Know-How Exchange : Social Media

Dear Brad,

The key to your question is visibility. If you’re familiar with web page heat maps (and if you’re not, here’s a source: www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html)

If you look at the images on the page on the link, do you see that third image on the right? Notice the wee red blob on the EXTREME right?

That’s a point of visibility, a point where the eye rests.

Where the eye rests, some visual element has registered.
When there's no visual registration and whatever’s there on
the page might as well be invisible.

There is other evidence to suggest that the best place for social media links, opt-in forms, in fact, for ANY visual element you want to draw attention to, that the best place is in the top right hand corner.

For some reason the eye is drawn there, almost magnetically.

As if by magic!

I have the results of a study where no other element on a Webpage was been changed, not the copy, not the images, NOTHING, just the placement of an opt-in box in the location I’ve just mentioned and it’s almost as if a wizard had muttered the word “Shazzam!”

Result?

Opt in rates sky rocketed. I’m more than willing to share this report if you contact me off forum.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

P.S. Again, I have a free report that outlines ten top tips to help increase conversions. You’ll find my e-mail address by clicking on may name at the top of this post. Or, DM me via Twitter www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer

Very useful and detailed answers from Gray (who's always great) and karen, but I'm not sure they go to the heart of your question. If I understand it correctly, you are concerned that the success of your social media links may be pulling people away from your home page before they spend enough time there to follow a link to actually buying something. Friends are great, but paying customers are better (ideally they are one in the same).

To me, your answer lies in testing. One of the greatest benefits of the web to a marketer is that you can run effective A/B tests in very little time and make real-time adjustments based your results.

I have used a solution called WebSideStory, now owned by Omniture https://www.omniture.com/en/ . It will let you see where your web sites visitors come from, how much time they spend on your home page, where they move to when they leave, and so much more.

This product, and other ones like it, will allow you to see if your concerns are valid. If a large number of people are coming to your homepage and then moving away, using one of your social media links, in just a few seconds (and not coming back), then yes, you are hurting yourself with the success of your social media push. Bottom line, these programs are great at letting you measure conversion rates.

Gary's heat maps and that field of study are valuable. They will help you make better educated guesses. Then you need the analytics and real world results from your unique web site to confirm you are making the right decisions and driving the maximum ROI from your efforts.

Best of Luck, JohnnyB.
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