Favorite Ways To MASH Wordpress + Social Networks?
WHAT DO YOU DO TO SMASH NETWORKS INTO WEBSITES LIKE A SUPERCONDUCTING SUPER COLLIDER!?!
Do you have a favorite example of great Site+Network integration?
Do you have a favorite example of great Site+Network integration?
HERRO! (scooby-doo voice)
So I am looking at a ton of different ways to mash social networks INTO websites. It just seems fun to me. I will show you some things I have seen and what I think is pretty cool and I would also love to hear your feedback.
So, the top networks I care about when I am talking about smashing are:
- Google+
- YouTube
I have used a few WordPress plugins for Facebook, and I really have not found anything mind blowing in terms of FB/WP plugins. What do I mean by Mind Blowing? I want a plugin that makes everything that could possibly mirror on Facebook be an option on my site AND IT CANT BE COMPLICATED TO OPERATE! Lord I know there is a plugin that does this but it's also a college degree to operate.
More importantly though, I like seeing the amount of people from Facebook who also are doing what I am doing on a website. Facebook offers a very subtle and very powerful authority to a site when it's integrated the right way. Do you agree? What do you like to see people do on a website when they connect Facebook to their website...?
ON Google+:
Do you use Google+ yet? Have you ignored it? I have been getting more and more into Google+ as time goes... I have found ways to pull material from your Google+ profile or page into your website, but what I want is a way to push blog posts from a website onto Google+...
I like the circles on G+ now. I like the business pages which are now Google Places combined with Google+ Pages. I like the Communities. I also really like Google Hangout which integrates into YouTube now. More on that in the YouTube section. Do you have a favorite or tricky tip in getting Google+ integrated into a site? Please spill it
ON YouTube:
OK so do you think YouTube even IS a social network? I do. I didn't used to. So many companies are trying to come out with players that add function and control I think the basic embedding of YouTube videos has probably taken a hit to some degree. I think YouTube should offer a paid player that allows people to embed and redirect after a view... that'd be kinda cool.
So I am using Google Hangouts now and it's kinda like Skype. I think it's not as fully operational as it seems to appear but I really like the direction it's going. You can add stuff to your site that starts a Google Hangout right from your website. What other fun YouTube SMASH into website tricks impress you?
ON Twitter:
OK this is my weakest position. I am not a Twitter addict and I never really tried to make relationships from Twitter connections. Sometimes stuff just sideswipes you. Here is what I think about Twitter. If I was setting up a business TWITTER would be my customer support. I want people to get that kind of instant reaction and instant answer from me. What do you think? Am I just way off?
How do you see the best way to smash Twitter into a website? Does the widget in the sidebar that auto updates tweets impress you? Do you see tweets in content updating? Does THAT impress you? What's the coolest way you know of that people have smashed Twitter into a website?
ON Pinterest:
I LOVE PINTEREST! I really didn't get it at first though. I looked at it like a stray dog who probably needed some food but I wasn't sure if I was gonna go feed it. They initially allowed pirate RSS feeds from Profiles and boards but they cut that off and now you can find a Pinterest RSS plugin for Wordpress that puts a widget in your sidebar that you can hook to one of your walls.
I used this on a clients site and he added pins that were ultra colorful to that wall and it made his site look 10x better. Made people stay longer. Decreased bounce rates. Increased site rank because of that. VERY cool! So what have you seen that just kills it using Pinterest? Show us all your warrior tech...
ON LinkedIn:
Why. Why Linkedin... I don't know. They seem to me to be the slow kid at the back of the school room. I have not found much of any way to integrate LinkedIn into a website other than to screen capture images and assemble what looks cool to me into a site while hyperlinking the images.
There is certainly a lot of potential. There is a lot of value in LinkedIn. I just haven't seen anything that impressed me where SMASHING it into a site is concerned.
In the end I am wanting to collect with you guys the coolest examples of social network smashing tech. This will be good for all of us because we can see some evolving ideas.
So. What do you think?
