Often I meet with clients looking for a new website or a re-designed one. When the topic of social media integration with their website comes up, clients say “Oh yea, for sure I want that, the more places we can post our content the better”. On the surface it seems like a reasonable approach.
But is it really? I advise my clients to strongly consider having a blog page. You don’t even need to call it a “Blog”, you can call it “Articles” or “Helpful Hints & Tips” etc. The blog page is a dedicated page where content will be updated on a regular basis.
What kind of content? I suggest content that helps your customers solve their problems. For example, think of the top three questions you are ALWAYS getting from your customers. You might instantly have three separate articles you can write. Sell leather jackets? Don’t people ask – How do I maintain my new jacket? Do I have to put some kind of protective coating on it and how often?. Repair cars? Do people ask “How long does it take to change a fan-belt?” You get the idea.
So, what does this new blog page have to do with Social Media? Lets say you have created a fantastic article on “How to maintain the look of your new leather jacket” and you posted it to your new Blog page. Now the shotgun approach says – let’s post this article to all our social media channels too.
Lets see how that would look.. Someone is on your facebook fan page and reads your article on facebook. They might say to themselves “ok that was a nice article, now what else is on facebook”. You had someones attention for a few minutes and now their gone.
But what if you made one small strategic change.. What if you only posted the link to the article on facebook. Then facebook (by default) captures a small image (from the post) and the first paragraph as a teaser, and when someone clicks on the link they are directed to your website where they can read the entire article BUT now they are on YOUR website – not facebooks. Then you have an opportunity to capture that visitors attention to take another action – inform them of a sale, ask them to sign up to your newsletter, read another related article etc.
By being strategic about your approach to Social Media you will be driving traffic to your website where visitors can learn more about you and your services and have them connect to begin a dialogue and/or relationship. Now you have begun planting the seeds to grow your customer base and isn’t that the real reason you wanted to integrate social media with your website in the first place?
What about you? Do you have a good tip to share? Would love to hear from you below..
