A social media presence is pretty much mandatory for most businesses at this stage. A lot of businesses still haven’t quite figured out how to use social media just yet though. They stumble into common pitfalls that are easily avoided. So what should you not do on social media? Read on!

Spam their followers

Businesses occasionally fail to realize that spam doesn’t just mean what you get in your junk email or mail. It can occur in other channels like social media. It’s good to consistently post on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. It’s not good to constantly post without giving you followers a little bit of a breather. Try to space out your posts and not barrage users with your content. Otherwise you may find that they will soon begin to ignore you.

Focus on selling themselves and ignoring engagement

No one likes a person who only cares about themselves. Likewise, businesses should not only focus on sharing their content, but also on actively engaging their community. Reach out to individual followers and share their content as long as it’s relevant to your business. People love it when someone shares what they have to say. A happy user is an engaged one. No one likes to feel like they don’t matter. Especially on SOCIAL media.

Forget to acknowledge people who interact with them

If a user interacts with one of your accounts don’t ignore them! Make sure to acknowledge what they have to say. Answer questions people have, and respond to comments. Don’t make followers feel like they are talking to a brick wall. It’s nice to know there’s a person on the other side and not just an automated account.

Integrating social media with your business website is critical for increasing online exposure and engagement with your target segment. Check out these tips on how to connect your website with different social media platforms:

Add social media buttons on every page

Including buttons that link to your social media accounts is great for making it easier for users to connect with you. Social media is becoming a very popular way of asking for product advice or reviews. By including links you are streamlining the information search section of the buying process. This will also help to boost traffic and followers of your various accounts.  The best place to include these buttons is in the header and footer of every page. Make sure they are clearly visible or they may never be used by visitors. Including call to actions such as ‘Like us on Facebook’ are also better than simply using a basic badge. Everyone has badges these days, and calls to actions are much more effective.

Allow users to login using social media

Letting users use their social media accounts to log in to your website is great for increasing conversions. Long gone are the days where users had to fill out lengthy registration forms. Now all they need is a Facebook or Twitter account. Using social media logins can also help to share specialized  content and connect with their users on a much more personal level.

Make your website social media friendly

Users are starting to want a website viewing experience more akin to social media platforms these days. They desire to see dynamic content, category focused areas, news feeds, and social media feeds. Some websites are switching to more modular panel home page designs to cater to this. These panels can be used to show any type of feed or content they want. A great example of this is Google Ventures.

Make content shareable

Having great content is worthless if it’s hard for users to share it easily. Making content shareable is a great way to boost online exposure, traffic, and engagement with your customers. Including social sharing buttons next to all content like blog articles, videos, and images is a great way of doing this.

Embed dynamic content like YouTube videos when appropriate

Dynamic content is absolutely mandatory for websites that want to be more engaging. Including videos from YouYube or infographics are great for increasing visit times and conversion rates. The longer a user is on your website, the more likely they are to become a quality lead, and eventually a customer.

Integrating social media with your business website is critical for increasing online exposure and engagement with your target segment. Check out these tips on how to connect your website with different social media platforms:

Pinterest has been gaining popularity among designers for its innovative visual features. This platform allows its users to pin images from other websites onto a board. This can help to increase traffic to these sites, as well as serve as a virtual portfolio for designers. So how can you use Pinterest for your design business?

Building your brand

Pinterest is just as useful as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn at building your own unique online brand. There are some great ‘About Me’ sections to communicate just who you are and what you do. You can also link to your Twitter, Facebook, and website.

Finding design inspiration

Inspiration is critical for designers. You can get design block just like writers do. Pinterest is great because you can pin any cool websites to your board that you come across. When you need inspiration all you need to do is come back to your board. Make sure to use keywords like ‘web design’ in each pin board’s name so that people looking for web design can view your profile.

Creating a unique portfolio

Pinterest is awesome for showcasing your portfolio. You can create separate boards for different market segments, or different skills you have. Another thing you can do is post images from projects to your website, and then pin these images to your board. If anyone shares your images on Pinterest they will still link back to your website. This is a great way of turning Pinterest into a traffic source for your business. You can also just upload screenshots of your work, but this won’t link back to your portfolio.          

It’s absolutely important to keep page load times in mind when building your new business website. Users will leave if your website doesn’t load quickly enough, and traffic will begin to decline. Less traffic means less leads. Check out these five tips on how to minimize loading times:

Avoid Redirects

Some redirects are unavoidable, but you should do all you can to get rid of any that are unnecessary. Redirects increase page load times by adding an extra HTTP. Make sure to look for broken links and fix those!

Optimize Image Size

Images can end up taking a lot of your page size and significantly impact loading times. You should resize the images you plan to use with an image editor like Photoshop.

Image File Format

Always stick to standard formats for your images like JPG, PNG, and GIF! This will minimize any display problems.

Optimize Caching                  

Whenever a user visits your website they need to load its image, Java, and CSS files which can significantly increase page load times. Enabling HTTP caching on your website will let these files be saved by a user’s browser. Next time they visit your website they can simply retrieve the cached files instead of downloading them all over again. Optimizing caching can also reduce bandwidth and hosting costs.

Update your CMS Software

Content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and others will release updates from time to time to their software. These will help to improve overall performance. Make sure to keep up to date!

Web design has changed a lot over the years, but it is surprising how many businesses make the same mistakes over and over again. The good news is you can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them! Let them drive away potential customers, while you laugh all the way to the bank. Here are a few things to avoid:

Not adhering to the Martian Man rule

If a man from Mars saw your website would they be able to tell what it was about in four seconds? For many websites, the answer is no. Your website should effectively communicate what your company does/sells/is all about quickly and concisely. Use appropriate images, taglines, and titles to do this. Keep it concise.

Having pages that are too ‘busy’

Do you remember that thing called MySpace? If you do, then you will recall how there were thousands of things you could add to your profile to customize its look. Some people thought this meant they had to use every single widget, and made their profile look like a collage of neon colors, sounds, and ridiculous images. Your website needs to be the opposite of this. Sometime a simple, minimalist approach is best. It’s actually en vogue now. You don’t want to distract users from the core content they should be paying attention to. Avoid a clutter, auto-playing music, among other things and you should be fine.

Failing to make navigation intuitive

A user should be able to get from point A to point B quickly and intuitively. Don’t make getting to an important section a cumbersome process for a user. Keep your navigation simple, intuitive, and prominent in your website. Use tabs for the most important sections, and avoid including unnecessary links or buttons.

Opening new browser windows

Pop-ups aren’t fun for anyone. They are distracting, and impede you from surfing the web easily. Some designers think that pop ups are alright because they keep the user on your site longer. That’s like saying it’s okay to for a restaurant to take 30 minutes to process your bill because they want you to order more food. If anything it’s going to drive business away. Avoid using pop ups at all cost on your business website!

Not answering users’ questions

This mistake ties back to the Martian Man rule. Every user should be able to tell what your business does right off the bat. They also need to have any questions regarding your business answered easily. Making important information readily available is key. Including things like an About Us, Contact Us, FAQ, and Blog sections are great for providing users with all the answers they need. A well-informed visitor is much more likely to seriously consider your company when making a purchase.