We’ve all used it at one point in our life: social media! It’s even so popular that we use it for 2,5 hours a day1, and we have an account in 8 different social media networks2. Still, as an organization, you might find it difficult to catch your audience’s attention and engage with them. A social wall can help you do just that! Collect posts from multiple social media channels in one centralized place on your website, intranet, online portal, digital signage, or any other application, and create brand engagement, build a community and increase conversions. How? That’s what you’ll find out in this blog!
Discover the social wall:
“Let your customers tell your stories”
What is a social wall?
A social wall is a collection of posts (text, photo, and video) of the different social media channels that come together in one place. These posts can be from one account with multiple social media or posts from numerous users about the same topic. For the latter, we use a specific hashtag (#) or location and is very useful during events or to show visitors what customers, other visitors, and users think of your organization.
On a social wall, you can show posts of several channels. For example:
- YouTube
- Tumblr
- Your own input
After you’ve connected your channels, you can add posts manually, choose specific accounts or hashtags to add automatically or receive suggestions in your inbox to moderate. Next, choose between different themes, layouts, colors, backgrounds, and more to design the social wall to your taste and add your corporate identity.
Why a social wall?
You probably want to know why you should use a social wall. Of course, it depends on what you want to use it for, but you can use a social wall to achieve multiple goals:
User-generated marketing
A social wall allows you to show your users’ experiences and opinions to visitors of your website, business location, or event. You can use these experiences to advertise your brand for free. Use a social wall to prominently show these experiences and invite other people to share their experiences too. That’s how your brand gets free word-of-mouth marketing and, therefore, more online exposure.
Brand engagement
When you show users’ experiences prominently, the chances are that more users will also use this opportunity. Besides, users and visitors who see their post on your website or will most likely post another update during an event. That’s how you keep your users engaged with your brand.
Build a community
Allow visitors to get to know each other through your social wall. Let them share pictures, ask questions and start a conversation so you build trust while actively engaging in their discussions. There isn’t a better way to make a community and increase your following.
“A strong online community leads to more engaged customers”
More conversions
Because you show what other users think of your brand, you immediately create proof of how great your products are. As new visitors see others’ experiences, they are more likely to also make a purchase. And that’s how your social wall creates social proof, which leads to more conversions.
Where to use a social wall?
As you might have noticed, you can use a social wall for multiple occasions. Below, we’ll give you a few examples:
A social wall during events
There are two ways you can use a social wall during events:
- As a thank you to the speakers and sponsors by showing their content
- To engage with your audience by showing content for a specific hashtag
You can use the latter as advanced as you want to: use a giant screen to show the entire social wall, show posts on top of videos, or combine the social wall with sponsored content. By showing a social wall during events, you invite your visitors to post something while immediately rewarding them by showing their content on the big screen. Besides, you can use the social wall to allow your audience to answer questions and polls you ask them during the event. That’s how you create real-time interaction with your audience while creating online exposure for your event.
A social wall on your website
Want to generate more conversions? That’s what a social wall on your website can help you with! By sharing the experiences your users have with your products, new visitors get an impression of how amazing your products are. As a result, you immediately generate social proof, so you increase your chances of turning new visitors into customers.
Besides showing your customers’ posts, you can also show your own social posts on your website, so visitors see the newest updates immediately. Or allow your employees to tell their stories and let them show how great it is to work at your company. These updates will attract more interesting applicants to your company while inviting employees to share their experiences.
You decide where you want to show your social wall: your home page or a dedicated page. VVV Ameland, for example, shows a collection of photos of Ameland on their homepage, their own pictures on their photo page, and a social wall with lighthouse pictures on their lighthouse page.
A social wall on digital signage
Show the social wall on your digital signage screens at work, cafes and restaurants, or within your store. It’s great for your employees to see what work looks like in other business locations worldwide. Or show your visitors and customers how great your company is.
Of course, you can also use the digital signage screens to show your customers’ social media. So visitors of your store, restaurant or stay can see other people’s experiences and get inspiration from it.
A social wall for intranet and online portal
You can also use a social wall for internal communication. For example, show a social wall on your intranet or partner portal and build a community with colleagues, dealers, or resellers from all over the world.
Or allow your customers to build a community within your client portal and let them ask each other questions and share information and their enthusiasm about upcoming events and products.
The shoppable social wall for e-commerce
To convert visitors that viewed your social wall, you can turn your social wall into a shoppable one! Say goodbye to those ‘boring’ product photos with a white background and hello to unique user-generated content. The ‘shop the look’ feature allows you to tag products within photos, so users can click the image and go straight to the product page to buy it. Social shopping helps you increase your sales, build social proof, inspire how to mix and match your product and create unique shopping experiences. Social wall provider Flowbox even saw a 66% return on ad spend, an 18% higher conversion rate, and a 12% increase in sales3.
As you’ve read, a social wall is the perfect way to increase brand engagement, generate more conversions, and build a community while spending less. The pictures you use are, after all, content that your customers create and share freely. The only thing left to do for you is making great products and services, so you keep your fan base and expand it.
Ready to create your social wall? Contact us! Together we look at the different options and find out which one best suits your needs. Want to take a look at our customers? At Sterc, we also have a social wall to put our customers in the spotlight. You can view it here!
