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Integrating Social Media into Website Strategy - Part I

Guest post by: Faith Seekings

Article Overview: At what time should a company develop their website strategy? When participating in social media or does an updated/new site lead to social media participation? In this article I outline still important, ‘back to basic marketing’ questions; website strategy for web 3.0; tips on how to integrate social media into your site; and ideas on how to include social media in the overall marketing plan.

Integrating Social Media into Website Strategy - Part I

How do we successfully integrate social media into website strategy? How should a company go about developing their website strategy – from participating in social media or does the updated/new website lead to social media participation?

Back To Basic Marketing

Offline marketing questions are still important when developing a website strategy:

• What do we want to accomplish with this site?
• What is our position in the marketplace?
• Who are my ideal clients?
• What do they want from a website, what is important to them?
• What can I build-in to make it useful and engaging?
• Where else are they spending time (coffee shops or on Facebook)?

How is social media being used by your ideal clients? A Rapport client was gung-ho to start a Facebook fan page until we researched this by asking her clients - a specific demographic - and discovered this particular demographic are not on Facebook.

Website Strategy for Web 3.0

Social media participation shouldn’t drive your website strategy, but the core of it has had a positive influence on “Web 3.0″ sites in the way it fosters building communities based on common interests, generously sharing information and creating two-way dialogue with customers.

All companies can integrate this idea through creating interesting and meaningful elements in their website – whether built right in like a blog or polls, or making use of Twitter and Facebook.

In fact, Google recently changed the way they rank websites to be heavily swayed by social relevancy. They want to see a blog, a conversion form, a Twitter account related to the company, etc.

Integrating Social Media Into Your Site

• Add useful and interactive devices to your website - use blogs, forums, polls.
• Use dynamic content to keep it fresh. Be the site to go to for info in your industry.
• Add multi-media like recorded teleseminars, webinars and videos.
• Use outside platforms and communities. Use MailChimp and Google maps.
• Participate in existing communities like LinkedIn. Include links to follow you. Use YouTube and FlickR to host videos and photos. Add ’social share’ buttons to make it easy for people to share your brilliance.

Include it in the Larger Marketing Plan

Developing your website strategy and then managing your participation in social media should be part of your overall marketing plan and budget. Think of how often you blog, how much time you spend on LinkedIn, etc. If you incorporate elements right into your website, you should commit to keeping it up-to-date or there’s no point. Create a plan around it, like regular blog posts, checking all the dynamic links are still working properly, etc.

Above all, remember...

All websites and social media participation should be a carefully considered part of your brand.

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Article Tags: b2b marketing, branding, full service marketing, social media, website strategy



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
How to do SMO on Stumbleupon to increase traffic to Website? - How to do Social Media Marketing on Stumbleupon to increase traffic to Website? I am Stumbleupon member from the last month. I want to promote my website through Stumbleupon. Is there anyone who gives me step by step guidance to do SMO on Stumbleupon?
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.


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