Social media integration gives your audience more ways to interact with your brand. Get tips and tools to get it right.
Synergy, disruption and omnichannel: the three pillars of every marketing plan in the mid-2000s. We’re more evolved now, aren’t we? In 2023, social media integration goes beyond buzzwords and is the cornerstone of every successful digital marketing strategy.
Brands that use social media continue to generate more loyalty and attract more new customers and followers than brands that use the traditional method of marketing – with, you know, synergy.
Here’s how to use the Social Media Integration Station to become a true social media-first marketer.
What does “social media integration” mean?
Social media integration is the practice of using social media not just as another element of your marketing strategy, but as a foundation.
Integration goes beyond posting content on social media. Social media integration incorporates your social channels into every part of your campaigns, using smart tools to keep everything connected, automated, and measurable.
Some common places for social media integration are:
- Website
- Email marketing campaigns
- Software the CRM
- E-commerce software
- Customer Service Software
7 examples of social media integration
1. Include social sharing buttons on your blog
You see them everywhere – they’re a staple on most websites. Share buttons make it easy for readers to share your content with a single click. Everyone should use them, period.
Most people place these social sharing links at the top or bottom of an article, or both, or have buttons along the side that appear as you scroll down the page.
How you add sharing buttons depends on the platform your website was built on. Popular WordPress plugins for adding sharing features include:
- Social Snap
- Addicted to sharing
- Social sharing button
As an added benefit, improve the accuracy of your analytics tracking by attaching UTM parameters to your share buttons. That way, you can more accurately track where new visitors are coming from and how they found you.
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2. Use user-generated content as social proof on your website
User-generated content (UGC) is powerful on social media, but don’t overlook your website as a place to feature it for social proof, too.
An obvious use case is on product pages to encourage sales by showing real people using your products. This builds trust as people know that it’s not an ad you filmed, but real people sharing their experience. User-generated content can also showcase the versatility of your product or how people use it in different ways.
GoPro features clips from many different creators on its product page to showcase different features:
Fuente: GoPro
3. Incorporate social posts into your website
Adding social media posts to your website is a versatile way to add social proof. Capture a screenshot of the comments people leave on your social media posts or embed entire posts with testimonials.
A popular option is to embed an automatic post feed somewhere on your site, usually in the footer and usually with Instagram as it is a visual platform. You can set it to show all posts that use your branded hashtag and many post feed apps allow you to manually approve which posts appear on your website, protecting you against potential spam.
Adding an Instagram or other platform feed to your site depends on your website software, but popular WordPress plugins include:
- Easy Social Feed
- Crush balloon
- Stand out
Fuente: Fables
You can also take screenshots of comments or social media posts and place them on product or service pages as another form of social trust. Fitbit puts a unique spin on this with a dedicated “Fitbit in the Wild” section that compiles social media posts from celebrities using their products.
Fuente: Fitbit
Finally, add visual interest to your blog posts by incorporating full social media posts as examples of the things you’re talking about… like this:
4. Automate product sharing with e-commerce integrations
Even if your e-commerce platform doesn’t have an automatic way to do this, remember to share your products on social media manually. Not enough to spam people, but enough to show off new features, promote sales, and ensure everyone knows what you’re selling.
Many platforms also automatically sync your products with social selling tools like Facebook and Instagram Shops:
Fuente: Smuggler on Facebook
5. Build a social community
Most brands’ social media profiles function as dissemination channels. “Check out this new product!” “Buy this offer!” Basically, companies use social media to inform people about their products.
You should do some level of self-promotion as a business, but you can also use your social profiles to build a real community.
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Encourage customers and followers to interact with each other in the comments section. Encourage them to participate and help each other if they know the answer to a question. Start conversations.
Or, take it even further and create a private social community as a subset of your public channels, like a Discord server, private subreddit, or Facebook group.
Fuente: Stahl’s a Facebook
Offer this group something special, such as quality educational content, the opportunity to contribute ideas for new products, or exclusive contests or discounts. Treat this private group as your VIP section and the reward will be a group of highly loyal customers who will be excellent brand ambassadors both online and offline.
6. Conduct cohesive campaigns
This is pretty standard advice by now, but social media should be integrated into every part of your marketing campaigns. Not just new launches or sales. It should be connected to every other part of your content strategy.
Do you have a new blog post? Share it on social media.
Will it be an in-store or online event? Promote it on social media.
Just sent your newsletter? Encourage subscriptions on social media.
You get the idea.
Talk about everything you do on social media. Your social channels become the common thread between all of these campaign touchpoints, tying everything together and introducing your campaign to your audience or reinforcing the message they’ve already seen in your newsletter or on your website.
I like this post, where we share a statistic from our free 2023 Social Media Career Report.
7. Make customer service social
Social media has a lot more to do with customer service than meets the eye. 52% of customers expect a brand to respond to their customer service query on social media within an hour.
Fuente: Statesman
Failing to respond to or pay attention to these messages can damage your brand’s reputation not only with that customer, but also with others who see that they are not receiving a response.
Some brands create separate social media accounts for customer service issues, such as Nike:
Fuente: @NikeService en X (Twitter)
While others respond to queries from their main brand account.
Fuente: Glossier en TikTok
Try it for free
Social media integration with Moyens I/O
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Social Media Integration with Mailchimp
This is a must if you use Mailchimp for email marketing.
Salesforce Social Media Integration
Fuente: Salesforce Social Media Integration User Guide
Shopify Social Media Integration
Fuente: Shopify Social Media Integration Documentation
