Integrating social media into your site – facebook, twitter and google+

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February 21, 2012 by admin

With the explosion of social media on the web, it has become increasingly undeniable that social media works.Big businesses are quick to jump on the band wagon to drive more sales, business or awareness to their site. This article will look at the ways in integration these social media into your existing business model.

Why get my site affiliated with social media? If you asked 100 people that used the web “Do you have an account with facebook, twitter or Google” – Im sure 10 out of 10 will have an account with at least one of them. If they have an account that means they have friends and other networks.

If you are able to get 1 one interested in your services they will bring along all their connections allowing you to “socialise” with them too. Something that is probably impossible with online direct sales and marketing. View the diagram below – The traditional direct advertising to draw in customers/users to your site. Each user arrive to the site on paid adverts they have come across. Now consider the more mordern influence of social media integrated into your website. the site below have implemented the three social media APIs to there site and the reach has exploded.
With every user that connects to your service or website via social media they automatically bring along all there friends, fans and followers. Bob from above has 3.5k twitter followers once connected to your site he tweets it out Rome has 900 friends on facebook once connected to your site he post his great discovery on his wall.

You now have 5.6k potential users from just 3 connections! yes potential users as its now up to you to find the best and most efficient way to reach all your potential users. Now that we have looked at how social media can work on your website lets explore how best to implement it.

a) Give users an alternative login – Social media login

Most users will already have an affiliation with one of the 3 big social media so it makes perfect sence to allow them to use these social connection to register or login.

This means: They do not need to re-register on your site and you can pull the details you need from their social media connection. You can ask for more details but this can be after the account is connected and if it is necessary. There are lots of scripts and add-ons that enables social media login to your website click here for a quick list.

b) Allow users to share your content – Social media sharing

Incorporate the share functionality for each social media connection

1. Facebook like button – Allows your user to share your content on their facebook wall (Implementation)

2. Twitter share button - Allows users to share your content on their twitter feed (Implementation)

3. Google plus 1 button - Allows user to share your content on google plus (Implementation)

c) Make your presence known on the social media networks

Having your presence noticeable on the social networks could be as important as having them on your website. This helps serve the users who got connected to you in the first place through either of the social media in this piece. It is also a way of funneling or aquiring new users.

It is common practice to have a facebook precence on facebook, but having just a page is not enough you will need to design and add more life to it. Tab Builders - allows you to add extra tabs/pages to your facebook page which can customise to your taste. A facebook precence will allow you to connect with your facebook users i.e users can like your page, you can post updates on new services or goods , create competitions, polls and surveys, give out discounts and much more.

With a Twitter account for your business you can tweet new messages, new services, competition and more on your tweet wall.

Google plus pages are quite new but they are not dismissible, Google pages are quite similar to facebook page as they allow you create an awareness of your business on google, post updates and share content.

Even though we have covered just three social networks, it will be incomplete to disregard the millions of internet users who use other social connections not mentioned in this piece.

Category How To, News | Tags: facebook, g+1, google plus, like, social media, tweet, twitter

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Integrating social media into your site – facebook, twitter and google+

a) Give users an alternative login – Social media login

b) Allow users to share your content – Social media sharing

c) Make your presence known on the social media networks