Take note that a growing number of consumers are not directly searching for a company’s website when they are trying to look for a particular product or service. Instead, their go-to point for accessing such information is none other than social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and the like. But, it does not stop there. These same consumers also use social media to provide their feedback on brands, find reviews on products or services, and seek customer service.
Ways to Incorporate Social Media to Your Web Design
With these things that consumers do on social media, you surely want to be where they are to truly engage with them and possibly even convert them into buying customers. To make that happen, it is a good idea to embrace social media sites and incorporate them into your website design. Here are some ways to do just that.
1. Add Social Media Plugins
A no-brainer for sure, but many websites still lack social media plugins that visitors can click on when they want to share something from a site to their social media accounts. So if you want to increase the visibility of your brand or generate buzz around it, add social media plugins on your site.
On where to place plugins for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc., it is a good idea to add them on spots that are more visible to visitors so they can easily interact with the plugins. Every page on your site should have these plugins. It also will not hurt if you add a call to action like “follow us on Twitter” “like us on Facebook” to further encourage visitors to click on your social media icons.
2. Showcase Social Content on Your Site Contributed by Fans/Followers
People appreciate it when what they say or share on social media is picked up by brands and shared on their sites and social network pages as well. This somehow makes them feel that their opinions matter to the brands they follow.
You can also take advantage of the positive things that consumers say about your brand by showcasing them on your website. Consumer-generated content like images, videos and text updates can appear on a feed on your home page for site visitors to see. You may even add a page into your website design that is dedicated to such posts, which can do double-duty as a testimonial or review page for your site.
3. Try to Make Your Website Design as Social Media-Friendly as Possible
One good way to make your website design up to date and social at the same time is to add elements that could enhance the users’ social media experience. For instance, static content on your home page can be replaced with panels that showcase feeds from various sources that are relevant to your industry. You may even offer feeds on your site about your brand’s most popular products or services.
4. Allow for Social Logins and Comments
Rather than letting users directly login to your site, allow them to login using their social media accounts. This will shorten the login process and will also help you build a community of targeted consumers with which you can provide specialized content.
Aside from social logins, allowing social-based commenting is another means to enrich user engagement. Adding comment systems like Disqus, Facebook comments or Livefyre on your website design will somewhat prevent the occurrence of spam or trolls on your site since most consumers’ profiles will appear on the comments they will leave on your site.
5. Ensure Your Website Content is Shareable
If you want to build buzz around your products or services, you have to make sure people can easily like, tweet, share or pin them from the page. With this in mind, add social sharing buttons to all content that possess valuable information and are of interest to visitors, such as images, videos, blog entries, etc. That way, people will be able to share your items on the go.
As you can see there are a number of ways you can add social media into your website design and leverage their power to promote your brand online. However, when adding them, just make sure that you are actually adding social media channels that you actually use and update on a regular basis. All your efforts will be for naught if you incorporate social media on your website design just for the sake of having them.
If you are unsure how to integrate social media to your website design though, you can always seek help from a third company such as PrimeOutsourcing to do the job for you. Doing so will ensure that the integration will be done correctly.
PrimeOutsourcing Graphic Design and Web Design Services
At Prime Outsourcing, we ensure that our clientele is not just satisfied but are also highly pleased with their working relationship with their designer. To ensure that we provide nothing but the best web design services, our staff are constantly provided with state-of-the-art training and workshops. To know more about our services, click here.
