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Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Top Social Media Widgets: How to Make Your Website “Social Aware”

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

As of July, Facebook has over 750 million active users worldwide. Twitter, the rapidly growing micro-blogging platform, boasts an impressive 300 million registered accounts. Over 100 million people were using LinkedIn by the time the popular social media network for professionals went public in May of this year. That’s hundreds of millions of potential customers, all within an arm’s reach.

And yet, a recently released study of the top 10,000 largest websites by BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO platform provider, shows that more than half of the analyzed websites did not have even a basic link to Twitter or Facebook on their homepage. That’s just a link, folks; we’re not talking about those fancy social widgets that let site visitors automatically “Like” or “Follow” a website without ever leaving the page. Integration statistics for such widgets are even more staggering: less than 11 percent include the Facebook Like button, 4.5 percent have the Google +1 button, and only 1.3 percent have the instant Twitter Follow button integrated.

Operating one of the 10,000 largest websites online and not including a social media widget on the homepage is equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot. Not including a link to Facebook and/or Twitter is just plain embarrassing. Search engines are slowly but very surely beginning to integrate “social proof” data into their ranking algorithms, which means that in a few year’s time, whether your website appears at the top of search engine results pages (SERP’s) may have as much to do with how many people recommend your brand on Facebook as with whether your meta title tag is properly optimized. These days, Internet is all about the social; time to get with it!

Even if your website does not generate millions of dollars in annual revenue, however, a basic social media widget integration strategy is a must. It takes only a few minutes to generate embeddable plugins for all of the major social media platforms, and, in most circumstances, only a minimal knowledge of HTML is required for the actual implementation. Of course, if you are not feeling up for the challenge, you can always ask your web developer for assistance or (warning: cheap plug imminent) hire Webhead to perform the installation for you.

Each widget is linked to your individual company profile on the relevant social network, so your integration choices are dictated by the networks you’re currently using to connect with your customers. Here are some specific recommendations to get you started:

Facebook – At the very least, include a Like button, which allows site visitors signed into Facebook to “Like” your website without ever leaving the homepage. Another popular option is the Facebook Like Box. In addition to a pre-integrated Like button, the widget also includes a list of your current fans and shows your latest posts. Click here to generate the HTML code necessary for implementing the Like button and here for the Like Box widget.

Twitter – Unless you are asking users to share specific content on your homepage (e.g. latest blog post), go with the Twitter Instant Follow button. The Follow button is virtually identical to the Facebook Like button; site visitors can start following you on Twitter directly from your homepage.

Google – You can think of the Google +1 button as Google’s challenge to the Facebook Like button. Users signed into their Google accounts can +1 websites, ads, movie reviews, recipes, products, and other online content. When the user’s Google contacts perform a search, they may see when the user “+1ed” specific content. Think of it as a personalized recommendation system, very similar to the “# of your friends like this” messages that you see all over Facebook.

LinkedIn – As far as we can tell, there are no automatic LinkedIn “Connect” widgets available. There are, however, several other plugins available. Implementation process is similar to the widgets referenced above.

YouTube – YouTube released a widget a few years ago that allows your site visitors to subscribe to your YouTube channel with a single click. Click here for more information and for installation instructions.

It should go without saying that if you intend to have people Like your Facebook page, Follow you on Twitter, etc. make sure that you are actually using these networks. Nothing is more of a turn off than a Facebook page that hasn’t been updated in months.

Have you installed social media plugins on your homepage yet? Has it helped with your client and customer engagement? Discuss in the comments below.

 

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Posted in Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

It’s Official – Your Website’s Rankings are Affected by Social Media

Monday, December 13th, 2010

If there are still companies out there who have yet to jump on the “Social Media Bandwagon,” I suggest you hop aboard and quickly! Social Media has transformed the way people interact with each other, it has revolutionized the way companies connect with their customers, and now it only makes sense that the next logical step is for Social Media to have a say in the search engine results.

SEOs have suspected the Social Media influence on the SERPs (search engine results page) for quite some time now and it has finally been confirmed that they do, if fact, affect the algorithm used to determine rankings on the SERP’s. Who would have thought a few years ago that all that tweeting and re-tweeting was actually benefiting a website and positively influencing their organic rankings? But the big question remains, how big of an influence does social media have? And how is it determined which tweets and Posts actually count towards something beneficial? While the size of Social Media’s influence has yet to be specifically determined, one thing is clear: relevance is key. Google and Bing have confirmed that they are taking notice as to “how important is this person,” “how many fans/followers”, “how relevant are these fans/followers,” and “are these postings relevant, insightful and useful?”

From my understanding, both Google and Bing have a sort of “Social Rank” tool they are using that acts much like a “Page Rank” that will rank the relevance of a Page, Post, or Fan page. So it is crucial that companies make sure that their Social Media pages are as relevant, up to date, exciting, and useful as possible. There will be heavy weight on how many “likes”/Followers you have but also how significant these people are and why they are following you. It has become more vital than ever to develop your social media pages and hold the attention of you Fans/Followers.

Every day we see new applications and tools on Facebook, and Twitter is constantly changing the way one “tweets.” Recently I noticed that there is a way to merge your Facebook business listing with your Facebook Places account. This allows users to interact as usual with your Business listing, but now your map is also available right there on your business page. This is something that we will be putting into play for all our local clients. There is also speculation that, this too, will begin to make headway in the “Maps” sections of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).

So while we may not be able to measure the full affect of social media on organic search engine rankings yet, it’s safe to say that it’s a rapidly growing piece of the rankings puzzle. As a business, if you haven’t begun to develop your social media presence as part of your online strategy, ask yourself –what are you waiting for?”

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Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »

Does your online marketing plan leverage social media?

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Recently I was approached by a friend asking for a few quick tips on how he could use social media for his brand. Rather than handing over a social media playbook I advised him to focus on the bigger picture of creating an online brand ecosystem. Your online brand presence should incorporate social media as just one touch point for your consumers’ experience with your brand. After all, your consumers’ interaction with your brand should be a journey and not a destination.

When speaking about brand experiences, I can’t seem to knock one major brand example out of my mind; Disney. Take for example a trip to a Disney park; from the moment you enter the park your Disney experience has been well planned for you, with each interaction reinforcing the “Disney Magic” theme. Throughout the day with every activity or brand touch point encountered, the Disney guest experiences the magic and fun behind the Disney brand. It is these small interactions throughout the day that make up the entire brand experience, thus reinforcing the Disney Brand with a strong emotional connection.

So, what does the Disney experience have to do with your online brand strategy? Let your online brand presence take a cue from the Disney park experience. I know this may seem like a lofty goal, however start with an integrated strategy, one that builds your online ecosystem without spreading your brand and budget too thin. Using social media as one of multiple online marketing outlets (Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, etc) shows your brand “guests”, also known as your consumers, you are relative, relatable and worthy of their time. Prove your brand over time in an organic matter, your customers will become loyal fans, your brand will continue to strengthen and involve and of course, your business will reap the benefits you sowed with your integrated online ecosystem.

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Posted in SEO Strategies, Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments »