Website social media, while not absolutely necessary in any website design, is an integral part of an effective marketing campaign. Because the world of social media is so vast, many are intimidated by the prospect of including social media on their website. However, in almost every case, social media is necessary for those who don’t have the ability to invest their money, or time, in other marketing options. Even for those who do market their website through other means, website social media can result in a huge boost in the traffic and profitability of one’s website.
The Benefits of Social Media Integration
Through visiting some of the most popular news and information websites, it is quickly apparent that they all have social media integrated into their website design. The reason for this is simple: exposure. By creating the option to share, like, or +1 one’s page, website exposure can drastically increase, especially for websites that offer intriguing and novel content. Through integrating social media one can not only increase profitability through these social websites, but also through establishing credibility in the eyes of the reader; a page that has 1,000 likes typically has more of an impact on the reader, simply because the web page is viewed as authoritative. For those who are selling a product, this tactic is doubly effective.
By integrating website social media, one is also much more likely to increase the number of subscribers over time. This can drastically contribute to website traffic and even create a dedicated following. There are a variety of ways that creating a dedicated following can be a huge benefit, one of the most important is search engine optimization. By creating a dedicated following and an authoritative feel, one is much more likely to get linked to by other prominent, and not so prominent, websites, making one rank much higher in search engines. Through ranking well, one can have a huge increase in profit because of the highly-targeted nature of search engine traffic.
Adding Social Media Functionality to Your Website
Because social media can have such a drastic effect on one’s website, it is necessary to know how to integrate it in an effective and influencing manner. For those with primarily informational content, one may only need to add a few like and/or +1 buttons as well as share functionality in order to see huge benefits. For those with e-commerce websites, one may want to add social media integration that is activated upon purchase in order to increase sales and popularity. There are a variety of ways to integrate social media into one’s website design. A great collective of resources to copy, or find inspiration from, can be found at AWWWARDS.
Because every website and demographic is different, when deciding to integrate social media, be certain to do as much testing as possible in order to find out what works the best.
While there is no explicit law stating that one must use social media in their website design, it is a huge part of any good marketing campaign. Without social media, many websites that are popular, and highly profitable, today would never have become popular otherwise. Because of this, it is a good idea to integrate social functionality into one’s website as quickly as possible in order to create a good following. Through experimentation, one can find a highly effective and profitable website social media design.
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