Today there are many platforms that businesses can use to engage prospective customers; your website is the most likely place where those prospective customers can be converted. Therefore all your marketing efforts need to concentrate on driving traffic from different channels, including social media, into your website. This is why you should start planning the integration of social media within your web properties otherwise you will be missing out on valuable online opportunities.

Lack of social integration may lead to a website being seen as irrelevant.

Social media integration

Social media integration should happen in stages to reach a mature level. Here are some common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road towards social media maturity.

Social sharing

Description: Social sharing are participation mechanisms that encourage recommendations and referral from social media channels such as Facebook Like or Tweet buttons.

Benefits: Triggers social alerts as a form of endorsement and starts a viral loop; for example inviting friends to the website.

Social Aggregation

Description: Aggregate social content, for example Tweets, comments, reviews, etc. Occurring on your website.

Benefits: Brings to the surface all social discussion right on your website and enhances editorial connectivity and relevancy. It is highly recommended to keep the good and the bad and then filter the ugly discussions. Focus more on brand oriented content

Social Context

Description: Users login using existing credentials and can connect with friends and/or followers right on your website.

Benefits: May increase more client signups and create a sense of familiarity and community. The page on your website can have the same look as Facebook or a Twitter page. Marketers can also leverage the registration process allowing users to register using Facebook or Twitter login details.

You may also offer instant personalisation where website visitors can immediately see their friends’ ratings and reviews on a product page on your website. How powerful is this?

Conclusion

Many businesses are missing the mark by not integrating social media. We have discovered some businesses are active on social media but are not taking advantage of their social content to drive prospective customers to their websites, nor are they using the social viral factors to increase qualified traffic, conversion rate and ROI.

Social media is always new and evolving, and as such, these stages represent a moment in time. They will continue to evolve and expand with new technologies and experiences and in the end social media is a privilege and a tool — therefore it is yet another important opportunity to run a more meaningful and relevant business.