Looking to build a community, inspire meaningful interactions, and widen your reach?
Need a way to encourage engagement, build social proof, and boost sales?
Then, you must add social media integration to your overarching marketing strategy.
By seamlessly connecting your social media profiles, website, email marketing, and other digital channels, you can create a cohesive and engaging experience for your target audience.
Keep reading if you’re ready to take your online presence to the next level.
In this article, we’ll review what social media integration is and the benefits of using it. We’ll also review a few social media integration tools and walk you through creating your own social media integration strategy.
Ready to learn more?
Let’s get started.
What is social media integration?
Social media integration means incorporating social media platforms and content into your online channels.
This helps you connect your website, email marketing strategy, and other platforms seamlessly with popular social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.
Integrating these platforms allows you to engage with your audience, share content, and build a robust online presence.
For instance, sharing social media videos is a typical example of integrating social media.
You can share videos across social media platforms to showcase your products, services, or testimonials and embed them on your website. You can then feature those in your email marketing campaigns, newsletters, and ads.
Here’s an example from Beaches of Normandy:
In the above image, the brand incorporates YouTube videos on its website. These user-generated content (UGC) videos feature customers sharing their Band of Brothers tour experiences to inspire other travelers.
This keeps users on the site longer and excites them about their potential experiences if they sign up for the tour. This is a simple way to nudge aligned prospects to a conversion.
Let’s define a few other examples of social media integration.
Social media icons are clickable links that direct users to your social media profiles. Placing these icons strategically on your website, email, and other marketing channels makes it easy for visitors to find and connect with you on social media.
Embedded social media feeds: Live social media content streams automatically display on your website or other marketing channels. Feeds may include posts, images, videos, and other content you share on your social media profiles.
Shoppable feeds: Digital displays that allow users to purchase products showcased within the feed directly. These feeds typically feature product images or videos and relevant details, such as pricing, descriptions, and purchase links.
Benefits of social media integration
Social media integration strategies can help maximize your online presence’s impact and drive business growth.
Here are five ways social media integration can help you grow:
1. Expanded reach
Social media integration helps you extend your reach beyond your website as Instagram alone has over 1.35 billion global users.
Integrating social media platforms allows you to connect with a broader audience and tap into their networks. This can help you increase brand visibility and engagement and attract potential customers.
And speaking of engagement...
2. Increased engagement
Integrating social media into your online presence encourages audience interaction.
You can foster meaningful interactions and build relationships with your audience by allowing users to like, share, and comment on your content directly from your website (and other marketing channels). While your engagement rate depends on your specific industry, here are the averages for retail:
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.58%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 0.73%
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.93%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.08%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.63%
3. Authentic social proof
Incorporating social media feeds and testimonials across your website or marketing channels provides authentic social proof. One great way to do that is by using live notifications, with a tool like Fomo, that indicate to potential buyers that they are not alone on the buying journey and nudge them towards a purchase.
When visitors see others actively engaging with your brand on social media, it adds trust and credibility. Social proof also encourages prospects who may have been on the fence to try your product or service.
4. Amplified content distribution
Social media integration helps amplify content reach. Users can easily share your blog posts, product pages, or other relevant content with their social media followers.
5. Seamless user experience
Integrating social media into your website or marketing channels creates a seamless user experience.
Users can engage with your social media content directly from your website or access your website through social media links. This multichannel experience reduces friction and enhances convenience, making it easier for them to interact with your brand.
Now that you’re clear on its perks let’s look at some social media integration tools you can use.
5 best social media integration tools
Here are five social media integration tools you can use to expand your reach, boost engagement, and create a seamless user experience:
1. Flockler
Flockler is an all-in-one social media integration platform for cross-channel marketing and user engagement strategies.
This social media integration tool can help you:
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Enhance user engagement and connect with your target audience
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Create shoppable UGC content to boost sales and engagement
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Collect customer reviews and embed them on your platform
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Embed social media content on your website
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Run integrated UGC campaigns
Flockler subscription plans start at $47 monthly when you pay for an annual plan. Start your 14-day trial to see Flockler in action now.
2. 1Password
Great, now you are managing content across many channels and platforms! However, that leads to having dozens, if not hundreds, of unique accounts your marketing team must manage to avoid falling into the wrong hands. 1Password is a password manager that helps you keep your integrated social media and marketing channel passwords safe and secure.
With 1Password, you can:
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Store your website and social media passwords securely in digital “vaults.”
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Generate and store unique and complex passwords for each account
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Protect your social media profiles from hackers and cyberattacks
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Share passwords securely with team members for collaboration
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Manage passwords for social media integration tools
1Password business subscription plans start at $7.99 monthly when you pay for an annual plan. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial to try any 1Password plan.
3. Mobilocard
You can combine social media with networking and sales. Mobilocard is a digital business card platform to share and exchange contact, social media, and marketing channel information.
Mobilocard helps you:
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Connect with others across various social media platforms and marketing channels
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Use digital business cards to enhance social media and website engagement
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Seamlessly share contact information and professional profiles
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Streamline networking and expand your social media network
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Augment of social media integration and interaction
Mobilocard team subscription plans cost $39 per employee per year plus a one-time fee per card. If you’d like to try a Mobilo card, you can opt for a personal card. This plan is free for things other than your one-time cost per card.
4. SmartrMail
Everything old is new again, and email has emerged as one of the most potent ways to retain customers and increase lifetime value. SmartrMail is an AI-based tool that can help you send automated email flows, abandoned cart sequences, win-back emails, and more – all on one platform. Combining SmartrMail and Flockler is a super easy way to add Instagram to your emails.
Here are just a few of the ways you can add social media to your SmartrMail sequences:
- Add an Instagram feed showing your products to a cart abandonment email.
- Show your most engaging UGC inside a win-back email as a grid.
- Welcome new users by creating a sense of community with a social feed in the welcome email
- Combine product recommendation emails with fun social content created around your products.
- Embed a unique and fitting selection of Instagram posts for each customer segment to nail your messaging.
SmartrMail has flexible pricing that starts from as low as $9.80 per month but allows large enterprise customers to save thousands of dollars thanks to being usage-based.
5. FusionAuth
The final tool in your social media integration toolkit is social authentication for your shop, website, or app. Giving your users the ability to log in with their social media credentials makes your customer experience more seamless. It gives you an added boost to scale revenue and new customer numbers. FusionAuth is one app that offers secure login technology to help users create profiles without setting up new credentials.
With FusionAuth, you can:
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Allow users to create online profiles on your website and marketing channels using their existing social media credentials
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Help users quickly set up online shopping profiles and subscription plans
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Enhance social media integration with a convenient social login option
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Use OAuth to collect credentials from social media buttons securely
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Support fast and easy sign-ups and access to user data
Basic FusionAuth hosting plans start at $37 per month, while business hosting begins at $225 monthly. You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial.
How to create a social media integration strategy
Use the following quick guide to create your business’s social media integration strategy.
Step 1: Outline your goals
Start by clearly defining your goals and objectives for your social media integration strategy.
For instance …
Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, boost sales, or improve customer engagement?
Knowing your goals helps to measure success and build a strategy for integrating social media into your marketing.
Step 2: Choose your social media platforms and marketing channels
Most of your time and attention should go into social media and marketing channels that match your goals and target audience.
You have many platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube at your fingertips. However, the key to success is to be present on those platforms and to take the next step: to identify ways to combine your marketing with your social media, such as your website, email marketing, and digital signage outdoors and indoors.
Step 3: Test social media integration strategies
Experiment with social media integration strategies to find what works best for your brand. Use your social media integration strategy and objectives to lead the process.
Test the following ways:
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Live social feeds: Embed live social media feeds on your website to show recent and relevant user-generated content (UGC) on auto-pilot.
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Shoppable UGC: Nudge your customers to create and share UGC showcasing your products in real life with links to learn more and buy.
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Embed social media reviews and branded mentions: Add customer reviews and positive social media across your website, emails, and other marketing channels.
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Social media icons on various channels: Place social media icons prominently on your website, in email marketing campaigns, and on digital signage to make your brand easy to find.
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Social login: Offer the option for users to log in or sign up to your shop or app using their social media accounts, simplifying the registration process.
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Social sharing buttons: Include social sharing buttons on your blog to make it easy for users to share your content on their social media profiles.
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UGC and lead collection: Use website forms to sign people up for social media challenges, giveaways, and contests to create your tribe of engaged fans of your brand.
You might also consider trying:
Step 4: Use analytics to refine your approach
Use behavioral and social media analytics to refine your social media integration campaigns.
Continuously test, measure results, and make adjustments to optimize your social media integration strategy.
Remember … Every brand is unique. Find what resonates most with your audience and helps you achieve your goals.
Wrap up
Ready to use social media integration to boost engagement and widen your online reach?
Save this guide and share it with your marketing team.
Then, carve out time to put these insights into action.
Creating a strategy that aligns with your goals and continuously refining your approach can build more profound, meaningful relationships with your audience and achieve your growth goals.
Here’s to your success!
PS: Need social media integration software? Try Flockler for free today.