An effective social media optimisation strategy is essential for any business today. Good social media integration on website is an important aspect of this. Businesses that maximize social media integration are easily noticed online and are able to attract more traffic to their website.

Businesses employ several strategies to maximize social media integration on their website. In this article we take a look at some simple yet effective ways to make your website more social and boost sharing of your website content.

Here are 10 ways to maximize social media integration on your website and make your website into a social powerhouse.

1. Use Pop-Ups to Grab Attention

Although it is generally recommended not to use pop-ups on website, if used correctly, there are some instances where is used correctly, it can be an effective way to redirect the attention of website visitors and encourage desired actions. Take a look at the example below. When you first arrive at the website, a pop-up window is displayed with a Facebook like button. It is difficult to miss and results in more likes on Facebook.

2. Reveal Products Only After User Connects With Your Brand

Everlane.Com is one site that does this well. When you first arrive at the homepage, it appears like any other website. However, when you click on the products section, you are first asked to connect with the brand on Facebook or sign-up to their email list before products are revealed. You only need to do this once as the site uses cookies to remember your preference.

3. Combine Sharing With Other Features

Share buttons can also be combined with other features on your site e.g. in your comments form. Another example of this is Kissmetrics. When you are reading a post, related content is displayed in a ‘You May Also Like’  overlay on the bottom left of the page.

The ‘You May Also Like’ pop-up overlay used to display related content included a general like button to share the post you are reading. Additionally,  the total no.of likes are also displayed for each related post. This gives an idea of the how others find the posts and can influence your decision to access these posts.

4.  Reveal Exclusive Content on Your Website to Followers

Another great way to boost sharing is by locking exclusive content and providing access in return for socially engaging with your brand. This is achieved by locking exclusive content on your web page until users share your content or follow your brand on social media.

This is a great way to give your social advocates exclusive content on your website for socially engaging with your brand. You can take advantage of free tools like Splurgy to implement this on your website or blog.

Take a look at one such example below.

5. Use Well Designed Buttons

Well designed social media buttons (both follow and share buttons) is one of the simplest ways to get more followers and shares on your website.  Rather than displaying a drop down buttons or links that include sharing for dozens of social networks, it can be more effective to display separate buttons for a few social networks that convert the best.

6. Multiple Placement

Placing your buttons on more than one place on the web page is another simple way to increase conversions and get more shares. On blogs, for example, it is common to display social sharing buttons below the post title at the top of the page as well as at the end of the post.

Take a look at Huffington Post’s example below that makes good use of multiple placement to boost conversions.

7. Display Social Activity Stream

In addition to share and follow buttons, you can also benefit by displaying the latest activity stream from your Twitter or Facebook profile. For Facebook, this can be achieved by adding the “Like Box” widget on your site that allows you to display your latest conversations, fans, number of likes, and other relevant data from your Facebook page.

Similarly, for Twitter, you can create an activity stream using the official tool from Twitter’s website. Take a look at an example below.

8. Facebook Comments

Facebook comments API for blogs and websites, that was rolled out at the start of 2011, is a great way to engage with visitors and make your website more social. The comments box social plugin allows users to comment on your site content using their Facebook account. It also makes it easy for users to share comments with friends or with other people who like your Page on Facebook.

It is an intuitive system that can result in more comments on your site.

9. Social Login

If your website allows users to register on the site, you may want to consider replacing the guest registration with social login. This allows users to register/login on your website with their favourite social media account instead of registering separately as a guest.

Studies have shown that e-commerce websites that ise social login in place of guest registrations can boost sales and reduce cart abandonment.

10. Use Good Call to Action

Use of effective call to action instead of simply displaying the default social network icons is a great way to boost conversions and get more shares and followers. You can use relevant text or images that highlight the ways in which people can share your content on social media or highlight the benefits of doing so.

Bloggers often take advantage of this technique by simply asking users to share the post with their friends at the end of the post. Studies have shown that explicitly asking users to “Please share this content” can increase shares by up to 3 times.

Conclusion:

The right social media integration on your website can provide a boost to your social media marketing efforts. It allows you to engage actively with your community which is one of the ultimate objectives of a good social media optimisation strategy.

The tips above will help your business to get more followers and shares on social media. Make sure to use them to your advantage.