Let’s admit it. Social media has taken the Internet by storm. The growth, compared to other online services or platforms, is astounding the past years. Coupled by the growing need of people to be constantly connected with each other, it is no wonder having a social media integrated website is almost a necessity when creating your own site.

But how can you successfully integrate your social media presence on your website? Do you just “tell” your visitors? Or is there a better way of “showing” them?

The Makings of a Social Media Integrated Website

Here are some tips on how you can integrate social media on your website. Some tips might sound simple and obvious but there are still a countless number of websites that overlook them.

Make Sure Your Social Media Buttons Are Visible

There are two schools of thought for social buttons, The large and bold approach or the small and subtle method. Both work fine but what you use depends on how your website is designed.

Think about it, you don’t want a nicely designed website to be destroyed because of a large stray Facebook button that seems out of place. On the other hand, a small or subtle button might get lost on a sea of images or distractions on a website. Remember these three basic points when planning your social media button placement; find a prominent position where people can easily see it, make sure it is located near the top of the page, it should be on close proximity to the content you want to get shared, and make sure you don’t place it near navigation buttons so your visitors won’t click it by accident. Plan it out with your website designer and find out where the best location for the social media buttons.

Offer Social Logins

While not applicable to all kinds of websites, a social login can offer you multiple benefits. Aside from allowing your visitors to login using their social media accounts, it also creates a community of “users” that are exclusive in nature. Just make sure you provide incentives for signing up. One good example is giving users that have logged in a special discount or maybe a “subscriber only” freebie when they use your social login feature.

Ensure That Your Website Is Social Media Friendly

Most if not all websites nowadays are considered “social media friendly” in such a way that integration is almost seamless. As what was mentioned above, talking with your website designer with regards to integration is important. Businesses with older websites oftentimes request redesigns to allow their social media presence to be felt on their website. A panel or widget showing your recent tweets, your posted updates, or any social media movement in general is a good way of making sure your visitors know you are active online.

Sharing Is Caring

Make sure that your content is shareable. I keep on reminding website owners that nowadays, sharing content is one of the best ways to get your name out there. Offering a “Tweet this” or “Share this on Facebook” button after every blog post or news article will give your visitors an easy way of sharing something they might have liked to their network of friends.

Use Video

Don’t hesitate to add videos to your pages. Aside from being an easily digestible form of content delivery to your visitors, videos also keep your visitors on your page for its whole duration. Be sure to upload your videos on popular platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo to create a community within those said social media platforms.

Tools for Social Media Integration

If your website is made with WordPress, social media integration will be much easier. A good number of plugins are available for you to use. Using plugins can make social media integration an easier task for you or your webmaster. Here is the list of the best WordPress plugins you can use for all your website social media needs:

Jetpack

Considered as one of the more popular WordPress plugins out there, Jetpack can add a number of features on your website. One such feature is the ability to place social media sharing buttons to every blog post. Activating the feature is as easy as initiating the sharing module on the plugin and you are good to go. The design might look a bit too simple for some but the integration is seamless and it is one of the best plugins out there.

Yoast

Aside from being a top-tier SEO plugin, Yoast has added a social menu in their SEO plugin. Currently, Yoast offers support for 3 of the top social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. In general, Yoast gives you the option to “pre-create” a shared post. You can customize the title, description, and image through the plugin. This is good when you want to create a specific title that will drive more clicks for social media.

 WordPress Social Login

Like what was mentioned above, giving your visitors the option for social login might do your website some good. Among the many plugins that give you the option for social login, WordPress Social Login is considered the best. WSL is a free plugin that gives your visitors the power to use their social media accounts to login, register, and comment. The plugin is compatible with most if not all WordPress themes and using it is as easy as placing a widget in the site sidebar.

Master the Art of Sharing to Social Media

In today’s world, it can be said that creating a website without social media integration simply doesn’t make sense. It is a very easy way to increase traffic, to create communities, to increase virality, and to extend your reach. Modern website designers have become experts in this field and they have mastered the art of adding functions such as liking, commenting, and sharing your website or content to social media in ways that can be really surprising.

Contact us today and let us take a look at your current website. It may just be what you need to get that much needed boost.

A lot of Internet Marketers I have talked to all have one thing to say about Social Media:

“There is no escaping it.”

That may sound like a chapter heading from a Stephen King novel but it’s actually mentioned in jest. In jest mostly because there was a time when most Internet Marketers believed that social media would stay only as a platform where people will share pictures of their cats. Back then, there was no real reason why businesses would even consider expending resources for social media marketing. Then social media marketing happened.

Consider these facts about social media today:

• A third of all Internet users are social media users as well (2 billion).
• In a survey, 96% of entrepreneurs claim they use social media. Out of that number 92% agree or strongly agree with the statement “Social media marketing is important for my business.”.
• 78% of the respondents in a survey claim that a brand’s posts on social media impact their purchases.
• Studies shows that although social media may not affect or stimulate click-throughs and conversions, it still helps shape the opinions and decisions of customers and therefore leads to a purchase.

But now, it’s considered as one of the top priorities for businesses. Not only does it serve as an entry point for new customers but it’s also a means to interact and cultivate the already loyal ones. But now that everybody is doing it, you have to go over and beyond the usual “post once or twice a day” routine. If you want to get ahead, you need to be efficient in your campaigns. So to help you out, we will be providing you a few social media marketing hacks you can use to make social media management easier but more effective.

Top social media marketing hacks

Batching Your Social Media Posts

There is a ton of social media tools available now. Choose one that works for your budget and social media needs. Come up with various post ideas all at once and schedule all these posts across a longer period of time, for example, a week or a month. Scheduling will make it easier for you not to go back every hour and look for a content to share. A great schedule is a compilation of carefully planned social media posts with a space for real time updates and fresh news or posts that you can add when needed.

Know and Understand the Goals that You Want to Accomplish with Your Social Media Efforts

There is a popular saying in business, “You can’t grow what you can’t measure.” Know what you are trying to reach on social media and set metrics to measure how you are progressing. Here are some of the top reasons why businesses are in social media: -To gain followers for your brand -To drive leads and traffic to your website and landing pages -To build relationships with current customers or influencers in your niche Set measurable and attainable goals, and use monitoring tools to check your progress. This will help you make key decisions on your social media efforts.

Narrow Your Focus and Save Time.

Social media can easily be overwhelming. It can be viewed as a time killer for the general public, however, this is not the case for businesses. Each social media channel has its own demographic and your business doesn’t have to be on all of them. Make your research on which social media channels match the audience that you want to target for your business and the type of content that you want to share. Know which top keywords people in your niche are using to connect and search on social media. Find out what top brands and what competitors are doing in your niche and check what is working and not working for them. Adapt the strategies that work for your business and measure which strategies will work for your audience.

Create the Calendar or be Ready for the Consequences

A social media calendar or schedule is necessary if you want to grow your business. Calendars can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be. Consistency is the most important factor in social media and calendars can help you keep track of your posts and easily track your results.

Monitor Mentions with Tools.

Social Media listening is very essential nowadays. What are people saying about your brand? Are people saying positive things about you? Are there any complaints? Are some people trying to connect with you? The best social media scheduling tools have their own monitoring. This will make sure you are always on top on what people are saying about you on social media.

Use Templates

Whether you have a visual strategy for your posts, or if you have a recipe or style on your posting, keeping templates will make the posting, easy and faster. A lot of the social media posts are repetitive, and if you or your team has visuals or posts headlines that are ready to be used. These can lessen the time you spend creating the posts. If you need social media graphic templates, Canva has a growing popularity for this.

Social media can be overwhelming, and it is not beneficial to join the buzz and wander aimlessly. Set goals and measure your efforts, and consistently adopt the ones that work and drop the ones that don’t. How about you? Do you have any social media hack you can share with us?

Holiday bells are ringing and Christmas carols are filling the cold winter nights. It’s that time of the year again when everybody is jolly and a bit more nice. It’s also the time of the year when you can put to good use various techniques to get more interaction from your followers. As a matter of fact, the holidays sort of activate a feeding frenzy for businesses because people get a bit loose with their money during the holidays. This is why they tend to easily make mistakes in their social media campaigns.
Take the 2012 Christmas PR campaign from Starbucks. What started as a way to interact with their customers by sharing their Starbucks experience on Twitter with the #spreadthecheer hashtag. Starbucks got something different than what they expected. Instead of getting stories of love, fun, or friendship they got tweets that reflected how some people felt about the then issue of big companies and their methods of evading taxes. Due to lack of moderation, negative tweets were shown for the public to see on a big screen at the National History Museum.

The Ultimate Do’s and Don’ts list for Holiday Social Media Campaigns

But hey! It’s not all that bad. Most of the holiday social media campaigns we see actually work but a lot of them can even do better. So to help you out for the holiday, we will be showing tips on how you can craft the best holiday social media campaign for your business.

Do: Keep a Holiday Theme

Keeping a holiday theme should be an obvious call for all business (if you celebrate it of course). Running a holiday theme won’t just be you putting in holiday lights or using the holiday colors but you should keep a whole holiday campaign in place. This will give the signal to your followers that the holiday season has started. Oh and don’t just rely on colors or Santa Claus for the theme. Remember that you should come up with a theme that carries your brand message.

Don’t: Use the Holidays to Sell More

When you are a businessman, the first thing that comes up in your head every time you hear the words “Christmas” or “The Holidays” is profit. I get that. But remember that the holidays is a special time of the year for your customers so the last thing they would want to hear would be that their brand of choice decided to milk out the holidays for more profit. So be careful with your message, imagery, and metaphors for your business marketing campaigns. Be a bit more sensitive to your target market and always be aware of how they react to your holiday campaign. To be on the safe side, just focus more on brand awareness instead of sales messaging as much as possible.

Do: Check Your Posting Schedules

During the weeks of the holidays, don’t expect too much engagement as people will be a bit busy with preparations. But this does not mean you should stop posting. Adjust your posting schedule so that your message won’t interfere so much with your customer’s extra busy schedule. Remember that the holidays is a time where your customers will focus on their families so you don’t really want to get in between that.

Don’t: Disregard Your Current Customers

A lot of businesses make the mistake of focusing too much on the holiday rush that they forget that they still have their regular customers. They miss the perfect opportunity to actually give thanks to their loyal customers. There are a good number of ways to do this but the following can be done:

• Share customer stories on your social media channels.
• Provide a customer-only preview and promotions across all the channels.
• Invite your loyal customers to exclusive events on Facebook.

Do: Run Contests or Giveaways

The holidays is the time for giving, right? So why not give something to your loyal customers? Running a giveaways might just be the best thing you can do for your business for the holiday. A thing to remember though, make sure that your prize is something worth shareable but not too generic that you will gain new followers that will never really buy anything from you.

Don’t: Overload your Channels with Company Photos

Everybody celebrates the season including your brand so posting and updating your social channel about company celebrations is OK but don’t overdo it. Posting a photo or two is fine but creating a live feed of hourly photos might be too much. Sharing too much might backfire and can cause a torrent of negative comments for businesses who have had issues in the past.

Do: Feature Your Customers

While I did mention above that posting updates about your company escapades should be kept on the minimum, showing how your customers are having fun is fair game. Monitor your mentions across all social media channels and show the world how your customers are spending their holidays. It’s best if you choose photos that showcase your product or service for brand recognition.

The best holiday social media campaigns only have one thing in common with each other – they focus and give thanks to their customers. The holidays might be the time when businesses get more conversions that usual but don’t forget that your customers should always be your number one priority as a business.

If you need any help with your holiday social media campaigns, don’t hesitate to contact the experts. Better safe than sorry!

As Social Media Marketing matures, it is important, more than ever, to make it a part of your business strategy. For businesses with smaller teams, the challenge is to be efficient with your social media strategies to maximize its potential and still have a larger amount of your time focused on the bigger business tasks.

Here Are Our Top Social Media Hacks:

 1) Batching Your Social Media Posts

There is a ton of social media tools available now. Choose one that works for your budget and social media needs. Come up with various post ideas all at once and schedule all these posts across a longer period of time, for example, a week or a month. Scheduling will make it easier for you not to go back every hour and look for a content to share. A great schedule is a compilation of carefully planned social media posts with a space for real time updates and fresh news or posts that you can add when needed.

2) Know and Understand the Goals that You Want to Accomplish with Your Social Media Efforts.

There is a popular saying in business, “You can’t grow what you can’t measure.” Know what you are trying to reach on social media and set metrics to measure how you are progressing.

Here are some of the top reasons why businesses are in social media:

• To gain followers for your brand
• To drive leads and traffic to your website and landing pages
• To build relationships with current customers or influencers in your niche

Set measurable and attainable goals, and use monitoring tools to check your progress. This will help you make key decisions on your social media efforts.

3) Narrow Your Focus and Save Time.

Social media can easily be overwhelming. It can be viewed as a time killer for the general public, however, this is not the case for businesses. Each social media channel has its own demographic and your business doesn’t have to be on all of them. Make your research on which social media channels match the audience that you want to target for your business and the type of content that you want to share. Know which top keywords people in your niche are using to connect and search on social media. Find out what top brands and what competitors are doing in your niche and check what is working and not working for them. Adapt the strategies that work for your business and measure which strategies will work for your audience. Sprout Social created an
updated Social Media
Demographics for top social channels here: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/

4) Create the Calendar or be Ready for the Consequences.

A social media calendar or schedule is necessary if you want to grow your business. Calendars can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be. Consistency is the most important factor in social media and calendars can help you keep track of your posts and easily track your results. Buffer shared here an amazing guide in creating Social Media Content Calendars: https://blog.bufferapp.com/all-about-content-calendar

5) Monitor Mentions with Tools

Social media listening is very essential nowadays. What are people saying about your brand? Are people saying positive things about you? Are there any complaints? Are some people trying to connect with you? The best social media scheduling tools have their own monitoring. This will make sure you are always on top on what people are saying about you on social media. Check out the top small business tools you can use for tracking social mentions from the list created by Small Business Trends here: https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/06/social-media-apps-and-tools.html

6) Use Templates

Whether you have a visual strategy for your posts, or if you have a recipe or style on your posting, keeping templates will make the posting, easy and faster. A lot of the social media posts are repetitive, and if you or your team has visuals or posts headlines that are ready to be used. These can lessen the time you spend creating the posts. If you need social media graphic templates, Canva has a growing popularity for this. Check them out here: https://www.canva.com/create/social-media-graphics/

Social media can be overwhelming, and it is not beneficial to join the buzz and wander aimlessly. Set goals and measure your efforts, and consistently adopt the ones that work and drop the ones that don’t.