Everyone tries to generate web traffic from their social media platforms but have you taken full advantage of social profiles on your website to give your social media presence more klout?

Firstly it’s very important not to overwhelm your website visitors with a vast array of social media platforms particularly if you don’t keep some of them up to date. Be realistic and promote just the platforms that actually generate conversation and interest in your product or service. It might also be worth considering closing some of the dormant social profiles.

Once you’ve determined your social profiles to promote here’s a few simple ways to integrate these into your website:

1. Social share buttons

It’s important to make your followers aware that you’re on social media and to give them the opportunity to share your content with their followers too. One of the simplest ways to do this is to include ‘social share’ links, ‘likes’ and ‘follow’ buttons for your social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and so on.

Social share buttons can be included on key pages, products or news stories to allow the visitor to share your content with their followers increasing your product or service brand awareness. Generally, as a rule, social share buttons are placed at the top, bottom, or along the side of your page.

If you’re using Twitter as one of your social profiles then it’s important to pre-fill a tweet with your @username so that when your visitors click to share on Twitter, a preloaded tweet appears which includes your @Username. This is a great way to ensure you can track how many people are sharing your products or service.

There’s a variety of applications that offer social share buttons that you can integrate like http://www.sharethis.com, http://www.addthis.com or https://getsocial.io to name just a few. It’s always best to explore your options before deciding on one route – as everyone’s requirements are different.

2. Social Profile Follow buttons

Follow us buttons are normally small icons of your social media platforms, which, when clicked go straight through to your appropriate social media profile. These are normally featured in the header or footer part of the website but there’s no stopping you making them a feature of your website.

3. Social profile feeds

Another way to generate interest in your social profiles is to embed a feed directly into your web pages. Normally you’ll see these in side columns or in the footer. These generally display your last 3-4 tweets or posts enticing your visitors to explore your social profile a bit more. You can embed a variety of social profiles – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. Just check out the social platforms for details on how to do this or ask your web designer.

4. Social videos

If you’re using YouTube, Vine or other social video profiles add them to your website page to give them more exposure and enhance your websites offering.

In Action

These are just a few examples on how to integrate social profiles into your website. Let’s see this all in action – An example of a local website that really integrates social media into its online brand presence is the Benjamin Foundation http://benjaminfoundation.co.uk not only does it have social share, like and follow buttons integrated into the fabric of its pages and news posts but it also integrates a Twitter feed and gives quick access to all it’s social profile videos making it a very social and visually rich experience for the visitor.

Making your website more social media friendly will increase your social media following via your website and give your website a much more media rich experience for your visitors, while helping with your organic Google rankings.

If you need any help with integrating social profiles into your website or want to know more about how social media can help your business get in touch with me at http://paulkirkdesign.co.uk or at @PKirk_designer