Making Social Media Networks a Part of Your Website

A recent conversation got me thinking about companies who have been a little shy to dip their toes into social media. In particular, companies who have a corporate website and a corporate presence on a few social media networks, but on their site they almost ignore the fact that they have a presence on these networks, like it’s some kind of dirty secret. It’s a bit of a shame really, and a wasted opportunity.

So what simple steps can be taken to help bridge the gap, and what benefits can it provide? I see three distinct areas to help get these sites started in the right direction:

1. Encourage Followers

If your company has a presence in social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the like), then simply letting your website visitors know that you are out there can help increase your following.

The fact that these people are on your site to begin with is a good indication that they are the kind of people you want to have following you and having conversations with. So make sure, at a minimum, that this is present on your homepage, but ideally have a dedicated area on all your pages.

If you haven’t already, make sure you check out the new Twitter instant follow button which makes it even easier for visitors to become a follower.

 2. Promote Sharing

Sharing of content is important, particularly when it comes to SEO. As we know, getting links is no easy feat, so encouraging your visitors to do just that is a really nice way to help you build up link juice. This can include:

• Sharing content through social networks  (EG: Share on Facebook, Tweet This, Stumbleupon…)
• Linking through a simple “Link to this” / “Embed” approach that provides visitors with the code necessary to share content on their own sites

What’s important is to make it really easy for your visitors to share content, particularly on those pages that cover things like news stories, videos and other interesting educational content. So make sure those social sharing buttons have the prominence they need on the content that matters.

 3. Provide Preference

There’s been a number of correlation studies done recently to suggest that search engines are utilizing social signals as a contributing factor towards rank, and this makes sense. What better indicator is there of popularity and relevance, than lots of people sharing and liking content?

So in addition to making it easy for people to share, make it easy for people to show their preference towards the content you have through things such as Facebook Likes, Google +1s, and Ratings/Reviews.