Don’t Overemphasize Social on Your Website
Writing by Brick Marketing in Social Media
If you own a business and operate a business website it’s a smart idea to get involved in social media. Social media provides many great online marketing opportunities. It’s a way to communicate with target audience members and an avenue to share content, thoughts, ideas, etc. Nearly everyone has a social media account on at least one site, but a large majority of people are active on more than one social networking site. Social media involvement also has additional benefits. It helps improve brand visibility on the web and boosts SEO efforts. A social presence is necessary in business today, no matter who your target audience is, however it’s important to remember what the real goal of an online marketing campaign is.
Any online marketing activity (social media, content marketing, PR, advertising, etc.) works to achieve visitors to a business website, which should be the hub of all online activity. Because social media has become such a huge part of our daily lives, many business owners have inaccurate expectations regarding its prominence within their marketing mix. The goal of a social media strategy is to achieve website visitors over time, and not the other way around.
Take a look at many business websites and you’ll see that they don’t really understand that concept. Where are the social sharing buttons? If they are above the fold, they are in the wrong spot.
Anything above the fold (the top half of a website homepage) is prime real estate. This is where website visitors look first and decide whether they want to stay on the page or look elsewhere. You don’t want to waste this valuable space on links to follow your company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube. This space needs to include content that will encourage visitors to find what they were initially looking for and eventually convert in some way.
Businesses have had social media drilled into their brains so much so that they think that these links need to be big, bright, and shiny on their homepage. “Look, we’re on social media! We’re cool!” The truth of the matter is, if someone wants to find you and connect with you on social media, they will. A simple search for “Company X Facebook” will bring up your page. There is really no reason to force it upon people or distract people from what is actually important, which is the content on your website.
No business should have social profile links above the fold on their website, but businesses that aren’t active in social media definitely should not. What if a website visitor lands on your homepage, sees a link to your Facebook page, clicks over and then sees- a post from 2 months ago? That reflects back poorly on your business. If you are going to display social profile links anywhere on your site, you need to make sure that those pages are active.
Social media is certainly important and it’s great to increase the number of Fans and Followers that you have. However, using your website to promote your social media pages is a backwards approach. Instead, add social links to the footer of your site. If someone wants to find them, they will.
