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Ways to add Social Media to your Web Design
Why social media is important!!
In this day and age of competition, there is need for more and more channels which can be exploited to promote online businesses and websites. Social media proves to be a great channel for promotions and marketing. Millions of people worldwide use social media on a daily basis, and integrating social media into your web design instantly exposes your website to millions of potential customers across all demographics.
Also, social media interactions are more personal and intimate, thereby giving your company a means to communicate one-on-one with customers and leads, and building trust and reputation based on that. One cannot ignore the role of social media in determining online presence, and therefore it is important to integrate social media to your web design. Here’s how-
Establish a presence – The first step towards social media integration is choosing which social networks your company has a presence in. There are many social networks to choose from, the most popular being Facebook and Twitter. For enhancing subscriber base on social media, it is essential to let people know which social networks you have a presence in so that they can communicate with you via those channels.
A great way to achieve this through your own website is to include social media widgets to your content which make it easy for visitors to like, share and comment on your content in social networks. You can also replace your traditional user login system with social login, which helps users to identify instantly and lets them know where exactly they can find their social presence.
Incorporate social media elements – The next step is to include and incorporate elements from social networks into your website. Good examples are shareable content which visitors can discuss about in Facebook or Twitter, widgets and icons such as “Like” or “Tweet” and “+1” allows for easy communication and integration with popular social networks.
Social media Interaction – Finally, you can establish two-way communication with your social networks of choice by using content from these networks as integral parts of your website. User reviews from your Facebook page, live feeds from your Twitter account and incorporate them in your website. Embed YouTube videos if it helps your cause on the website. Through interactive communication between your website and users social networks, you can forge great relationships, and expand brand exposure and mileage across social platforms.
Latest Mobile Development Tools
With mobile data speeds increase rapidly with the advent of new technology, mobile applications have literally taken over from websites. Most smartphone users rely on mobile applications for a host of needs and requirements, ranging from simple day to day tasks like checking e-mails and social networking, to highly specialized tasks such as enterprise management, online banking and shopping.
Mobile web application development is a much sought-after field, and mobile development tools offer developers a way to increase their scope and efficiency while designing mobile web applications. Some of the mobile web development tools popular today include:
1. RhoMobile – A very popular development tool is RhoMobile. Developed by Rhodes, this platform uses Ruby on rails as its chosen back end and is immensely popular as it enables developers to make native applications for a wide range of platforms including the popular Apple iOS and Google Android.
The framework allows developers to write only one set of code for an application which can then be used to further develop native applications for different platforms. The platform makes it easy, fast and intuitive to design native applications that can take advantage of smartphone hardware configuration.
2. PhoneGap – Another popular development tool is PhoneGap. Another popular option with mobile developers, this tool provides a framework which uses web development languages like HTML and JavaScript which makes it relatively easy to develop applications.
This platform supports a wide variety of devices, and is particularly well known for its ability to use smartphone hardware and features like sensors, GPS antenna, accelerometer, and sound and camera options. It is an award-winning mobile development tool with a loyal fan base.
3. Appcelerator – An immensely popular platform is the Titanium development platform designed by Appcelarator. Supporting a wide variety of programming languages including the standard HTML and JavaScript as well as more complex coding systems like Ruby on rails and Python, this platform has a loyal following amongst a large number of mobile developers.
It also offers special features enabling developers to derive full use from smartphone firmware, and also bundled support for data storage even in the device or in the cloud. There are over 300 API’s which come bundled with this platform, along with detailed location information and other tools.
With these latest mobile development tools, developers can go about their mobile web development business much more efficiently and offer complete productivity to client and high degree of user experience to apps users.
How to make a Credible Online Presence
Power of social media marketing
Social media marketing is a veritable goldmine, enabling businesses around the world to showcase their products and services to a sizable existing user base with very little in the form of expenses. Social media is used extensively by people all over the world, encompassing different ethnicities, age groups and psychological profiles. For a successful social media marketing campaign it is important to understand who these people are and make plans for successful communication, so as to engage with them positively. The concepts of brand credibility apply here too, and it is of great importance to build a credible and trusted online presence to make social media marketing campaigns a success.
How do build a credible social media profile?
- Scope and importance – The first step towards building a social media business profile is to assess the scope and importance of such a presence in the particular industry domain. Different industry verticals have different dynamics of perception and opinion-building, thus leading to need for customized interaction methods and approaches.
- Customized tools – There are various tools which can be used to gain insight on the possible impact of social media on a particular kind of business. These can include tools such as customer surveys, monitoring of social media platforms and pervasive research for business intelligence and competitive landscape. Once the scope of social media as a marketing tool is established, a marketing plan can be formulated.
- Customer analysis – Building a credible online presence is not easy, and much of it hinges upon understanding public opinion, public psychology and the factors that affect them. Dedicated research needs to be done regarding current trends, their causative factors and ways in which these factors can be implemented in your social media marketing campaign to maximize potential.
- Content – With social media, the detached sales pitch does not work. The content has to be more personal, engaging and value-adding. Users need to believe in the possible utility they might get out of your business, as this is the foundation stone of trust, dependence and long term loyalty. Lines of communication must be left open, and your business should be approachable for people to come forward with comments or queries.
It takes time and effort to build trust and credibility on social media, and only a few succeed in making the most of things owing to sustained focus on customers. Businesses need to constantly assess and improve their strategies and adapt to changes in the immediate environment to have a plausible presence in the realm of social media.
Social Media Mistakes You should Avoid
The impact of social media
Over the last few years, social media has emerged as a particularly powerful marketing and promotional tool for businesses and individuals. Social media has proliferated deep into the lives of people, and the exceptionally large user base makes it a particularly good platform for marketing. Companies promoting their products and services on social media can be sure to reach a large number of potential end-users by default.
Social media marketing works on the basis of understanding crowd psychology and keeping abreast of trends and paradigm shifts in user preferences and decision-making influences. While it is a particularly powerful tool, social media marketing should be used intelligently and with due diligence. There are a number of mistakes which need to be avoided if you want your social media marketing campaign to be a success.
How not to build social media marketing strategies
- Professional vs. casual – The first rule of thumb when starting a social media campaign is to be entirely professional in its approach and execution. When a business has a social network profile, it is directly associated with its success, and all communication and announcements must be done in an entirely professional manner. Failure to do so might trivialize people’s interest in the business and affect its reputation negatively.
- Lack of planning – Social media marketing campaigns need to start with a concrete established plan. Irregular posts and responses do not enhance brand credibility. People have short attention spans and shorter memory and therefore regular communication helps keep things fresh in people’s mind, sustains interest and increases participation. At the same time, overdoing it is also not an option. Abnormally enthusiastic posting is perceived as spam, which has a degrading effect on reputation and causes major irritation for social media users.
- No knowledge of target audience – It is also extremely important to be aware of your followers in a social media marketing campaign. Followers are potential customers and also can be expected to themselves promote businesses that have provided them with good service. Followers need to be kept active and interested, their questions need to be promptly answered and their comments replied to. Failure to do so might cause disinterest and desertion. It is also important not to be preferential about ardent followers, so as others do not feel you have a biased point of view.
Finally, it is important not to lose sight of the competition, and treat it with respect. Avoiding these common pitfalls will add more value to your social media marketing campaign.
Tips to improve B2B e-commerce experience
E-commerce as a favored medium of online purchases is steadily gaining widespread momentum. Riding high on the growth wave, B2B businesses are generating positive revenue and moving towards growth and development. With the growing number of B2B e-commerce portals, it is getting more and more difficult for individual businesses to stand out in the competitive market. It is therefore essential for B2B companies to keep enhancing and improving the e-commerce experience on offer, so as to maintain an organic relationship with partners and customers, and attract new business.
The fierce competition in e-commerce makes it difficult to get new customers and retain them. Customers have more options to choose from nowadays, and more often than not, the degree of e-commerce experience makes the difference in purchasing decisions. Technology too has evolved rapidly and presents new features and opportunities which need to be leveraged to make a B2B business a success.
One of the better ways to improve the e-commerce experience is the use of multimedia. For e-commerce websites, product reviews and ratings have been around for a long time. Demonstrative video content which explains the feature set of a product and intimates viewers about its value and utility offers customer a hands-on audio-visual experience which leaves a more lasting impression, and is more likely to influence decisions.
Like videos, the implementation of tools like blogs and discussion forums can also be helpful. These create a feeling of community, and encourage open sharing of opinions and experiences. It is a great way to build trust, bolster relationships and improve the overall e-commerce experience.
Another great area for improvement is interactivity. Websites are getting more and more interactive, and e-commerce portals should be no exception. A clear channel of communication between client and business is always important, and the option to add more interactive channels is a major plus. The implementation of features such as live chat, live video conferencing and social media integration can go a long way to improve communication and strengthen relationships.
Whatever be the value had one tried to implement within an e-commerce portal, simplicity is the key here. Processes and functionalities which are used often should be easily accessible, navigable and intuitive. Keeping this in mind, coupled with a dedication and commitment to keep improving, is the foundation stone for improvement in B2B e-commerce experience.
Ground Rules of Web Design
The need for eye pleasing web designs
Websites are the basis for online presence, be it a business or an individual. With millions of websites already existing and thousands of new ones coming up every day, it is important to make websites stand out so as to attract attention and facilitate sales conversion. In face of fierce competition it is aesthetically pleasing websites that will win business. Websites need to be easy on the eyes, accessible and easy to use and navigate. For web designers, there are a set of ground rules that needs to be followed to make websites appealing and stand the test of time.
Ground rules of web design
1. Focus on site visitor – The first ground rule of web design is to think and plan the design keeping in mind the perspective of a potential visitor. Websites need to generate traffic, and for that visitors should have an enjoyable experience browsing. Also, designers need to take into account what a visitor might like and dislike in a website. Implementing design and features as per visitor’s preferences is the key foundation of a successful website which would generate traffic and bring revenue.
2. Content is king – Another ground rule is to focus on the content of a website. Text content is the primary mode of communication and conveying information to visitors. There has to be just the right amount of content to give important information and it needs to be well written and engrossing.
3. Rapid and sustained interest – It is also important to know that attention span on Internet is limited; therefore efforts should be made to arouse interest in a matter of minutes. Catchy taglines, interesting banners and high quality images are some of the ways that help the visitors get hooked to the site and compel them to browse further inside the website.
4. Scalability – A very important web design rule at present is to make designs scalable. With evolving technologies and advent of smart phones and tablets, websites are being accessed from a range of devices nowadays. Web designers need to ensure that the website they make renders uniformly on all screen sizes and gives visitors a consistent user experience. A website might be attractive if you viewed on a desktop PC, but at the same time might look strained or disproportionate when viewed on the small screen of a smartphone. Scalability ensures that users get the most out of the website, no matter which device they access it with.