10 Tips to Make Your Website Socially Engaging

Let’s be honest. Any and all websites out there should be appealing and intriguing to the reader on some level, drawing them into an experience and fostering further exploration. And one of the major keys to achieving this is to concentrate your efforts in the realm of social engagement. After all, communication is at the heart of what you’re trying to accomplish with your site in the first place, so it should be a central aspect of all your site-building efforts.

Here are 10 ways to draw your visitors into the conversation, to get them to contribute opinions, ask questions and interact at multiple levels.

1. Let users get in touch by having clear and sufficient contact details front and center. If they can’t reach you with a question or concern, they’ll give up and move on.
2. Leverage social media. It’s almost a must-have these days, so be sure you include Facebook, LinkedIn etc. And once you’re on the social media sites, stay active with regular posts.
3. Market smarter by offering users some sort of valuable content and encouraging feedback. This may come in the form of sharing expert information and accepting guest posts that don’t have a self-promotion angle.
4. Don’t ignore the importance of visual design. Everything from the colors you use to whether you have eye-catching images and relatable videos determine the visitor experience and whether or not they’ll visit again.
5. For a truly genuine two-way communication, keep your online “voice” humble rather than arrogant. You want your relationship to be positive always.
6. Get others to confirm or endorse your expertise through references and testimonials. This will put the “human” face to your site.
7. Speaking of putting a “human face” to your site, make sure you put yours and your employees or colleagues on it: it’s important visitors know what you look like, as they’ll feel a stronger connection.
8. Don’t be afraid to tell a story. Science has shown that the human brain processes information much more effectively when it’s provided in story form, and as result you can communicate on a more personal level.
9. Ask a question at the end of every post, section or page of your site, and provide a user comment box so they can reply quickly and easily.
10. If your website doesn’t have a blog element, add one and make regular posts. Again, this will let readers know that there’s a person behind the site who it truly interested in sharing information and engaging their customers and clients.