Creating Social Media Friendly Websites

Posted on 11. Aug, 2009 by Pete Hollier in Social Media

Social Media Web Site

Social Media has become an important element of business’s online promotional activities. Social Networking , Blogging and Micro-blogging need to be supported by your web site to enable consumers to continue the conversation with your company, and to ensure your company is able to achieves online business objectives.

To ensure your web site meets the Social Media requirements of both your business and consumers, attention to several issues must be considered.

Understand The Target Audience

A thorough understanding of your customers should already be known by your company. This information and knowledge must be transferred and expanded upon for use in the development of your business’s web site.

You must understand what is important to your customers and what they hope to achieve by visiting your web site, only then can you determine the processes, elements and content which you must include in the design of your web site.

Understand Sales Decision Phases

Social Media enables your business to build relationships and initiate the sales funnel using various Social Media tools such as Networking web sites, Micro-Blogging and Video to name a few. Once this initial contact has begun often the sales process continues on the company’s web site.

Understanding the different phases of the sales funnel will enable you to develop the web pages which provide potential customers with information and processes that meet their requirements during the various phases of the sales process. These web pages may include information for research purposes to gain a better understanding of products, or processes to enable communication for clarification of any issues a potential customer may have.

Understanding the sales funnel processes will enable you to improve your overall web site conversion rates because you are giving the web site visitor what they need when they need it, to complete the business goals of both your customers and your business.

Define your Conversion Goals

Every web page should have a well defined purpose and conversion goal identified. I favor the adage “One Page One Topic”.

Think about the web pages on your current or proposed web site as individual entities. If you cannot define the one single purpose for that web page existing, it is time to consider if it needs to be there at all or what revisions are necessary.

When you have determined the purpose of the web page you will have gained a clearer understanding of what you hope to achieve, or in other words you have clearly defined the web page’s conversion goal.

Define Achievable, Measurable Web Site Goals

Well defined. achievable and measurable goals for your web site will enable you to define the web site’s conversion success. Once objectives are clearly stated, monitoring the performance of online activity will provide in-depth information on web site visitors behavior.

Analytic software such as Google Analytic and simple conversion tracking, such as sales and email registrations provide a clear indication of your web site’s performance.

Understand Content is King

Regardless of the purpose of the page, information, conversion or interaction, the content of the web page will determine the web page’s effectiveness. The content and the web page processes must meet the visitors expectations to ensure you engage web site visitors which is a key factor in the improvement of web site conversion rates.

Be Accessible

Online accessibility means many things from a clear concise navigation system to ensuring there are not barriers which cause web site visitors not to complete their tasks and objectives.

However, Social Media adds a different dimension to online accessibility. You and your business are no longer available in one single location Your Web Site. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and endless additional online venues are available to the business’s of today.

Make it easy for customers to find you online as many are sure to be interested in commutation with your company in a less formal Social format. Include links to Social Network profiles and to blogging and micro-blogging web sites where you are an active participant.

The Last Word

Many of the above design considerations are not new to Social Media and have been the foundation of web design for quite some time. However, with Social Media Marketing becoming increasingly ensuring your web site meets the information and processing requirements and visitor expectations is critical to the success of your business’s online activities.

Additional Reading

• Social Media and SEO Integration
• The Top 5 Requirements of Web Site Success
• Social Media and SEO Integration

Written by: pete@seowizardry.ca a Pay Per Click Management Consultant

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