Let Social Media Give Your Site a Boost
Social Media: More Than Just Chatter
Social media has become a very important part of an ideal business marketing strategy; it’s popular, it’s useful, and compared to other more traditional forms of marketing and advertising there is minimal risk and investment. Social media is also so much more than idle chatter! Yes, people use social media to keep in touch with one another and share things like family photos, but a new trend has emerged and become the norm in recent years: social media is now all about sharing what you love, and by doing so defining yourself. People are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to keep others posted on what they like, what they’re buying, reading, etc. How can your business take advantage of this ‘share the love’ atmosphere?
Get social!
Does your business have any social media accounts set up already? If yes, these are the networks you will want to focus on. If you answered no, now is a good time to evaluate your business, your customers, and your target market to see which networks would be right for you. Once you have this information, you can move forward into the world of social media integration for your website / blog / etc!
Why Your Blog Needs Social Media Buttons
People like shortcuts
Yes, it’s that simple. People may come to your website or blog and love your product / service or what you have to say, but if they have to open a new window, log into their social media account, and THEN post about your content, chances are it’s not going to happen and your opportunity to engage with this visitor is lost.
Enter social media buttons
If you have social media links on your blog or website (and we mean text-based links) then you might be seeing some interaction with visitors, but not much. Most people are highly visual, so having an image to draw the eye is going to get a more positive response than a plain link will. This is where social media buttons come into play; they can be any shape, size, color, or style as long as they clearly indicate which service they belong to, i.e. Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
How Social Media Buttons Give Your Site / Blog a Boost
Social media buttons encourage engagement and interactions between visitors to your site / blog, your business, and the people your visitors know. There is no better advertising than word-of-mouth, and social media has become the new mouthpiece of our time. Reviews, endorsements, and other types of feedback mean more when they come from someone we know and trust, so when someone shares your content or links to it in some way, they are effectively saying “I like this business and I trust them” which is a green light for their friends along with a convenient link to follow to find out more!
It’s all about who you know, and who knows you
We’ve all heard about things “going viral” and while it’s not an easy thing to do on such a grand scale, it is simpler than you might think to start building a steady loyal following of people who like and support your business and the things you offer. It used to be all about who you knew; this made all the difference in spreading the word about your business, getting a good deal on advertising, etc. Now it is all about who knows you, or rather, who knows about you. If someone has no idea your business exists, they certainly can’t buy anything from you!
How do social media buttons come into play?
Social media buttons tie all of your goals together and wrap them up in a bow. They offer an easy and attractive option for visitors to your website or blog to share something that they see / like with other people that they know. These people can then share it again, and so on until you’ve gone far beyond your original exposure potential.
Where Can You Get Social Media Buttons?
There are three ways to get social media buttons for your website or blog:
- Make your own
- Use free / pay-for sets of pre-made buttons
- Have a set of custom buttons designed for you
There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these, and in the end you are the only one who can make the best choice for your business. If you are making your own buttons it is easy to match the look and feel of your site as well as the colour palette your site uses; if you are using a set of pre-made buttons, you are limited to what buttons you get, what size they are, and anything else about them such as colour and file type; if you have someone custom design buttons for you, you have the ability to have everything customised for you down to the last detail. The first two options are low-cost or no-cost while the latter has a fee involved. Whichever path you choose, make sure that the buttons you use match the profiles that you have on different social media sites; if you want to add a few extra buttons for popular bookmarking services like StumbleUpon and Digg that is a great idea too, anything that helps people share your content with the web!
How have social media links and buttons affected the traffic to your website?
If you don’t have any social media buttons yet, where do you think you will go to get them?
Please share this post with someone you know!
