New 'Social' widget coming

G'day - we get a few questions asking about how leagues and clubs should go about promoting their social websites, such as links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Firstly, its great to have a social presence as a footy club (for example) if you want to drive your members to news and events on your home website.  Feeding links into Facebook News Feeds or a Twitter stream doesn't lessen the need for people to visit your site, its quite the opposite.  What you're trying to do is publicise (actually socialise) your site in a way that is fairly non-intrusive and get your members and fans clicking through.  Also, social links do not display your full articles, so don't be scared to give it a crack - especially if you're an organisation that has a lot of good news, events and stats as the basis of your communication (e.g. a sports club!).

OK - so, how do you link it up through your SportingPulse Website?

Its pretty simple at present, and we have a goal to make it easier again in the next release of our SportingPulse Websites in late Jan 2011.

1/ Activate a new 'Sponsor Information' widget - and rename it to 'Follow us', 'Follow the X footy club' (etc) - i.e. personalise the name.
2/ Use the 'tagline' to say 'Like us on Facebook' for your Facebook page (!), or Follow us on Twitter...
3/ Upload a photo of the Social Network logo where the sponsor logo would generally reside
...and, you have your link to social pages set up.

Test site - links to social networks as sponsor widgets

Now - if you have a fan page on Facebook, another simple way to promote this page is by using the 'Like badge' - http://www.facebook.com/badges/ (Facebook also have a series of social buttons to choose from - http://developers.facebook.com/plugins/?footer=1)

1/ Activate a 'Noticeboard' widget in the widget manager and rename to 'Like us on Facebook'
Simply go to the 'like badge' at the link above, cut and paste in the link to your noticeboard (don't click the HTML box), and your like box should appear on your site.

Test site - like badge link using Noticeboard widget

We are building a 'social' widget that will make it easier again to activate links to your social networks, but these examples are simple and effective.

And again - having a presence in social networks will enhance your ability to connect with your fans and followers.  Good luck.