Does your website have a social media “catflap”?

As offline businesses try to wade their way through the social media sea of likes, comments, diggs, tumbles, vimeos, tweets & pings, it can be overwhelming. To simplify things, businesses should think about the reason for using social media in the first place.  If your purpose is to drive traffic to your website and ultimately to your products and services (be they online or offline) you need to instal a catflap….

Cat Flap (noun): a portal between your website and your social media sites for seamless traffic either way

A cat flap is a simple concept.  Let’s consider Kitty for a moment.  Kitty is a self-motivated, intelligent, independent feline and likes to do her own thing.  And most of all she can’t be bothered meowing at the door in order to get let in..it is too much work. Kitty doesn’t “do” work very well. Solution? Install a cat flap and she is free to come and go as she pleases…seamlessly. I suggest you do the same thing. Not literally of course (as that would be rather humerous)…but I suggest you install a “catflap” between your social media sites and your website.

When using social media you need to start with the end in mind. What do you want your followers/fans/clients to do? Do you want them to sign up to your email list? Do you want them to visit your site? Do you want them to like and comment on your blog posts? Do you want to increase traffic and google rankings for your website?  Your end goal determines how you set things up.  But one thing is true for all of the above social media “motivations” – you need to ensure that people can move between your website and social media sites as easily as a cat does through a catflap.

When building your “catflap” between platforms and your site, consider these tips to help you create a seamless flow of information:

1. Make it very easy for facebook visitors to “like” and comment, not only on your facebook page, but also every page of content on your website.   This means putting facebook plugins on your site, so they don’t need to leave the site to like facebook or follow you on twitter…they can stay with you, buying your products and services.  Some great plugins to start with are the like, comment and new send buttons.
2. Include links to your website from your facebook, twitter, and you tube accounts.
3. Include a call to action (ie what do you want people to do?), for example:
   1. Facebook fan page – links to your website, opt-in box for signing up to your enews,  a reminder to “like” your page.
   2. Website – an opt in box with free download, links to your other social media sites so visitors can “like” or “follow”
   3. You Tube account –  a reminder to visit your website posted on the video as well as in your information section, or perhaps a link to a current product you are selling.
4. If you want people to share information on your blog, make sure that there is an easy to use comments section with instant social media “share” buttons at the end of every post.
5. Include “share buttons” on every page of “content” on your site, especially your blog posts. These share buttons should give the option to share across a range of social media platforms.
6. Have your blog feed through to your facebook page, as well as providing options for visitors to receive your blog or enews using the method of their choice…including RSS feed, email opt in, or to reading it through feeds to facebook, twitter.

In a nutshell,  ensure that your followers can be “social” at any point of contact between your website and your social media sites and pages…so that they can like, comment and engage with the click of a button.

What about you – can Kitty come and go freely between your site, facebook, twitter and other social media platforms?

Donna Moritz

Donna Moritz is a Social Media Strategist and Visual Marketing Specialist – and founder of Socially Sorted, in Queensland, Australia. Donna loves to help small businesses and companies use visual social media strategies to get more reach, referrals and results for their business. She has been a contributing author for Entrepreneur.com, Social Fresh and Amy Porterfield and has been featured on Forbes and Yahoo Small Business. Connect with Donna on Google+ and other social media networks below.