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Five easy ways to integrate social media onto your web site

January 19, 2010 Resources Social Media

So you're keen on integrating social media onto your web site but you're hesitant. This is a common feeling amongst those who want to take advantage of the benefits of social media but are not necessarily well-versed in the available tactics and tools. It's my goal with this article to give you some suggestions that are both cost-effective (by that I mean free) and easy to implement.

Here are five ways to add social media to your web site and can be done by anyone, not just us fancy-shmancy web geeks. Each item includes a list of benefits you may or may not be aware of.

Nah, just show me the list of resources

1. Add an RSS feed

I like to think of RSS feeds as a portable and highly accessible gateway to your site's content. You can easily take your site's news section and create an RSS version and adding a link to your feed as part of your navigational structure. You can use RSS in a variety of ways:

For blog posts and articles
As a compliment to your news archive
To increase the accessibility of comments posted on your site
To increase the accessibility of podcasts, screencasts or video clips

One of the concerns with RSS that novices sometimes have is that because it allows a user to read your content without having to visit your site that it can actually decrease your site's traffic. I assure you this is not the case. If this were true then RSS would not have become one of the most popular and critical methods of online content delivery and in social media.

2. Add a Twitter button or widget

If you use Twitter, make the most out of what the tool has to offer by making your account accessible from your web site. These tactics include:

A static button on your site that links to your Twitter account
A dynamic widget that posts your recent tweets directly on your site
A list of your Twitter followers on your site
A 'tweet this' button like the one at the top-right of this blog post or as a static URL (see my post footer)

A challenge with using Twitter in this manner is that it does require you to tweet regularly to avoid going stale. I run into this challenge from time to time but I've come to believe that I'd rather tweet something informative to say than tweet more often but have the content be useless.

3. Add a Facebook widget

Yep, Facebook is still the rage and the business community has begun to take it more seriously in the last couple of years as a tool for engaging, retaining and acquiring users and customers.

A 'share on Facebook' button or as a static URL (see my post footer)
A Facebook fans widget for your fan page
A Facebook app

Like Twitter, using Facebook as part of your social media strategy requires an investment of time to interact and respond to your audience. Be prepared to tackle this to make the most out of the benefits the tool offers.

4. Hosting your own video? Go the viral route!

Video can be a great way to communicate with your users and add a dimension of reality and context that static page content doesn't necessarily offer. Embedding a video clip is not only enjoyable but from a content perspective it saves users from reading through pages of copy. (Although from an accessibility perspective you may wish to consider an HTML or PDF transcript of your video for the hearing impaired.)

How you embed your video does make a difference both in terms of usability and in how far your reach can extend. This is why it is more beneficial to use a third-party video hosting service like Vimeo or YouTube.

You can direct users to your third-party account and embed your clips on your site
It's easier for your video clips to go viral
Pretty much no development time required. Upload your video and link to it (or add the supplied code onto your site to play the clip from there)
Third-party providers include usage stastistics with your account.
Vimeo or YouTube are mobile-friendly

5. Add social bookmarking & sharing

Social bookmarking is a method that allows users to store their favourite URLs on a third-party service like Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon. These favourites are available to the public which allows others to view and bookmark those URLs as well. Sharing is done through sites like Twitter or Facebook or by a service that allows users to email URLs to friends. These are all valuable tools that lets your audience spread the word for you. This is the essence of viral marketing. There are many ways to integrate social bookmarking & sharing on your site:

Add a sharing widget like the one offered by AddThis
Add a footer to your pages (like the ones at the end of my blog posts) with convenient links to use for sharing on popular social sites
Add a 'send to friend' action which allows users to select who to recommend your content to right from your site (this option does require programming skills since a simple MAILTO: isn't an effective method)

Things to keep in mind

Social media is just a tool and itself is not going to guarantee you results. The relevence, quality and value of your content is what matters most and no matter how many ways you make your content accessible, if the content doesn't resonate then you're back at square one. Take the time to see what services your audience are using before rolling out a specific tool. If your users don't use Twitter all that much but are active on Facebook then you know which tool will be more advantageous. Most importantly, have fun exploring and experimenting with the options. Chances are good you may not get it right the first time. That's not necessarily a bad thing.