which takes this to the next level. When visitors click the “Like” button for that particular article, a small box appears in the bottom right hand corner, recommending similar articles on the same site, that have also been popular within their network of friends:The Like button will remain in the corner of the page as the visitor reads the article, encouraging them to join their activity to the social stream at any point.
14
7. Create a social “hub” landing page Create a social media landing page, with streams from all your social accounts to encourage users to follow immediately, join the conversation, and share or retweet from the website itself. The Lacoste homepage features a branded alligator – the Lacoste logo – coveredin social network logos. Visitors click on the “Social Alligator” to be directed to a Social Media Center, with previews of posts. Dr
Pepper’s
features
Community
streams
from
page Twitter,
Facebook and even - oh yes MySpace. Alessandro, a European nail polish brand newly launched in the United States, invites users to join their “Community” page, including a link to “Social Media”, through the top navigation of their site.
15
8. Incorporate Face book comments, or any social commenting functionality When Facebook launched their comments functionality, many sites immediately implemented it only to find that, while reducing trolls, this also reduced their engagement from visitors who preferred to remain anonymous or at best, would rather not share their comments with their entire social Stream.
Nevertheless, sites such as TechCrunch have seen great success by implementing this functionality, which enables users to comment using a Facebook profile. Every comment can be “liked� or commented on by other users and is visible in the commenter’s social stream. The
best
practice
for
using
comments is to implement it alongside another comments
management
system,
such
as
Disqus, which enables users to comment with other social profiles such as Twitter, Blogger or Google.
16
9. Allow sign in with Face book or LinkedIn for a customized experience The Starburst‘s experience invites users to Like the Facebook page, visit social networks off the site, or Log in via Facebook for a colorful and exciting experience. Experiences such as the Starburst’s Contra dictionary allows users to join the conversation with other fans, commenting on other fan behavior and adding in their own friends, or apply for jobs, pulling in all their information in prefilled forms.
17
Using LinkedIn’s sign in functionality, users can recommend your page to their incorporating an entire social dimension, hotel booking sites can help
users by seeing which of their
friends have stayed in the hotel in the past or will be attending a particular e v e n t . For example, Trip Advisor showcases which of your friends recently contributed reviews and showcases a full map of your friends’ countries, places and continents visited:
18
10. Incorporate a unique sharing Experience on the page Visitors to Subway’s home page are invited to “Share and Connect” via a button in the homepage’s footer. The box that opens showcases a recent stream for both Facebook and Twitter and allows fans to immediately Like the Facebook page or Follow on Twitter.
Moments after clicking on the Share and Connect box, users are also invited to Share the Subway homepage itself with a customized Facebook share box popping up after several moments. A third party app, in this case ShareThis, invites users to share the site homepage across email, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, with more social networks available.
19
Australia’s iconic Vegemite brand features a pop-up toaster machine on the bottom corner of each page, echoing the prized product’s
ancient partnership
with toast. Each toast pops up with the beginning of a recent tweet or post on the brand’s Facebook page. Clicking on it brings up a larger version of a slice of bread with recent conversations.
With Facebook Open Graph, the opportunities are endless. By integrating users’ social networks with the activities they take on your pages, you can reach hundreds – if not thousands – beyond your existing customer base. Asking users to Like, Share, Tweet or Follow brings brand advocacy to the next level, and keeps your company front of mind, way past the moment they leave your website.
20
It’s important to maintain a balance between encouraging users to share their activity, and simply asking them to join your community by Liking your Page, Following you on Twitter, or Following your company on LinkedIn.
Make it as easy as possible for them to click that button – and you’ll have them watching your activity for a while. It’s even simpler than filling in an email signup form – it’s just one click. And once they’re on board? You can bring everyone to your social pages, but make sure they are updated with fresh content. You can have 1000 Twitter followers and a million Face book fans, but it’s the engagement that matters. Keep your social channels exciting, and it’ll bring your customers back to your site, along with their friends, for an ongoing customer relationship and rewarding user experience.
21
Want to bring your online marketing campaigns to the next level? Contact our marketing specialists today and learn what we can do for your social campaign. +1-310-626-4717 If you want to get a free proposal for the social media marketing of your business website email us now. http://seofied.com/contactus.php
Dinesh Kumar Das Project Manager at SEOFIED Email: dinesh@seoinfotechsolution.com Ph- 9124419800 Skype : dasdinesh