We all know how important social media marketing is. If you are using it in your campaigns, you’ll want to make the most of it with social media integration.
Social media integration involves integrating social media in your marketing strategy. It focuses on connecting your social media platforms and your website so you can boost your following across various mediums. It is essential in increasing brand awareness.
There are several social media integration strategies you can use in your campaigns. This article will review a few of them while answering the question, why is social media integration important?
The Importance of Social Media Integration
Social media integration works to guide your website followers to your social media and your social media followers to your website. It provides the following benefits:
- Increases your social media following
- Increases website visits
- Boosts SEO
- Provides more ways for you to interact with your following
- Increases brand awareness
It provides a seamless connection between your social media and your website making it easy for people to jump from one to another and for you to share content across platforms.
Social Media Integration Strategies
There are several social media integration strategies you can utilize in your campaign. Here are a few suggestions.
Social Media Icons on the Bottom of Web Site Pages
This is perhaps the most basic form of social media integration.
If you visit any business website, you will find that most have icons on the bottom that you can click through to land on the company’s social media pages. This gives people a chance to easily access your other platforms and find out more about your business. If they give your social media pages a like or follow, they will immediately start seeing your posts in their newsfeeds to be reminded of your brand when they scroll.
It is recommended that companies put all their social media icons in a location on their website where they will get noticed. They are usually placed on the bottom or side of the page. Add them to every page of the site for maximum visibility.
If you have a lot of social media platforms, don’t feel the need to add everyone. Just feature the ones you are most active on.
Include a Feed of Social Media Posts on Your Web Pages
Adding icons to your website may promote clicks, but if you really want to entice users, you can add an entire social media feed. These will show your posts going in real time.
You can also add fan feeds. This will be ideal if you are pushing a certain campaign via one of your platforms. For example, you may be encouraging fans to take pictures of themselves using one of your products and have them tag the posts for a chance to win a prize.
Once the posts are tagged, you will have access to them, and you will be able to feature them on your website using certain widgets.
Post Website Content on Your Social Media Platforms
Just like you can post social media content on your website, you can also post website content on your social media feeds.
The easiest way to do this is to share links to your blogs on your feeds, but you can also share pictures, video, new product deals and more.
Keep in mind that certain kinds of content will have to be reformatted when it’s shared. For example, when people are on social media, they tend to be scrolling through and may be short on time. This differs from people who are visiting your website that may have devoted some time to sitting down and learning about your product.
So, if you want to post website content on your social media platforms, it’s advisable to shorten them a bit. You should also format them properly, so they are fully displayed on newsfeeds and don’t end up getting cut off.
Use Social Media Integration Login Options
Another option is to allow people to login to your site with their social media accounts.
I’m sure you’ve come across quite a few sites on social media that give you the option of logging in through your Facebook or Google account. This is a convenient choice for most people as it prevents them from having to create another account and remember another password to gain access.
According to statistics, 73% of people prefer logging into websites using their social media accounts. 70.99% of these people like using their Google accounts while 20% prefer Facebook and 9.3% prefer Twitter.
Using social media integration for logging in is a win-win. You are offering a convenient service to your customers while providing yourself with multiple points of marketing connections.
Have People Comment on Blogs Once They are Logged In
Once people log into your website with their social media accounts, you can give them the option of reading and commenting on your blogs. This will promote conversations and engagement and build excitement around your brand.
You can also put up a display on your blogs showing how often each one has been shared as well as how many likes and comments it has gotten and how many followers you have in general. People will be impressed by these numbers. It’s also a great way for you to keep track of what’s working and what isn’t.
As a side note, when using this strategy, feature data from the sites you are most active on. If you use data from sites you are not active on, it’s likely they will show low numbers which can work against you.
Social Media and Emails
Social media can also be integrated into your emails.
Once you collect a customer’s email, you can begin sending them messages to make them aware of new products and services and to raise brand awareness in general. Each email should contain those same social media icons you have on your website so they can click through and connect with you on various platforms.
Most automated email programs, like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact, will provide a template that places your icons on the bottom of your emails for you making the process easy as pie.
You can also take a more direct approach by blatantly advertising your social media accounts through email. For example, some companies may send out a blast showing contacts what their most liked posts were. This is a great way to get more followers and to showcase your brand.
Emails can also be used to advertise any social media events you may be hosting. For example, if you are hosting a campaign that encourages people to tag themselves using your products for a prize, you can send out a mass email letting your following know about the contest so they can take part. It will help build excitement around the competition and the items being advertised.
Add Icons for Social Media Sharing on Your Thank You Page
If you sell products via e-commerce on your website, it’s likely you have a thank you page that customers are taken to after completing a purchase. You can include social media icons on the bottom of the thank you page that allows them to share the news that they just purchased one of your products. This will get the word out about your brand, products and services to the customer’s following expanding your reach at no additional cost.
Create a Dashboard
Some software tools will allow you to create a dashboard that keeps track of all your website and social media activities. It will help you stay on schedule with posting, and it will ensure you respond to customers promptly.
Prompt responses to inquiries are valuable in building loyalty and boosting conversions. They can also keep crisis situations from getting out of hand.
Use Social Media Analytics
There are many social media analytics tools that will tell you how your posts and content are doing. For example, most platforms will tell when you are getting the most traffic and which posts are most liked. If you run a paid ad, it will go into depth on how the ad performed.
If you want to get more advanced, you can add tools like Facebook Pixel and LinkedIn Insights Tag both of which are free to use. If you use the LinkedIn Insights Tag, you will learn who visited your website in terms of name, profession, and the company they work for. This will help you generate leads and make more targeted content.
Facebook Pixel is a tool that helps you understand how your content is yielding conversions. It ensures your ads are getting out to quality leads. It also helps with retargeting showing the people that visited your page the products they checked out to remind them of your brand when they are not on your site.
Digital marketing is growing in leaps and bounds. Social media integration will help you build stronger campaigns and boost conversions. Which strategies will you be using when you launch your next marketing endeavor?
If you have questions or would like to get started, please give us a call at (312) 834-7787 or visit our website to request a free quote and consultation.