Linking Social Media with Your
Business Website and Blog
Keith has been involved in social
media since first becoming a member
of the early business networking
site Ecademy in 1999. Now with
13,000+ connections on LinkedIn,
5,000+ followers on Twitter, 2,000+
friends on Facebook, He also runs
the largest charity-related group on
LinkedIn—Charity UK—with 31,000+
members. He also has a popular blog
on Huffington Post UK. He teaches
and mentors business people on how
to make the most of social media in
business. He reminds networkers,
whether online or offline, that
networking is all about sharing and
exchanging information.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94744-194-1 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
Keith Grinsted
Abstract: This article looks at the relationship between
your ­social media activity, your blog (if you have one),
and your business website. It stresses the importance
of a consistent approach across all your channels and
provides some tips and guidance.
Keywords: Buffer, Channel, Connect, Engage, Facebook,
Google, Group, Hootsuite, Instagram, Networking, Page,
Post, Profile, Promote, Social media, Top tips, Twitter,
Video, Youtube
Linking Social Media with Your Business Website
and Blog
Just before we get too heavily into talking about linking
your online platforms, let’s just reflect a little on social
media.
In my series of articles on social media, I’ve covered
top tips for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and
Instagram. In addition, another article covered some
of the multitude of tools you can use to streamline
your s­ocial media activity. These include Buffer and
­Hootsuite among others.
Social media has become a central part of most of our
lives, across all ages. In the same way, it has become an
essential tool for marketing businesses. Through what
­
other medium these days can you connect with millions
of potential clients for your products and services at a frac-
tion of the cost of the hefty advertising budgets of yore.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not implying that social
media is free, well I guess it is, but you need to allocate
some resource to use it effectively.
Time, at the very least.
This article shows how you can extend the use of
­social media by linking it to other online activities such
as your business website and blog. I’ll provide some
strategies you can use and some simple tips and tricks
to help you utilize them effectively in business.
Expert Insights
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 Linking Social Media with Your Business Website and Blog
But remember, wherever you are online,
whatever you say or do online, you are cre-
ating an indelible DIGITAL FOOTPRINT!
It won’t get washed away the next time
the tide comes in!
The Foundations
We’ll be looking at two initial scenarios as it
is not entirely a “given” these days that ­every
business has a website. I’ve encountered a lot
of small businesses that may have a F ­ acebook
page but do not have a separate website of
their own. We’ll also look at the ­options you
have for establishing a blog either within
your business website or separately.
Why Social Media
I’ve touched upon this in other articles in
the series, but it is important just to cover
it again here by way of setting the scene.
Just look at the figures (correct at the
time of writing):
Linked over 500 million users
(106 million unique users
per month)
Facebook over 2 billion users
Twitter over 328 million users
Instagram over 700 million users
YouTube over 1 billion users
That’s close to one-third of the entire
Internet!
And 1 billion hours of YouTube videos
are viewed each month!
You cannot afford not to fish in this pool
of potential customers. Just consider where
you would have to advertise to reach just a
fraction of these prospects!
Local and regional newspapers and
magazines
Local commercial radio stations
National newspapers and magazines
Terrestrial and satellite TV channels
The list goes on and on, but even if you
used all of them, you’d still not reach the same
number as you can through social media.
2 © Business Expert Press 978-1-94744-194-1 (2018)
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But, the key aspect for social media is
to have somewhere to send your custom-
ers and prospects. Think of social media as
your sales or lead funnel and your website
as your sales person. It is your website that
can convert the leads generated through
social media into sales.
I always use the mnemonic AIDA.
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
You are using social media to grab their
attention. Perhaps even create some inter-
est. Enough interest for them to visit your
website where you have more space to
create a desire for your offering and then
provide a way for them to take action. That
action could be to place an order online,
­request a quote, or some other form of di-
rect interaction.
It is all part of a continuous process.
Why Your Business Needs a Website
When I started this article, I thought I’d
­assume that every business has a website.
But, of late, I’ve found quite a few small
businesses that do not yet have a website
(I guess a lot of these are small service
start-ups, and in the main tradespeople—
plumbers, electricians, and the like). Some
already use social media and have used
Facebook to create a web presence for their
business, but many have no online pres-
ence at all. Since Facebook changed their
algorithm again it is not so easy to promote
businesses there unless you pay for ads.
So, the first thing is to cover off just some
of the reasons why you need a business
website if you don’t already have one.
Top Reasons You Need a Website
You Must Be Where Your Customers Are
Probably the most important reason you
need a web presence is—you must be
where your customers are. And, believe
me, most of them are online.
Expert Insights
 Linking Social Media with Your Business Website and Blog
It is generally accepted that most
­consumers use the Internet to search for
­whatever products and services they need,
before they make a purchase. Even if they
go into a retail store, the chances are they
will research, or already have researched,
their purchase online. Before I buy a book
in a bookstore I’ve already checked it out
on Amazon.
It does not take much thought to realize
most prospective customers will therefore
assume your company has a website. If
they search for your business only to find
you do not exist on the Internet, they will
search for the next business that does what
you do but is on the Internet. You have just
lost a prospective customer. What could be
worse is that you may have lost an existing
customer.
Most of your competitors probably ­already
have a website. If you don’t, then you are
handing business over to them.
Imagine you have a retail offering but do
not have a shop in the high street where
your competitors are. It’s clear where the
shoppers will go. So imagine the Internet,
your website, is your shop window.
Tell Customers Who and Where You Are
Having an active website is so important
even for small, local businesses. It is no lon-
ger good enough to just put up a few static
pages and expect people to come and inter-
act with you. According to a study done by
Nielsen, 85 percent of consumers use the
Internet to find a local business. If you don’t
have a site, then you are missing out on a
massive percentage of potential customers.
If you are not there, these customers may
not even be able to contact or locate your
business. Search ­ engines such as Google
are heavily focusing on local r­esults, so a
website is even more i­mportant if you are
a local business.
Reach Out to All Corners of the World
The Internet  allows you to think beyond
local borders. A professional business web
design gives you an instant global presence
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and allows your business to capture custom-
ers from around the world. This provides
you with the opportunity to greatly increase
your customer base. If you can service cus-
tomers nationally or globally, a website to
reflect that is a must for prospects research-
ing your business. But even if you do not
have the ability to service national or inter-
national customers, you are still extending
the awareness of your business. I remem-
ber posting online that I was looking for a
particular type of consultancy business for
a project I was working on. I am based in
UK and one of my connections in Canada
connected me to business 9 miles away
from me I’d never come across before!
It’s Working for You Around-the-Clock
When you are tied up in a meeting, sitting
enjoying a meal, when you are asleep at
night, your website is working for you and
you do not have to pay overtime rates! With
the help of the Internet, consumers can
shop online around-the-clock, whenever
it suits them. To reach these customers,
you need to have a good business website
that acts as your sales team. It a­ llows them
to shop or research your business and its
products and services any hour of the day
or night. How great to get orders online
overnight while you are asleep! You can’t
do that without a website.
Providing Instant Communication
Once you have your own website, you
can communicate with your customers
instantly. Upcoming discount sales and
­
new products can be advertised on the
business website. This can eliminate the
need to send out costly mailings and fly-
ers. But do link any such activities back to
your website.
Content is important and so is the i­ ntegration
of that content to your social m ­ edia activ-
ity. As you generate content that may help
a prospect make a b ­ uying ­decision, you can
then use social ­media to instantly distribute
that content to ­thousands of other potential
customers.
Expert Insights
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