WSI Blog

Social Media Marketing is still relatively new ("65% of marketers have either just started or have been using social media for only a few months" - a 2010 report by Social Media Examiner), but is rapidly becoming mainstream.

So mainstream in fact that businesses are now actively in the foot-race to incorporate social media into their corporate or business website.

But without doing a complete overhaul or spending fortunes on a website re-design, here are 7 ways to integrate Social Media to turn your existing website into a "Social Hub":

1. Make it easy for your visitors to share your information amongst their own networks.  Add Social Media quick-links and Facebook 'Like' buttons to content pages and blog posts.

2. Add live feeds to your website so users can see your Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/etc information on your website in real time.

3. Create original, engaging content that can be shared.  Share your expertise and provide relevant content to your users, then (using 1 above) encourage your visitors to share the content with their networks.

4. Allow your visitors to have their say and provide opportunities to get their feedback. Make it easy for users to comment on blogs, encourage guest blog posts, get users to upload photos or videos and display it on a page on your site.

5. Get reviews and ratings for products and services. Encourage customers to provide these ratings - Google loves them and they become a source of positive validation of your business.

6. Build a blog on your site.  Wordpress is the king, but there are lots of easy (and cost effective) ways of incoporating a blog on your existing site. Build the blog, have a regular content strategy, and put an RSS feed on your blog to allow users to subscribe and get immediate notification when each new blog is posted.

7. Play the game! Gaming is huge, and gaming strategy is a key feature in social sites such as Foursquare or Facebook games such as Farmville. Whether we're interested in playing the game or not, the fact is that the addictive and competitive nature of gaming is a well known part of building engagement and loyalty.

Social Media Marketing continues to explode, with new social networking sites and Smartphone apps arriving daily.

Making it work for your business doesn't need to be daunting, but it does require you to make a start.