A perfect storm – the uncommon pairing of the most potent weather conditions hitting the opportune geographic location to have maximal impact.  This type of storm is considerably similar to your social media mix; all of the media platforms which are the weather systems are individually powerful, but when brought together there is nothing that compares.

Warm Air Builds Within Your Blog

As the center of your social media storm, your blog acts as the warm air which enables a perfect storm.  Without your blog you lack a strong central ground for you to build upon.  However, instead of just going with your blog page and being happy with the minimum impact, try to:

  • Tabbed Sidebar Widget — While other sites are displaying their posts through regular widgets, it’s time for you to step it up with a tabbed sidebar which displays featured posts, favorite posts (most popular), comments, and recent updates.  Overall, this is everything that you could want when it comes to interaction as your users can switch which tab they will utilize when they browse.
  • Related Posts on Pages — This is an outstanding way for you to publicize your blog to site visitors as each page displays related posts/articles with regard to the content displayed.  This is an easy feature for your web developers to establish for you so take advantage.

Slow & Dry Air Lingers In Your Networks

The second ingredient to the perfect storm is slow and dry air making its way to the warm air; your current social networks are the slow and dry air weather systems as they are needed to create the perfect social media storm.  But, instead of merely placing profile links throughout your site, here are some ways that you can better integrate your social media profiles.

  • Share Everywhere — When a client buys from your site or subscribes to your e-mail subscriptions (or RSS Feed) you need to take the opportunity to promote the social media platforms which are you are currently utilizing.  Within the footer (or sidebar) of the e-mails and/or receipts place “Follow Me” (or related) buttons which will increase your online exposure.
  • Opt-In and Opt-Out — Yes, it’s the cold hard truth that people opt-out of your e-mail subscriptions and/or updates, but it is your job to maintain the attempt to contact them.  You have a great opportunity to accomplish this through your opt-out button.  When a user clicks on the “opt-out” button they will be brought to a confirmation page which will imprint your social media profiles.
  • Implement Your Feeds — The sad issue with including your social media feeds is that there are a significant number of people that just do not want to take the extra time to share their content with each and every audience.  The easiest way to do this is to establish a few sidebar widgets which promote the social network feeds and all their content.

Tropical Moisture Brought In By Features

Features are the best facet of social networking platforms for you to include within your website, and your website is one of the most pertinent pieces of content for you to include within your social media platforms.  It is a give and take relationship, but it is very important that you promote your website with your social media sites and market your social media platforms throughout your website.  Here are some ways:

  • Auto Input Post — There are some great additions to functionality within websites across all content management systems, but one of the most efficient is the feature to update your Facebook and Twitter status amongst others.
  • Display Fans, Followers, And More — Be sure that you are not timid in promoting your social media success.  The most efficient way to accomplish this is through the display of your “Fans” and “Tweeps” which display how many people are following you.
  • Display Updates As JavaPop-Up — I don’t know if you have seen this before, but ESPN has a great feature which fades in to focus when there is breaking news or a team scored, etc.  If you work closely with your web development team you should be able to establish this feature and IMPACT your revenue.

Put all of these together and a few others that you may like and you will have a perfect social media storm that is second to none.  The bottom-line, though, is that you have to avoid being the common and familiar through a cultural shock.  So, make sure you add social media features which will help your interactivity, utilize each and every major social network, and consistently upgrading your blog.  Overall, there are some great ideas that you can implement by yourself, but please either leave a comment below or contact us today for more (immediate) help.

Need Help?

If social media marketing is something that you are interested in but don’t know how to get started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.

Sources:
“The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”-E-Book
SlideShare.net
Image Source: HubSpot, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing”, E-Marketer.com