Blogs tend to have it easy when it comes to socializing. They have a comments area where visitors can add their words of wisdom; bloggers can reply; and the whole gets to see the interaction. Web pages, on the other hand, don’t have it so easy – at least that is what most website owners think.
A sites web design can include social interaction options. These may be a simple email communication with the most pertinent being published on the site. The more comments published, positive and negative, the more feedback you are likely to receive. Using email to gather feedback is a little backward these days. Visitors are often looking for more.
At the other end of the scale is a forum. These are easy to set up and although easy to run, can be time consuming. There can often be a little hesitation from visitors as well. Forums indicate commitment, more clicks to access, and more time to leave messages. Forums can be includes as a part of a sites web design fairly easily. There are a lot of free forum packages around – several are included with Fantastico if your host provides it.
Other forms of two communications include guest books, again a little outdated and because of that, often ignored by visitors.
You can include one of the many proprietary packages that allow for commenting in a similar way to blogs. There are also packages that provide and instant messaging type interface. These can be useful if you have someone on hand to respond.
In todays web 2.0 worlds; there is no need to be without a social marketing interaction feature of some description. Visitors like to read what others have said – humans are curious about the opinions of others by nature. Provide that resource, keep them on your pages just a little longer, and start to interact with them. The simple act of replying to a comment humanizes the visitor’s experience, a key factor in most users’ assessment of credibility. I your web design ready?
socialising is an important aspect of web design now, interesting how the web is ever changing!