When you integrate your website and social media, it’s a happy marriage that can bring highly fruitful results.
You KNOW you’re supposed to have a website and you KNOW you’re supposed to stay active on social media – but where in the world do these two things meet?
Actually, in lots of ways!
Your website is your business’s home base: it’s where people go when they want to meet you, learn about you, and experience your awesomeness. Your social media, on the other hand, are your messengers, spreading the word. Their job is to ultimately get people back to your website to start the conversation. So when these two marketing powerhouses work seamlessly in tandem with one another? It’s truly a happy marriage with powerful results.
Read on to find out the five best ways to integrate social media into your website and begin your adventure.
1) Let website visitors know your #hashtag.
What better way to encourage your audience to spread the word about you than letting them know what your unique and branded hashtag for your business is? Your hashtag could simply be your business name, or it could have a creative twist.
Give your website visitors an idea of something fun to post on social media, and give them a hashtag to accompany their post. Another idea is to hold a contest that requires people to use your hashtag to enter. As I write this, I’m thinking it’s time for me to add a #getellanyzed section to my homepage!
(For more ideas, you might check out 7 Techniques to Create a Hashtag For Your Brand from Hootsuite.)
2) Include social media buttons in your footer.
What I love about including social media buttons in your website footer is that it gives your visitors a place to go when they’ve hit the “end of the road.” If they’ve scrolled alllllll the way down your homepage without clicking on any of your Call to Action buttons? Offer them a friendly alternative. In other words, “So you’re done being on my website? That’s cool, but here’s a link to Facebook in case that’s more your style.”
Hot tip: if possible, design social media buttons that match the vibe and style of your brand.
3) Add your latest posts to your website.
The great thing about embedding your latest social media post on your website is that it adds a little “freshness” on an ongoing basis without you having to do anything. Every time you make that latest Tweet or Facebook post or Instagram photo – a widget on your website will automatically update.
For Facebook and Twitter, keep it to just your latest single post. For Instagram, keep it to your latest 6-8 photos.
This practice communicates to your website visitors that you’re current, you’re active, and you’re engaged.
4) Put your social media reviews on your website.
Testimonials of ANY kind are great – but let’s face it: when we see a testimonial on a social media platform (i.e. Facebook, Yelp, Google, etc.) it holds a little bit of *extra* reliability over sheer words because we can see a link to the profile of the person who posted it (“Wow, they’re a real human being!”). Whatever platform you’ve garnished the most reviews on, integrate those into your website whether via an embed code or simply with a heading that says “My Reviews on Google” with a button that takes the user there. Your reviews on social give you even more “street cred” so you might as well use that, right?
5) Post links back to your website on social media.
Yes, I realize this might seem obvious – but so many of us forget! When you post links back to your website on your social media platforms, you give people the opportunity to learn more about the work you do. Wondering what links to share? If you have a blog, share your latest post. Also, linking to your Services, Values, or About Me page once in a while (perhaps accompanied by what that page means to you and why), will work wonders.
Looking for more?
If you enjoyed this post, check out these other quick reads on social media and blogging from Janelle (that’s me!) at Ellanyze:
