When you are ready to make your own website, social media should be a part of the plan since the two go together in today’s world. Utilizing social media properly ensures that you are able to reach your target audience and build your brand. However, it is important that you are taking advantage of social media in the proper way. There are a number of mistakes that people make when they are working on social media integration that could cost you visitors and negatively impact your search engine ranking.
You Use Header Social Media Icons
When you have visitors on your website, you want them to stay on your website. Header social media icons direct them to social media websites and away from yours. Social media integration is present on approximately 75 percent of websites. At least one social media link is present on the home pages of these websites. When someone is at your home page, you want navigation links and your latest content to be at the forefront. It is fine to put social media icons on individual pieces of content, however, to encourage sharing.
You Do Not Make the Difference Between Social Buttons and Icons Clear
When it comes time to make your own website, it is imperative that people are able to both share content and follow you on social media. It is ideal for websites to have follow links on the home page for the major social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. Placing this in your footer is a good place since these buttons will be easily visible.
You also want sharing icons for the major networks on each piece of content, allowing visitors to share anything they find interesting with limited effort. Make sure that the difference between the two is clear so that your visitors are getting exactly what they want when they click.
You Do Not Take Advantage of Comment Systems That Are Social Based
When you go to comment on certain websites, you will see a sentence that says that it is also shared on Facebook or another social media page. The content with the most comments and engagement is often brought to the top. This can result in more traffic coming to your website from social media. If you are not using this feature as part of your social media integration strategy, you could be losing out on hundreds, or even thousands, of potential visitors. The commenters that use this method also tend to be more credible and engaging.
Your Content is Not Sharable
When you are creating content, you should always be thinking about the content being shared by your visitors. This can bring a whole new wave of readers to your website. In addition to ensuring that each piece of content has share buttons, you also want to ensure that it is easy to read and follows basic web writing guidelines. You want a title that is clear and concise, as well as accurately reflecting the content.
The next element to consider is that your content is easy to scan. You should use subheadings as necessary to help break up the content. Keep the writing at a level that is easy for people of all literacy to understand. Keep your paragraphs under 100 words each and use bullet points to display your lists.
You Do Not Engage With Your Visitors
The people who visit your website want to know that you value them. The easiest way to do this is to engage. Just make sure that you are engaging on both your website and the associated social media accounts. This gives you the highest level of exposure to those who are interested in the information, products or services that you provide. Just a few hours a week is all that it takes to check comments and respond to a few to encourage further conversation and to add a personal touch to your brand.
You can see that using social media with your website is important. When you are able to avoid the common integration mistakes, you are helping to ensure that your website is a success. With the right social media integration strategy, you will notice your brand gets a boost and that it is much easier to interact and engage with your visitors and customers.
