Tips for Making Your Site More Social

Optimizing your website for social is not simply a matter of adding social sharing buttons to pages. There’s more to a social media friendly site than installing a few plug-ins for Facebook sharing or Twitter following. Social integration is a must when it comes to your business’s website; it boosts audience engagement and can improve search rank. You want to make it easy for users to share your meaningful content with their (hopefully) extensive network and encourage  more social experience. Here’s how:

MOBILE-FRIENDLY CONTENT

Your website is mobile-friendly, right? And by that I mean more than just fast load times and responsive sizing. You also need content that is easily digestible and easily shared on mobile devices. Chances are, your audience is reading your content while they wait for their ride-share or while they stand in line at the coffee shop. (Fast fact, 77% percent of American own a smartphone.) As they scroll quickly through their phone, does your content stand out? Are you serving up content that can be consumed easily on a cellphone?

SHAREABLE CONTENT

Make your brand’s content shareable. What does this mean? Well, your content should aim to be memorable and capture the attention of readers. Use compelling, quality images. Are your blogs, videos, and infographics worth sharing? Include native sharing buttons so the sharing process is streamlined. Your audience will thank you if, once they decide to share your awesome content, they are only one click away. Sharing buttons could be part of a floating menu or embedded in the content – just make sure they’re readily available to visitors and so they don’t have to go through the arduous task of copy and pasting a link to their chosen social network. (Plus, that takes them away form your site!) An automatic posting process will encourage more sharing.

QUALITY CONTENT

Don’t let creating bite-size, digestible content lead you astray. Your content also needs to be distinctive and your audience should find it useful and interesting. If it’s those things, they’ll also be more likely to share. See how it all ties together? These points, truthfully, are key to any digital marketing strategy, and particularly true when considering how to make your site more social.

Because social is a powerful amplification platform. The more eyes on your content, the more site traffic and increased linking authority. Google will be signaled that your website/company is a useful source of information. One good way to create new content is to take some of your old posts and refresh them. Add internal links as appropriate. Share the post on social, multiple times over several week. Evergreen content is typically really great, it just needs updating every-so-often.

GET SOCIAL

I know, I’ve been talking about ‘getting social’ for several paragraphs. But what I want to reiterate is that social engagement isn’t limited to only social platforms. You want to engage visitors as soon as they land on your website. Some companies (think e-commerce sites) immediately offer live chat or support boxes. Letting the user know that there’s someone (or some-bot) out there creates a bit of a sense of community and that they’re not just clicking aimlessly through the web. Should you need help, it’s there! Other companies choose to encourage a social experience by using conversational words that match their brand to evoke a specific action. The aim is to make a click feel more personal – which is always a good thing.

~ ~ ~

Websites that are optimized for social typically see more traffic and more engagement. Linking out to your various social profiles is only the first step in making your website social. Take it a step further and re-evaluate your content marketing plan if you want to boost engagement and see results. Buckle down on content creation and distribution and make some changes so that you engage visitors right off the bat.