Social Media Integration to Web Apps: 7 Tips & Benefits
After all, why spend time building in social functionality if no one is going to use it? The truth is that people do use social media — and plenty of them want to stay connected while they’re using your app.
To attract and retain more users, you need to build ways for users to share content from your app with their friends. While there are lots of different ways you can integrate social media into your web apps, here are some ideas
Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, and it’s only getting more integrated into our lives as time goes on. Suppose you’re building a web app that users will interact with regularly. In that case, it makes sense to incorporate social media into your app to provide customers with an experience that is more personalized, engaging, and efficient.
Facebook remains at the top of the list among many social media platforms, with 2853 million active users in July 2021. Youtube follows it- 2291 Million Active users, WhatsApp- 2000 Million active users, and Instagram-1381 Million active users.
Here’s an infographic from Statista depicting them in hierarchical order.
Source: Statista- Most Used Social Networks Worldwide
Avoiding social media integration is a blunder for any software, website, or web app prepared for more extensive worldwide adoption. However, if you have any last-minute doubts, the following list of benefits is bound to convince you.
Top Advantages of Using Social Media Integration into Web Apps
1. Simple to Integrate & Effective in Performance
Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all use APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to give other apps access to their data. This information can then be used by developers — either directly or indirectly — to enhance users’ experience on third-party websites and apps.
For example, users might be able to log into your app via their social media accounts (like Facebook) without having to create a new account on your site. By leveraging existing platforms, you’ll make it easy for users already familiar with these sites while streamlining onboarding for new ones. That’s what we call a win-win!
2. Enhances Communication with the Target Audience
When your customers can chat with you and each other right from your app, they’re more likely to use it. Not only does social media integration make communication more accessible, but it also allows for live chat and improved engagement rates.
When you give users an easy way to communicate directly with your company and each other, they’ll be more likely to recommend it (through word-of-mouth marketing) and even pay for premium services or subscription upgrades.
With increased usage comes increased sales opportunities, making social media integration key for any business that wants a profitable mobile presence.
3. Gives Exposure to a Larger Audience
One of the most effective processes to get your app in front of new users is social media since millions of people visit these networks every day. User accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter serve as a gateway to a vast network of friends and family potential app users.
Do you know the overall growth in the number of Social Media users?
The infographic below depicts the rising number of social media platform users over the years.
4. Boosts User-Engagement
Adding a few social media buttons won’t cut it. With the help of top web application development companies, you need to add authentic social features that genuinely add value to your users. It means empowering them to connect and giving them tools to share their thoughts, pictures, and experiences.
User-generated content is more important than ever. If nothing else, it acts as testimonials or case studies for your company; if people like what they see and read about your app, they might even want to try it themselves! (And hopefully, tell their friends.) User-generated content also lends an aura of authenticity that you can’t get from a press release.
Use social media as a way to solicit product ideas and feedback — and connect with influencers in your niche. It will not only help you shape future development but help you learn how best to market yourself within social media networks.
It acts handy when it comes time to monetize through ads or paid apps/upgrades down the road! Be sure that wherever your customers are spending time online — whether it’s Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest — your brand should follow them there too.
5. Builds Confidence & Trust among the Users
Customers feel more comfortable when they know they can connect with a brand they like on social media. They gain confidence when interacting with a brand on social media, which in turn increases their trust.
When using social media in apps, your customers may be more willing to use your services because they’re already familiar with how you handle yourself online. Surveys from Failory have shown that 41% of U.S consumers say that brands that engage in Social Media help create higher levels of trust when making purchases from them.
6. Facilitates Cross-Promotion on other Platforms
If you’re looking for a method to boost your brand’s exposure, it’s hard to beat social media. You may already have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, but why not expand your social reach by adding them into your app? A social app with cross-platform social media integration allows you to promote other platforms that are associated with your brand.
You can connect your app with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. With over a billion active users on these platforms, it is an excellent opportunity for you to improve your brand awareness.
For example, if you own a yoga apparel brand and have an active online presence on Facebook and Twitter, consider adding social media buttons into your app so users can share their workout experience with their friends. Encouraging social media interaction within your app will help you build brand awareness while boosting your reach at the same time.
7. Active Brand Building
Adding social media buttons to your app gives users an easy way to share content with their social networks, increasing brand awareness and building a larger community.
Additionally, well-implemented sharing features can help you connect your current user base by increasing word-of-mouth referrals. If people like your app, they’ll tell their friends and colleagues about it.
Here’s what Statista has to say about using Social Media Integration for brand building.
Remember: Facebook shares and Twitter tweets count as referrals. The more successful your app is, and then — if you encourage sharing — the more people who download it; building a solid brand that people recognize and remember is incredibly important in gaining recognition for who you are as a company.
That was all about why you must consider social media integration into your web app. Let us now discuss how to do it effectively.
The following are seven ways to integrate social media into your web app to increase user retention and customer satisfaction.
1) Customize Social Logins
With mobile users averaging eight social media accounts, it’s no surprise that social logins are an excellent opportunity to cut through all of that noise. And while most apps offer Facebook and Twitter login options, you can make your app more enticing to new users by incorporating popular social platforms like Google+, Linkedin, Foursquare, etc.
2) Boost Branding With Hashtags
Hashtags offer a cheap and easy way to gain brand exposure. Using popular hashtags associated with your niche will expose your app to an audience who would otherwise never see it if you’re building a social network app.
Be sure not to spam hashtags! Aim for 1–2 per post at most, and use them in appropriate ways. Don’t include your hashtag as part of every word; make sure people want to read what you have to say first.
Remember: Attention is just as valuable as followers — you need something interesting to say to get people interested in listening.
3) Integrate an Endorsement Tab
One of the most straightforward paths to add social media elements to your website is to add a link at your company’s homepage that points users to their accounts on various social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Also, look into adding an endorsement or check-in tab that will allow users who visit your page on Facebook or Twitter (or elsewhere) to click a button and let their friends know they like your company.
4) Display Recent Activity
The first and most basic way to integrate social media into your web app is to show users their friends’ activity, whether tweets, updates on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, or comments on popular blogs. It can be as simple as a sidebar that shows feed items from popular networks and websites.
Remember that you don’t need to create an entirely new page to show recent content; since these are technical pages inside your application, they will share any information you want visible in either context.
Just remember not to overwhelm people with recent data; aim for about four or five feeds at most. Otherwise, you risk losing readers who don’t want to take too much time away from what they intended to do.
5) Embed Posts from Other Websites
Many web apps get developed for integration with other social media platforms. For example, you can embed posts from Facebook or Twitter into your app to provide people who use your product access to their friends’ posts.
Also, if you own a photo-sharing site, you can create an app that uses photos posted on Instagram or Flickr and makes them easily searchable and viewable by users of your product.
6) Add Posts From Users’ Facebook Pages
People may not always want to log into Facebook to leave a comment on your app’s website. But if you embed Facebook’s commenting tools, users can leave messages from their profiles without having to visit a new site.
To enable these comments, head over to your Facebook page and click Comments. From there, click embed comments and insert code into your web app that will enable users’ posts on your site.
7) Displaying Popular Tweets on Your Site
If you have a social web app, you probably have some social integration on your site. While some might argue that there’s no reason to integrate Twitter with your website unless it deals explicitly with Twitter, there are several good reasons why you should do so, let’s face it.
- If people use your service to tweet on their site, they’re going to tweet on Twitter anyway. So why not offer them a seamless experience?
- It creates loyalty from your users. They feel like you listen to what they want and care about what they say.
- It helps keep your audience loyal to your brand/service/website even if they don’t always visit your platform directly.
- Every time someone tweets an update about something happening on your platform or responds to something another user says via Twitter, you will gain new subscribers/fans who are interested in whatever it is that these two people are tweeting about.
Here’s what Statista says about brand posts on Twitter
Wrapping Up
Social media integration is a crucial feature of every successful app. If you want your web application to stand out & attract users, with the help of web coders on hire social media integration is an easy way to grab users’ attention and give them all kinds of fun new ways to engage with your app.
No matter what industry you’re in, there are benefits to adding social media integration. Making your app more social helps build trust and increase engagement by giving users new ways to connect, share information, learn about events and participate in contests.
Putting social media at their fingertips is an easy way for users to have fun with other people using your app. Even if they aren’t directly interacting through your app, users still feel included because they can see everything their friends are doing on social media.
FAQs
Question: Which is the ideal social media platform for growing enterprises?
Answer: While the exact platform depends upon the business niche, the best one remains Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. = for most of them. While many businesses are still unsure where they should be focusing their social media efforts, there is one thing that’s for sure: If you aren’t on any of them (or all three), your business will fall behind.
Whichever platform you choose (and wherever you decide to focus), make sure your app is ready and compatible with social media. Just like with e-commerce integration, having an app that’s fully integrated with your company website and features social media sign-in makes it easier for customers to access their favorite sites no matter what device they’re using.
On top of that, providing seamless updates across platforms means that users won’t miss out on important information or opportunities to interact with other brand followers.
Question: Why do some businesses shy away from social media integration into their web apps?
Answer: Although social media integration is extremely valuable, many companies do not take advantage of it because they don’t understand why users choose one platform over another. Many businesses think that Facebook and Twitter users will always pick their platform, but they don’t know why.
Even worse, some businesses think that integrating social media into a web app will automatically increase their traffic, which isn’t necessarily true. The key to social media integration is determining which platforms your target audience uses and then incentivizing them to use your app instead of just using another website or another app.
Question: How much will it cost for me to get social media integration into a web app?
Answer: In some cases, it can cost as little as $50 for some essential integration, and in other cases, it may cost upwards of $200. It all depends on how much work is necessary from a developer to complete the process.
For example, if you want Facebook authentication in your app, you’ll need to create an application before you can integrate your social media accounts into your web app.
Suppose you want to post links via Twitter or Facebook to content within your app. In that case, however, there’s no coding involved — you choose which options are available in WordPress and then connect with social media sites via APIs. It will take just a few minutes and require very little design input.
Question: Why does Facebook stand out among the most viable options for social media integration?
Answer: On average, there are more than 1 billion active users on Facebook per month. That’s a market you can tap into with your app. By connecting social media with your app, you’ll create a competitive advantage for yourself because people will share what they do in-app and how it relates to their lives outside of your application.
Over 82% of internet users worldwide use at least one social media platform in addition to Facebook, meaning that over half of all users in North America and Europe use Facebook and another social network at least once per day — and that’s just one site among thousands.
When considering your options for social media integration in your app, you can safely bet on seeing success on Facebook because it has such a huge existing audience and a solid presence in people’s daily lives.
It means that users will likely stay longer and pay more often and will spread brand awareness about your application for you.
