Online branding, reputation management, relationship management, content publishing, networking and other social media strategies are quickly becoming required elements in marketing. The more widely used these elements become, the more important it will be to integrate social tools into your existing website.
This is where Google and Facebook are heading and have developed technology (Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect) to allow people to connect to websites using a single identity, maintain their social community across different websites, and to allow different websites to share information.
So, how social is your website? Does your website connect with Facebook? Twitter? Digg? Google? How well does your website integrate with social networks that would allow you to connect with your community?
Isn’t it about time to take your website to the next level and integrate it with social media?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hmm, my question is this: is it really that difficult to maintain my identity across different platforms and websites?
I am still a fence-rider when it comes to Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect. What do you think they do that really enhances your website or blog? I have seen them used on a few websites and I think the biggest advantage is that people can carry on a conversation outside of the individual blog posts. Not much more, though.
I look forward to your thoughts.
You and I both know that Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect are in its infancy so the level at which it should be implemented is clearly up for debate. One of the values that I see with these platforms is that providing a sense of community through familiarity. One of the major challenges that I've faced is website users to get to a point of comfort before looking to fully utilize the website. I think FC and GFC gives the ability to jump start an experience and gives new users a sense of comfort. This is further enhanced when you "have friends" on sites you go to. Then there is a greater propensity for that person to remember and interact with that site.
That's just one basic element, but I do think that it's the future of the interaction of information. I find myself spending less time on individual sites and more time on Facebook as more and more information (including the greater use of Twitter integration not to mention the new Facebook layout) intersects with it. Google will head in the same direction. I can even see greater integration with GFC and Google Reader, that would be interesting! I'm already finding myself enjoying FC on my iPhone and sharing information faster and having more conversations about that information.
Also, FC and GFC is kinda like the introduction of Twitter where we'll find the value as it's further developed and adopted.
What do you think?
i'm not sure about the google connect yet. i have been using GT on my BB Storm and it rocks so far.
yea, I feel your sentiment about GC, but Google got plenty of money to throw at it and it looks like they will…so I think it's a matter of time before they position themselves to really impact how it's used
how do you like your Storm anyway? any buyers remorse?
that's cool
Hmm, I think you make a lot of valid points there. I think you are right in that the comfort and familiarity will aid in quicker adoption of these new techniques and technology.
Yeah, I think you are right about the early stages of both FC and GFC. I am curious to see how they take off like Twitter did once they are developed and widely adopted.
Thanks for the great thoughts.