Even if you’re already winning at your social media game, you may not realise that there are more ways than ever connect your content, brand and audience
Integration comes down to making your pre-existing content strategy cohesive and interconnected, so that your original posts, content, website, product, campaigns and social platforms feature heavily across one another – in other words, you’re always referring back to your brand across all of your mediums.
Sounds complicated? Rest assured, while detail-oriented, integration works with what you’ve already got going, rather than requiring a new strategy or new content pipeline – and it comes down to links, tags and streamlined click-through.
Your URL is the King of Connecting your Content
Integration is essential for brands and businesses that operate primarily from a website, and want to drive traffic there. More and more, retail brands are choosing to bypass a traditional URL for easy-purchase Instagram shops, but for in-depth engagement and exploration, as well as space for longer-form articles, FAQs and impactful campaign imagery, a website is truly king when it comes to integration.
In its purest form, integration is simply the act of directing your followers and community on your social media platforms back to your website, and vice versa.
Today, consumer-friendly web design platforms like Wix or Squarespace make it super simple for you to add your social media icons wherever you like to your website. In the art of integration, there’s no limit to how layered and how interconnected your brand can be, so let’s explore how you can best maximise the potential of your existing consumer touchpoints.
Get LinkedIn
So you’ve got your social platforms fired up, filled with content and ready to go, but what next?
Like many things in life, less is often more – this means being mindful about exactly what platforms you link through to from your flagship website.
Don’t use your business LinkedIn often? Is your Facebook page a little dusty? Of course, this might be a great opportunity for a platform overall, but it remains true that we often can’t be a master of every social media platform, and nor will your target customer and audience be a regular on ALL of them.
So, choose wisely, and when you show off your links to Instagram or TikTok, ensure that there is something there (and ideally regularly updated) to welcome them!
When you’re tweaking your Instagram bio, consider a Linktree URL (a free bio link tool) which allows you to advertise more to your audience for them to consume. When it comes to most social platforms, the “link in bio” supports just one URL, so if you’ve got a lot to share (a waitlist for a product or a recent editorial feature) this could be a way to get more bang than your single URL.
The Great Integration - Connecting through your Brand
Your social media strategy, your carefully curated website, your regular content uploads and video creation, it all comes down to increasing your brand reach and awareness, and integration takes your everyday effort and helps to multiply your results.
Some of your customers are likely to have only interacted with your business via one medium, and it’s not uncommon for a potential new customer to be fed an Instagram ad and end up scrolling across your page.
Naturally, their next step will be to head to your website to browse your full product range, and this is where they are most likely to sign up to your database to score their welcome deal, get regular contact from you and more – without integration, this customer won’t reach their full potential.
So when in doubt – integrate!
