Boosting the traffic and user engagement on your existing author website doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your site’s design. In fact, the experts at Web Design Relief know that just one small change can have a big impact on your website’s performance: social media integration.

Why does this one simple change make such a measurable difference? Because people devote more time to scrolling through various social media feeds than to searching for websites on their browsers. In fact, the average person spends 2 hours and 27 minutes every day on social media! By linking your website and social media accounts, you’re opening a gateway to a much larger audience. Here are our best social media integration tips:

How Social Media Can Make A Big Impact On Your Author Website

Include Icons

Social media icons are a great way to direct web visitors to your social media accounts, especially if they are prominently placed. We recommend featuring social icons in your header or near your author headshot to drive the most traffic to and from your social networks.

Install Widgets

Social media widgets can include a number of interactive features for your website. For example, you can feature a live feed of your Twitter account if you are active and post frequently. If you often post pictures, an Instagram gallery widget may also be an eye-catching addition to your website.

Use Share Buttons

Writers often use share buttons at the bottom of blog posts so that the information may be easily shared to social media platforms. However, you can also include share buttons on specific pages, like a book page or an events calendar, to encourage visitors to share details about your latest work or readings. You can include share buttons to almost every social media platform currently online, or just your favorites.

Create a Hashtag

Our trend watchers are seeing more authors promoting hashtags not only on their social media posts, but on their websites too. Create your own hashtag and encourage website visitors to use it on their social media. This will boost your social numbers and your website traffic too. Here are some examples:

#yourauthorname

#yourauthornamewrites

#yourbooktitle

The Benefits Of Incorporating Social Media

Increased Engagement

Often author website visitors simply look and leave, because there are no interactive features. With social media widgets and share buttons, visitors can scroll through your various feeds, learn about you and your writing, and share your interesting content with their own social media followers.

A Fresh Look

With content that updates every day (or every hour depending on how active you are on social media), your website will always seem fresh and up to date. Even simply having the latest social media icons featured on your author website will give it a timely new look.

More Followers

Having more ways to read, share, and access your social media accounts will boost your social following. For writers, this can overflow into increased readership, a wider audience to announce your new writing projects to, and a boost in followers who are interested in your writing.

Social Media Integration Mistakes To Avoid On Your Author Website

Making your website only about social media. While social media is vital for writers hoping to expand their author platforms, it shouldn’t overshadow the other important content you should feature on your website—especially content that visitors expect to see when they search your web pages. Your author biography, list of publications, contact form, and more should still be the focus of your website.

Linking to inactive accounts. If you haven’t updated your Facebook page since 2008, there’s no point in linking it to your website. Integrating inactive social media accounts only makes your website look dated—possibly even abandoned—and will result in visitors bouncing off and not returning.

Getting too personal. Sometimes the line between connecting with your followers and giving TMI (too much information) can become blurry on social media platforms. Be sure to keep your author website professional. We recommend only linking to your official author social pages or professional platforms like LinkedIn—not your personal social media accounts. Here are the best social media platforms for building a writer fan base.

Making the small change of integrating social media onto your author website will help you reach more potential fans and encourage active engagement from your visitors. It’s a great way to increase your online visibility without requiring a major overhaul of your website!

Question: As a writer, what is your favorite social media platform?