Socializing Your Website

At Sway we are all about getting your message out to social networks, blogs, and forums where your target audience is spending time.

However, you also must pay attention to your own website. There can be a strong disconnect for consumers when they are interacting with your brand in the social space and then visit your site to find a Web 1.0/static site.

Here are some tips for starting the process of socializing your website:

1) Tell your visitors where else they can connect with you in the social space (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) If you have a Facebook fan page or Twitter feed, put these social site badges on your website. Visitors will check you out.

2) Produce content that your customers will want to share, and then make it shareable. If you have information that is useful to your customers, such as tips, how-to guides, training materials, etc., generate this for your site and place it in a widget with passable features. (If you don't have a widget maker, Sway of course has the best one via Shoutlet.) This content can be in the form of videos, articles, RSS feeds, and audio.

3) Create a place for your visitors to communicate with each other and your brand. Company transparency is very important these days. If you don't give your customers an outlet to share experiences they have had with your brand, they will find somewhere else to do it. On the up side, you can collect positive testimonials and use those externally in your social campaigns. For any negative experiences, you can quickly respond and diffuse before they go into the social space with their complaints.

4) Make it personal. If you have industry experts, upper management, or other professionals within your company that are willing to devote time to sharing their expertise via a blog, video bios, etc., this will make your brand more relevant and personal to the visitors. If updated regularly this will become a draw for people to visit the site outside of just obtaining product or service information. It will also make your site stickier.

Again, by socializing your site you are presenting a unified experience for your consumer across all the touch points they have with your brand online.

~Milissa Rick, VP Online Insights and Caitlin McCabe, Director of Social Media