Question; can you effectively engage multiple social sites with limited staff?
I attended BlogWorld in Los Angeles and went to a website marketing session. There was general agreement in the room that the purpose of social media was to direct traffic to your website. If the conversation takes place on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn (the definition of social media for this article) and it didn’t happen on your site, it was a wasted experience.
There was also general agreement that people don’t like to leave their social sites via links to time-consuming websites and that, for most, social doesn’t send your site a lot of traffic.
Participation on social sites–It’s a matter of resources:
Critics state that well-known corporations and big government sites “do” get traffic from social media sites “but” it’s my contention that this doesn’t apply to the vast majority of us who create and manage websites. As I’ve said in the past, if Disney sneezes, they get traffic from Facebook and they have the staff to manage interactions.
If your business model involves conversations and the transmission of information it doesn’t matter what platform you’re on as long as you have the staff to do it. But I’ve had over 100 comments on some social sites (I responded to each) but not one came to my site. That’s defeating.
Most of us need to fight for every page view and we’re one-person operations or operate with very small staffs with lots of additional responsibilities.
The discussion is a matter of scale based on budget. Yes, social media “is” the future of web communications “but” we also need to acknowledge that search, e-mail, content creation and traditional media still carry the great bulk of communications (see sources below) and that’s where communicators need to spend most of our limited resources.
Is there a tech solution for social interaction?
The goal of getting people to your website is simply an acknowledgement of limited resources; most of us have simply can’t be interacting with everyone on every platform. But what if there was a technology solution?
Programs that allow people the “impression” that they are staying within Facebook or other social sites with quick returns may be the secret sauce.
Viewbix (http://www.viewbix.com/) offers a platform (free and paid) where the visitor conducts business within the framework of a YouTube video. If you are an association or a nonprofit and you are conducting a poll or trying to get people to adopt a pet or soliciting contributions then customers participate yet it doesn’t “feel” like you’re leaving your favorite social platform. See the four examples on the site; I found the non-profit one especially appealing.
It’s not like readers are going to a complex website that takes time away from conversing with family and friends (the real purpose of social sites). You get to see a short and cute video and you get a call to action button and you’re back to your social discussions quickly and easily.
Somehow I see the Viewbix concept as different and more effective than a link to a complicated and time consuming website. Please feel free to tell me that I’m kidding myself.
I’m not promoting Viewbix or any company; it’s the concept that allows organizations the ability to interact and accomplish goals on social sites with little to no staff interaction that’s intriguing.
It’s an idea worth watching and it will be interesting to see if others emulate and apply the concept to blog posts and audio as well as video.
Opinions?
Best, Len.
Additional Sources:
https://www.leonardsipes.com/why-facebook-doesn%E2%80%99t-send-traffic-to-your-website/
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Local-news/Part-1.aspx
4 COMMENTS
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Leonard – Strange; the site is down. Thanks for posting though. This looks interesting.
Hi Dan: Was my site down or the site I linked to in my article?
Thanks, Len.
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