Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to a great group of entrepreneurs in Newmarket, Ontario. The subject of my talk was how to make your website social and how to do it. Most people thin that making your website social is all about placing a few links to your social media site on your web page and having some social media sharing icons. Does this really make your site social? Not really. Then people ask why? This is everything social needs to be!
Before I talk about how to make your site social, let us look at some of the background facts:
- Over I billion users on Facebook.
- 75% of all Superbowl commercial’s had a social media component to them.
- 98% of all youth 18 to 24 are on social media.
- For business to business conversion the best site is Twitter not Linkedin.
- Twitter has grown 40% in the last year and is currently the social media site that is growing the most.
These are really interesting facts. A lot of food for thought. Many people do not know what the most popular social networks with the most active users are. The results may surprise you:
- Google +
- YouTube
Now that some facts are on the table, what does social really mean. To some people,, being social means having an accountant with one of the big social media sites. This is so far from it. Being social means building a community and engaging with your readers/listeners/viewers. This is why my business model starts with the word ENGAGE. This is a very powerful word and without engagement it is impossible to be social. The current business model is to develop a community and then build your business around it.
A couple of things to remember. The younger generation does not watch TV anymore. That means they do not watch TV commercials So much for spending all your dollars on a traditional marketing campaign. It goes to show you that does not work well at all.
We now have PVR`s that a lot of us use. This means people like myself do not watch commercials. I can not tell you the last 3 commercials I saw let alone the last 10. So much for traditional marketing.
Now social marketing and engaging with your customers and potential customers is a much better idea. Look what Oreo did during the Superbowl. One tweet during the blackout went viral and brought them major brand recognition. Well done and see what being social can do?
Now we have talked about why to be social. Let me now share some ideas with you on why to be social:
- Use Social Media Icons on your website – Links to key social media profiles like Twitter,,Facebook, Linkedin etc.
- Use Social Media Badges - These can share things like latest tweets, Facebook likes and tending tweets.
- Social Media Sharing Icons – Lets readers share content easily on social media sites.
- User Forums – A great way for readers to interact and engage with each other.
- Comments – Comments on articles are a great way for you to engage with your readers.
- Write About Another Member of Your Community – A great way to engage and give back.
- Embed Videos and Pictures – embed the from other social media sites.
- Start a Podcast or Videocast – a great way to start engaging conversations.
The key is to build and focus on the community. Remember trust in your community is most important. I generally subscribe to a 80-20 rule. This means of 80% of all blog posts and social media posts I do are never directly about me or my business. Only 20% ever is. Showing you are knowledgeable and not a hard sales person builds trust and relationships. This will convert into work.
These are some thoughts on how to make you web site social and how to do it. Please leave a comment in the box below and engage in the discussion.
