Social media's role in web strategy

Today’s internet users want interaction and conversation rather than a static one-way experience. While your website is likely to remain your main customer access point on the internet, social media sites play an essential role in augmenting and expanding your web presence.

There are a number of factors that make social media a useful tool in increasing your chances of making a sale:

User generated content

Consumers are relying more and more on user generated content for assessing purchase decisions. Facebook and Twitter provide a platform for public feedback and reviews of products and services and positive customer feedback on these sites can serve as powerful testimonials. The flipside of this is that negative customer experiences are also revealed in this very public forum. Twitter is commonly used for customer complaints and keeps can certainly keep companies on their toes in the field of customer service.

Improved SEO

Social media sites linking to and from your website carry a lot of weight with search engines such as Google. This helps your ranking with search engines and therefore your increases your site’s likelihood of being found amongst the multitude of competitors on the internet.

Public interface

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide a unique opportunity to communicate and interact with your customer base. Certain groups or individuals can be targeted in tweets or wall posts creating a level of personalisation that a standard website lacks. You can answer questions or requests from followers/likes and engage in conversations which helps develop a sense of loyalty or familiarity with customers, thereby increasing their likelihood of making a purchase.

Viral expansion

Post sharing and mentions on Facebook or Re-tweets and @mentions on Twitter can increase your brand’s exposure on the internet many times over. When these posts/tweets are then picked up by a previously unknown 3rd party this becomes a viral expansion and can have a huge effect of getting your name across the internet. While this exposure itself increases the chance of a potential customer finding your site, it also has the effect of building familiarity and trust amongst existing followers and thereby increasing the chance of them making a purchase

Facebook as a capture site

By using static html plug-ins for a Facebook page it can be used as a capture site to collect contact details for marketing. Although it might be helpful or even necessary to use some sort of incentive for people to sign up to this e.g. some sort of giveaway, this can be a great way to capture new customers

One of the reasons that social media is so effective in these areas is that is has a level of personalization that is hard to achieve elsewhere. The ability to reply personally to people, to comment on their posts and discuss interest generating non-work subjects helps create the sense of familiarity and friendliness that makes sites like Facebook and Twitter so successful in engaging potential customers.