Last week we took a look at how to boost social engagement with website plugins. We discussed that an effective social media marketing strategy requires seamless integration of social media on your company’s website.

Social media is all about engaging with users and plugins are a great way to achieve this. In this article, we take a look at the different types of Twitter and Facebook plugins and how you can use them on your website.

Twitter:

Twitter offers the following two types of plugins for your website:

• Twitter Buttons
• Twitter Widgets

Twitter Buttons:

You can use the official tool to create Twitter buttons. There are several buttons to choose from.

Some of the available buttons are:

• Follow:  Allows users to follow the company on Twitter
• Share a Link: Allows users to tweet a link to a page on your website.
• Hashtag: The user can tweet a company or custom hashtag that has to do with a company’s blog, current product campaign, or other type of imitative.
• Mention: Lets the user write a tweet that @ mentions the company’s Twitter handle.

Twitter Widgets:

Twitter also has four different kinds of widgets that lets you display Twitter updates on your website. You can use the official tool to customise your Twitter widget to suit your needs.

A working example of a typical Twitter widget is included below:

The following 4 types of widgets are available for your website:

Profile Widget: Display your most recent Twitter updates on your website.

Search Widget: Displays search results on any topic from across Twitter in real time. You can use it offer news, events or latest information on any other topic of relevant to your visitors.

Faves Widget: Displays your favourite tweets on your website. It retrieves tweets from your profile that you have starred as favourites. It is great if you tweet a lot of information and but only wish to highlight your favourite Tweets on your website.

List Widget: Displays your tweets as a list.

Facebook:

Like Twitter, Facebook offers several social plugins for use on your website. Each plugin promotes a different form of egnagemeng with your website visitors.

Following are some of the main plugins available for Facebook:

Facebook Buttons:

You can create Facebook buttons for your website using the tool provided by Facebook. There are several buttons to choose from. Some of them are discussed below:

Send Button

The ‘send button’ allows your users to send your content to their friends on Facebook directly from your website.

Subscribe Button

The ‘subscribe button’ allows website visitors to subscribe to your Facebook account from your website.

Facebook Widgets (Box):

In additional to buttons, Facebook also offers several widgets and boxes for your website.

Like Box:

Facebook ‘Like box’ allows you to display detailed information from your company’s Facebook page. It is more engaging than a standard button and great for improving your conversion rate.

See an example of Facebook ‘Like Box’ below:

Facebook offers an easy to use tool to create & customise Facebook Like box.

The Like Box enables you to:

• Display a list of Facebook users that like your Facebook page including thumbnail images
• Display recent posts from your company’s Facebook
• Allow users to ‘Like’ your company’s Facebook page directly from your website

Activity Feed:

The Activity Feed plugin displays the most interesting recent activity taking place on your site.

See image below.

Facebook Comment Box:

Comments Box is a social plugin that enables user commenting on your site. Features include moderation tools and distribution.

See image below.

You can take advantage of the official tool to create Facebook plugins for your website. You can customise the appearance to suit your needs.

Other Advanced Options:

Registration & Login

In addition to buttons and widget plugins, leading social networks including Facebook and Twitter, also offer more advanced integration options for your website. One such option is the registration plugin that allows users to easily sign up for your website with their Facebook or Twitter account.

See image below for an example implementation of social login found on many blogs today:

Letting users register or login with their favourite social network account is great for usability and can improve conversion rates of activities that require users to register or login on your website. E.g. a recent study on how social sharing boosts e-commerce  sales has found that use of social login instead of guest registration showed a reduction in the abandonment rate of shopping carts.

Conclusion:

There are many different types of social sharing plugins you can use on your website. Not all plugins are direct call-to-action to follow or like your company on social media. There are plugins that display your activity stream, display your follower list, or even allow customers to register or login on your website using their preferred social network profile. Any involvement on social media has the potential to increase your company’s brand awareness and can determine the overall success of your business on social media.