Websites and your social media platforms go hand in hand. As a business, non- profit, government agency or educational institution, it is very difficult to have one without the other.
If you only have social media for your business and no website, you’re at the mercy of the platform you’re using. If Facebook disappears tomorrow, and that is where you sell your goods, you’re going to struggle.
If you have a beautiful website and no social media, you can make it work (and there are many ways) but you might struggle to reach your desired audience without a lot of extra effort.
So, that being said, let’s answer the question: if you have a social media account, should you integrate your social feed into your website?
This is a loaded question and although our experience encourages us to steer away from having a social feed on the websites we create, there are some people who feel that it can be a pro for your marketing.
Let’s start with the cons…
- You’ll want to think about the typical user’s journey to your website. You’d have to look at your business’ analytics to be certain, but many people will find your company via outside channels. These customers aren’t going directly to your website by typing it into a web browser, they’re searching and clicking through an ad or search engine, clicking from a link on social media, clicking a link in an email, etc. Especially if they got to your website from your social media, or a format that is using similar content, it is very redundant for them to see your social all over again when they hit your home page.
- When people land on your site, especially if it is their first time, you want to keep them there. Social media feeds, and even just the icons, can be like clickable candy. They entice the user to click away from your site. You worked so hard to get them to your website, you don’t want to immediately send them off into a sea of cat videos and friend requests.
- Consistent performance of these social feeds can be difficult to manage. To make your social posts show to customers on your website, there is usually a 3rd party application involved. These apps update, change, expire and disappear, sometimes without warning. The broken app can hurt the aesthetic appeal of your beautiful website as well as make the performance less than desirable. Broken links and images that won’t load are a red flag to potential customers.
- It is not a best practice for Search Engine Optimization to have your social feed on your website. It creates duplications that search engines like Google don’t like and it can lead them to down rank your company in search queries. You definitely don’t want a feed on your website to keep it off the first page of Google.
- Speaking of Search Rankings, integrated social media feeds can slow your website down. The more areas the website needs to load before you can view it correctly, the longer it will take. The longer it takes, the less Google wants to show your business to potential customers. If you do have an integrated social feed on your site, you’ll want to run a report to double check that your website’s load speed isn’t hurting your web views.
Now some potential pros…
- There can be a small argument made that showing your social posts to customers browsing your website gives some humanity and social proof to your business. They can see that you’re updating your social channels frequently and can see that you’re still in business and connecting with your audience.
- You may be able to update your social channel more easily than you can update your website due to staff ability or budget constraints, so the feed could show updated products more frequently than you can handle on your site.
You can probably tell by our heavily weighted “cons” section that we are truly advocates for keeping your social feed off of your websites. We so see so many issues with them and unfortunately, the images that get posted can make your website look disorganized and not inviting. It becomes just one-more-thing to update to keep your website clean and functioning properly.
We instead would encourage you to keep your shopping carts and products fresh, which we can help you with. Write a blog or 2 each month and then use those to create social content. Use your social to send customers TO your website where they can purchase your products and hire your experts. Using social media at the earlier stages of your social funnel will help to draw people to your website.
If you have questions about how to use social media as a marketing and sales tool in ways that supports your efforts, employee expertise and budget, reach out. We are more than happy to discuss a plan that is right for you.
