It’s no secret that social media has radically altered the world. From the way we communicate with friends to the way businesses attempt to sell their products and services, social media has had a significant impact on the digital landscape. And while much of the world’s attention has been on social media’s societal impact, there’s no denying that social media has also had an influence on website design.
A recent article from Upstart Business Journal noted that social media’s storytelling methods have also influenced what consumers value in a website design, citing innovations such as responsive Web design and user-generated content as being directly influenced by social media practices. And while these tools have certainly had an impact, it’s certainly not every business that is looking to have user-generated content populating its site.
However, there are several other lessons from social media that can be applied to a company’s website design as well. Here are a few important ones to be aware of.
Visual Storytelling
As mentioned in the article from Upstart Business Journal, social media’s prominence has made the Web a much more visually-oriented place. One needs only take a look at popular social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat (which are completely built around images), as well as the popularity of sharing photos on Facebook to see that visual storytelling is more important than ever in the digital space.
When it comes to website design, companies are no longer well served by simply presenting visitors with page after page of thick text. While it is important for companies to still provide valuable information through text, if there aren’t engaging images to bring the company’s story to life, it is unlikely to garner much attention from consumers.
In addition to making Web content more interesting to site visitors, images can also be used to present information in a more shareable format. Infographics, in particular, can serve as a more engaging method of providing pertinent information while also contributing an interesting piece of content that is more likely to be shared on social media.
Transparency
Social media has also led customers to expect a higher degree of transparency from companies, political groups and other organizations. While you should be making an effort to be transparent in your social media efforts (such as responding to complaints and other feedback), a company website is another great place to showcase a company’s commitment to transparency.
It doesn’t take much to include background facts about your company, or even information about some of the people that work there, but these snippets of information can be quite important—especially for business-to-business companies. Many professionals wish to get a more firm understanding of the background of a company and its leaders when deciding whether or not to work with it. Including this information when planning your website design makes it easier for potential clients to make an informed decision.
Brief bios for company leaders (or even a brief overview of a company’s history) also provides a great opportunity to showcase your expertise and success. For example, if your CEO has received several industry awards, including this information in a bio page can increase customer confidence and trust, especially when it comes to making a business-to-business purchase.
New Content
It can be very tempting when creating a website to simply slap up a design that contains some basic information and a contact form, but social media has trained users to expect regular updates from friends and companies alike. After all, a social media profile that never posts might as well not exist at all.
And in some ways, this attitude has also affected modern websites. It seems that almost every new site—regardless of industry—incorporates some type of blog. And this is for good reason. Blogs have been found to be highly effective, in some cases increasing lead growth for small businesses by 126 percent when compared to companies that don’t have a blog.
And much like on social media, it’s not just any random update that will do. Taking the time and effort to craft well-researched, quality blog posts not only gives site visitors stronger incentive to continue browsing, but it also sends signals to Google and other search engines that your site is an authoritative source for industry information. As a result, a regularly updated and well-maintained blog not only improves customer relations, but it also can provide a solid SEO boost.
Conclusion
There should be little doubt that social media will continue to influence website design and other digital media best practices. Businesses large and small would do well to adopt these trends to ensure continued digital success.
