How to Get Social Media Visitors to Stick Around
Posted on August 8th, 2009 in Social Media, StumbleUpon, Website Management & Improvement.
Tags: engaging with visitors, Social Media, social networking, stumbelupon, website improvement
With the evolution of social media sites, submission toolbars and related website suggestions, people often end up visiting your site not knowing exactly what to expect. First impressions are important for any website, particularly if you want your users to stay for a while or come back, but with applications such as the StumbleUpon toolbar where anyone can land on your site you need to take certain measures to draw your visitors in. After all, it usually takes around 3 seconds for them to decide whether they like your website or not and that back button is quite inviting if it’ll get you off a website you don’t like. So how can you get them to stay around longer?
Using the StumbleUpon toolbar as an example, you can hit the ‘Stumble’ button and it will physically take you to a random site that fits within your pre-selected interests. It doesn’t give you a selection of sites to choose from, it just takes you there with no surrounding context or idea of where it’s taking you. So, you can imagine that the quality of traffic you can get from StumbleUpon is generally pretty poor and visitors are not likely to stay around for more than a few seconds. But there are some measures you can take that will help your visitors engage with your website or – at least – stick around for a few more all-important seconds.
Have A Great Design
If you have a nice website design there’s a greater chance that your random visitors will stay for a while and have a look around. They might even bookmark your site to revisit another time. It might even get a Stumble if they’re feeling generous.
Easy To Remember Website
Your website should be easy for anyone to remember. Your URL should be very easy to remember so visitors won’t forget it. It could be your band name or DJ alias, a brand or something catchy like a short slogan – ideal for more social oriented websites. You could also invest in having a unique logo that makes them remember your site as well as a strong theme.
Don’t Overdo it with Adverts
having too many adverts on your website can make your pages look untidy, difficult to use and can prevent users from staying around too long. Think of the visitors first impressions; it can easily portray the image that you’re maintaining your website to do nothing but make money, whereas you should be showing passion for what you do and offering content that’s worth reading and engaging with.
Great Content & Enough Of It
Visitors need good quality content. That’s what they are after. You want enough so that your users enjoy it and will want to return to get more of it. You also don’t want users to be able to read and absorb everything in one sitting. You want them to bookmark the site and come back, so having enuogh of this high quality content is important.
Does your site fit the above guidelines? Have you seen any increase in users sticking around from social media sites?
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