When social media was just getting its footing, web designers and those who claimed to have a social media-friendly website simply added their media icon with a link to their footnote. As social media trends have undergone substantial growth and now impact the world both on and offline, it is essential that your social media team work closely with your web designer to maximize user engagement and experience.
Here are the key considerations when integrating social media into your web designs.
Make social media prominent on the mobile version of your site.
Google’s latest search algorithms penalize sites that are not mobile-friendly. Not coincidentally, most users access social media on mobile. As such, businesses have integrated social media applications and platforms more deeply with their mobile designs, aiming to not only be search-friendly, but also to engage social users on the the most popular social medium.
The social media page design must be consistent with your branding.
When working with your web designer and your social media team, there must be an understanding that the design has to be up to the standards of the web, and to the expectations of common UX and user interaction trends.
There are regulations and limitations on what can be done in each of the social media platforms. For example, you cannot simply make a banner with a nice logo, slap it on Facebook, and hope for the best. There needs to be a little more strategic planning in the development of your social media page.
Your site needs to strategically use their posts and their ad campaigns within social media to draw people not only to their business site, but to the social media page. The social media page needs to relate the same overall design concept as the main page to minimize brand confusion and build the image of the company being presented.
Interaction and engagement using social media.
The structures of web pages are changing. Social media integration is a standard and a norm, and engagement through such media is becoming more and more common. The social media team and web designer need to work hand in hand to ensure that the interactions between the customers and the business remain grounded on the business pages (whether those pages are mobile or web-based pages).
When using direct communications with clients, such as in conferencing and live webinars, social media needs to be embedded into the website design. This minimizes the risk that customers will associate your branding with another company or that there will be navigational conflicts which frustrate potential visitors from interacting and engaging.
Click to pay buttons are OUT.
Most web designers could see that the trend to get rid of payment navigation buttons would pick up rapidly. Whereas integrations like PayPal and Square have secured a place for themselves on certain types of web pages, many of the newer social media-friendly sites are abandoning the use of such buttons.
The psychology behind this is quite simple. People do not want to go all over the internet when they are purchasing a product from a business.
Think about calling a company on the telephone and being directed to press 1 for English and 2 for Spanish. Then you have to press a button, 1-9, for a department. Then you have to press a button, 1-5, for the type of product, and finally you have to press a button, 1-9, for what you want to have answered about that product. The same is the mentality of the payment navigational button. Buyers simply do not want to run around on their purchasing.
Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter are among the top social media sites that have started to phase out the payment button in exchange for keeping credit card data on file for quick purchases without leaving the network. Businesses that are integrating social media trends into their site should consider either partnering with the social media platforms to offer shopping cart options or hiring a developer to create their own system that allows for the customer to make purchases without the need to navigate from the page.
Reduce text and increase videos and pictures.
In the past, the load times of videos and pictures kept web designers from using too many in the design. Granted, designs should still consider load time, but in many cases, videos can be streamed directly from another network (such as YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia) without unduly affecting the user experience.
This makes for a more visual and a more social media-friendly design. Again, as most of the people who are engaging websites are doing so from smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, the amount of text that is presented to the public to read needs to be kept at a minimum.
However, since you still want to retain the attention of the person viewing the site, images need to be strategically used. Not only do the images relate the information of the site, but with social media sharing on such platforms as Pinterest and Instagram, your brand identity can be maximized if the proper images are selected.
When integrating social media, keep privacy as a priority.
Even though the name “social” relates a sense of community, most people that use these platforms want to have a level of privacy. Every web designer’s job should entail user privacy control as one of their primary goals. They should attempt to minimize the amount of public access to personal information as much as possible.
Security measures must be in place to comfort the user in knowing that their emails and other such information are secured. If a web designer and your social media team are planning on using live conferencing, consider integrating Facebook Rooms into the site or using a service that allows a level of anonymity for those participating.
Get feedback through social media.
The funnel model of marketing has shifted from trying to get a customer in and having that customer relate information to gaining customer loyalty and providing customer empowerment. By having a say on social media regarding functionalities of the business (whether that be a new product, a promotion, a discussion of a product, etc.), customers are more apt to be engaged and share your brand with someone else on a social media platform.
Social media is dominating our culture and the way in which our businesses are governed. It is critical that anyone who is developing their branding have a social media team to work with them. Both the web designer and the social media team need to understand that BOTH are a critical part of web development.
The social media team is responsible for ensuring that the SERPs and social media responsibilities of a business are handled properly and that the website has the information that is expected in today’s market. The web designer is responsible for taking that information and creating an interactive and appealing web site. It is absolutely critical that both parties work together seamlessly.
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1ltp3ux via transformational marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1Pzc46U
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