You’ve heard the buzz. Having a social media friendly website is a “must.” But, how do you do it? Fortunately, it’s not that hard. Here’s how to set things up for the long-game in social media.
Highlight Consumer Opinions First
According to a Nielson report, 68 percent of people trust opinions posted online. If you want to take advantage of this fact, insert a running feed of social media status updates (i.e. Facebook updates, tweets, etc.) on your website.
Companies that do this well often create an entire section on the front of their homepage for social media updates. For example, Nordstrom uses the “top pins of the week.” It lets users see what other customers think about various items in a very visually appealing way.
Install Social Media Commenting Tools
At least one local social media agency in Singapore recommends integrating social media tools to help spread your message far and wide. One way to do that is to install commenting tools on your website.
Random comments aren’t likely to build a community (users don’t really connect with random strangers or anonymous posters). But, they will connect and comment with people they’ve seen before, or whom they know.
Plugins and services like Livefyre, Disqus, and Facebook Comments make it much easier to connect with customers and prospects on social media.
It increases your post’s visibility and social links to the article, too.
Inject User-Generated Content
Yet another way you can connect with people on social media is to include user-generated content. No, you don’t have to be the next Facebook. You can include commenting on products, though. ModCloth does this brilliantly. It helps that their ad copy is witty and their products are amazing.
Not only does ModCloth allow commenting, they allow users to upload pics of themselves in the dress, so other users can get a glimpse of what it looks like “in real life.”
This is an awesome marketing strategy that most businesses overlook. It lets users “see themselves” in the dress. They get to live vicariously through other women’s dress experience which, if you’re a woman, every fab dress is an “experience.”
Make It Simple To Subscribe To Your Email List
You don’t need pop-ups or annoying ads to get people on your email list. Just make the signup form obvious. Put it in the sidebar or in the header of your website. Create a strong call to action – a reason to sign up – and people will.
Some companies allow users to sign up via Facebook or Twitter. This means that users don’t have to hand over their email address. If you want to reach people through social media, this is a great way to do it.
Making It Easy To Log In
If you have a membership site, make it easy to log into it. Use social media login options, so people can login using Facebook or some other social media site. Since most users tend to stay logged into Facebook and Twitter, either of these is an excellent option.
Use Social Videos
Social video can be used to demo your product in 1-2 seconds, or it can be a way to show off customer testimonials. Nearly every social media site supports video, so you can upload it to your site, link out to it on social media sites, and send people back to your site for more information.
Sites that specifically cater to video users include Vine (great for short videos), YouTube, and Vimeo.
Install Social Instagram Auto-Posting
This is a tricky one, and it doesn’t always work. But, when it does work, it works really, really well. Basically, you can install a plugin that will allow users to post photos to your site automatically as long as they include a hashtag you select for the service.
There are many plugins that will do this for you. One such plugin is “Instagram image gallery.” Posting images to your website from Instagram is a popular thing for wedding couples to do (it’s actually really big in the wedding industry). But, there’s no reason you can’t borrow this tactic to run contests, and hear from your devoted customers, instantly.
Now, as you can imagine, this can backfire on you if your customer service isn’t up to snuff. Customers aren’t shy about flinging arrow at businesses that they perceive as being unfair.
So, if you do employ this strategy, make sure you’re “on top of things” in your customer service department.
Joey is the Founder and Managing Director of Appiloque Pte. Ltd. Being a serial entrepreneur and tech investor based in Singapore, he has built Appiloque to become his most successful business to date. With a team of 32 savvy digital marketers and being at the forefront of innovative technologies, Appiloque aims to help businesses take over the digital world with marketing efforts driven by user-centric experiences and data-enabled strategies. Joey also strongly believes in helping his clients achieve more without breaking the bank. In his free time, Joey is a true-blue Singaporean foodie and enjoys exchanging ideas on the topics of innovation and investment.
Featured image credit: ShutterStock
