Social media is all around us everyday, and it’s clear it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  Many businesses are opening their minds and their websites toward this methodology, adding social elements to their marketing strategies to engage existing customers and grow their following.  If you’ve decided to add social elements to your website, here are some important things to consider.

Focus on Features

What makes a website social?  In my opinion, it’s all about interactivity.  This can be achieved by allowing users to comment on different areas of your website, giving them a chance to interact with your content, which starts the conversation.  This also provides a way for them to tag your content and view these tag clouds for future reference.

Another popular feature is creating a subscriber area.  This feature is used to allow users to register to see content not available to the public or to give them the freedom to post comments automatically without waiting for approval by an administrator.

Other features include adding widgets or video to your site and allowing users the ability to share those items outside your website as well.

Above all, the key here is to start with features that will be easy for you to maintain while getting your audience talking.

Be Active & Engaging

The strategy of being successfully social comes down to an important understanding – commitment. Opening up your website to social integration communicates the message to your client or potential customer that you are active, open and looking for feedback.  So, while being social gives you an opportunity to spark interest in your business or service to today’s user, it also means you are committing to be open to receive questions from clients. The second part of this equation is the factor most often forgotten: you need to be a major part of the conversation.

• Check your website daily for feedback from people who are engaging with your business.
• Address their comments, and thank them for taking the time to communicate with you.  When visitors see that you are getting involved with them, they will continue to visit your website.
• If you’re not getting any involvement, ask for it!
• Make sure it is easy for the visitor to leave their ideas and comments; if it’s too difficult, people won’t spend the time to try to figure it out, and will move on.
• Remember that how you set up these social features communicates to your users your actual intent of openness or the fallacy and that you’re just trying to capture their information for your email program.

Monitor & Protect

The word “open” is an important one in the social strategy. When you add social features to your website, you also need to recognize the risk involved.

• Watch your comments and registrations for false or fake registrants that may be placing spam comments on your website.  Delete this type of information from your website database.
• Website updates or upgrades may be needed monthly to ensure the security of your website.  Your web developer will be able to let you know if your social features are secure and need updating.

(But don’t let this scare you away from becoming social; the long-term loyalty and benefits far outweigh the precautions!)

Monitoring your onsite interaction is an import factor in determining the success of your new features, but don’t forget to monitor your social buzz.  There are plenty of free applications that will allow you to track your social influence and brand as mentioned on other websites, blogs and social networks.

Going social is a shift that needs to come from the inside-out. Beginning with your own site may be just the thing you need to make the important move into social media.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Blog, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.