A few weeks ago I conducted a webinar entitled, “How to Social Media Optimize Your Website”, where I provided a short list of ideas for enhancing websites by making them more social media friendly:

1. Let your website visitors share and bookmark your content with “add-this” www.addthis.com or “share this” www.sharethis.com
2. Build transparency and the human element into your website with videos, photo sharing and profiles of your team, customers profiles, video case studies and/or product reviews
3. Add unique RSS feeds from your social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs in categories that align to your website’s content, and open your thought-leadership content like white papers and articles up for discussion on those networks
4. Build gateways into your social networks like hub pages and newsrooms, and add persistent links out to social networks on every page of your website
5. Implement a CMS system with modules or extensions that allow for 2-way communication, so that your website can become a place where a community of your team and can interact with comments and content sharing

This webinar was “Session Three” of a three-part series presented jointly with OneSource, “The Social Media for B2B Demand Generation Webinar Series”. If you’re interested in watching recorded versions of any of these webinars, they are available at this microsite under the “Sessions” tab.

Shortly following the last webinar, we sent out a survey to gauge participants’ readiness or progress in adopting social media optimization on their website. 50 people completed the survey.  Based on their interest in attending the webinar to begin with, it’s no surprise that most participants were already convinced of the value of social media for increasing brand engagement and driving new leads and sales. The majority, however, had not yet acted upon this conviction by making their website a catalyst for social networks and social media activities. Detailed survey results are available for download here.

It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to discuss website optimization in light of the social web, a subject that I’m exploring almost every day with clients who want to stay ahead of the curve in their Internet Marketing efforts. Thanks to everyone who attended, and especially to those who participated in the survey. If you’d like to discuss any of the subject matter of the webinar, or any related ideas, I’m very interested in continuing the conversation.