MN Interactive

Is Your Website Social Media Friendly?

Setting up a website is often an investment, especially if you elect to do it professionally as most business owners should. But just as you wouldn’t set up your business without a thorough investigation into the market for it, so too must you consider the right tools for your website, before you build and design it. And if you have been keeping an eye on the market, then you’ll know that there’s something called social media which has changed the way online companies do business. And it should be on your website.

Using social media will allow you to:

• Attract more relevant visitors to your site
• Create a stronger and more visible online profile
• Upload a viral campaign
• Market your products and services at half the cost, with twice the impact
• Network with suppliers, customers, and potential partners

Social media can be time consuming, but if implemented correctly, will prove highly effective in building your business. Some examples of social media which just about any business can use, include YouTube, twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Tools like twitter are microblogs which allow you post short 140 character messages in real time. Others like MySpace and Facebook allow for greater social interaction, as you can upload your profile, web content, news and updates, and build your following. Your clients and potential customers are probably using networking sites not only to get in touch with their friends and colleagues, but also to outsource potential buying leads. This is your cue to jump in and be a part of the action.

We’ve already seen how important it is to get your website ready to attract customers with easy to use URL’s, short web pages, and navigation-friendly tools. Now it’s time to look through your site and see how best you can tap into social media’s networking and resourcing capabilities.

If your site is brochure-style static, and not interactive, that’s your first signal something needs to be changed. Interactive sites are sites which allow visitors to communicate in real-time. This two-way communication is perhaps the key to a successful website. By adding regular content and allowing visitors to read and use this content, you’ve automatically given potential clients an ‘in’ to your business.

But fresh content is not enough. It’s what visitors can do with it that’s important. Can they sort through it and find what they want easily and in a timely manner? Can they bookmark the pages and come back to them? And if they like the information on your site, can they opt to receive it via RSS feeds or add your pages to social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon? Can they retweet the posts they like so others may share this information? Your site should allow you to link to other sites, and allow others to link back to your sites. This dual functionality will allow for more traffic.

Does your site have a media page with links to press releases, news updates and the latest offerings? If not, you need to create one immediately. This saves people from having to search your sites to learn more about who are and what you do. You should also post a contact name and address and allow visitors to leave a message, write a review, or comment on a product or service.

A site can be as simple or as complicated at you’d like it to be (though simple usually works better). It should however at its very basic enable the following:

Allow visitors to receive fresh content, and search for topics they need. To do this, add  a search feature such as the one here on to your site.

All sites have codes which you can use to easily upload their icons onto your site. Share the content you create through these icons. A good site to check out is AddThis.com, which offers simple ways to upload sharing buttons on your site. Another site to check out is Sharethis.com.

With the thousands of site options available, it is quite easy to get overwhelmed and unsure about the right choice for your site. Research however shows that it pays to use networking sites to increase your business. The questions then is, should you design your site yourself, or pay someone to get your site social media ready?

Most networking sites have easy to upload widgets which even a beginner with limited coding knowledge can use. If you are familiar with twitter, YouTube and Facebook, then chances are you will not find it hard to follow their instructions and load their applications onto your site. Having said this, not everyone is media savvy or has the time to learn how to effectively use social applications. If this is the case, hiring someone to do it for you simply makes good business sense. Social media is here to stay and it will continue to grow and evolve as time progresses. Learning now how best it can be put to use for your own business is one of the wisest decisions you can make for your company today. By researching, planning, budgeting, and using these tools carefully, you will be in a position grow your sales and potential audience base in a cost effective and timely manner.