New Trends in Social Media Widgets: Twitter and Facebook

A couple months ago I wrote about the importance of using social media. This post will show some of the new and current trends in social media, specifically facebook and twitter. Sure, it’s great to throw an icon in the footer of your site to attract followers, but what about actually using social media to provide dynamic content or increase conversions!? The examples below can provide value to your site and your users.

Facebook- Badges
Facebook offers some really cool & simple badges including fan badges, customizable profile badges and photo badges.

Twitter  – Buttons
Pretty basic but these little guys look pretty good.

Facebook – Comments Box
Commenting made easy! This widget allows users to comment directly on your site. Use it after posts, or simply as a comment wall. Check out the tutorial video here

Twitter – Profile Widgets
This customizable widget pulls in your tweets and allows you to specify color, dimensions and preferences.

Twitter – Search Widget
This thing is awesome! Specify keywords, hashtags, @mentions, location, and / or logic, time, even attitude! Enter your search query and watch the content flood in.

Twitter – List Widget
Create a user list from a targeted group of users and display their tweets on your site.

Twitter – Retweet, Facebook – Share
Use tweetmemes retweet badge or facebooks share badge to spread articles and other interesting content. Get retweeted by a big name on twitter and watch your pageviews skyrocket!

Facebook – Fan Box
Have a facebook page for your business? Allow users to become a fan without leaving your site! You can even include your page’s stream in the widget.

Facebook Connect – Single sign on
Increase user registration rates dramatically by allowing your users to register using their facebook account. Not only does this provide an easy registration for them, it accesses their profile picture and other information such as their friends, activity and more!

There is a lot of information out there. Thanks to open API’s provided by companies such as facebook and twitter, this information is readily available and for the most part free. It is important that this information is used wisely and responsibly. If content is irrelevant and invaluable to users, it will eventually drive them away. However if used effectively, social media can drive traffic, add value and increase conversions within your business. Social media will not make you rich over night but can add valuable content and features for your users. But please use responsibly, no one wants to tweet out their upcoming dentist appointment (at least I hope not).

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