Is Your Website Anti-Social?

24 Apr Is Your Website Anti-Social?

Social media is the big buzzword on the internet today.  Not just because it’s the latest “fad,” but because it taps into the one of the core purpose of the internet itself, connecting with other people. 

Social networking sites have seen a 47% growth over the past year, the leader being MySpace with a 367% increase.  I don’t know about you, but just about everyone I know has a MySpace profile, including my friend’s 80-something year old grandmother. 

Sociability is not just for blogs and dating sites.  Adding social elements like blogs and comments and shared profiles can really bring a website to life, boost its popularity, and grow a fan base. 

I spoke with the owner of an online shoe sales company once who wanted to find out why his competitor Zappos ranked so well in the search engines. 

Comparing the two sites, his was a basic e-commerce site with the same stock content as every competing shoe store on the internet.  Zappos on the other hand, was loaded with user generated comments – the kind of unique content that search engines love.

These comments also offered an interesting read and kept me browsing around the site for quite some time.  Reading about other people’s experience with a product you’re thinking about buying really cuts down on the anxiety of buying online. 

After the analysis, we suggested a custom comments module and a few other changes to make the site livelier and search engine friendly.  We didn’t do the job because of the company’s budget constraints, but I did find Zappos – my new store of choice to buy shoes online!