Top 5 Sticky Ideas for Your Website

The term sticky did seem odd to me first when I started having a closer connection with the web world! I thought, “What does the term sticky have to do with a website?” As I shrugged my shoulders, it was only a matter of a few days when I learnt the importance of this term. Look up on Word Web and one of the definitions would be, “Having the sticky properties of an adhesive.” Rightly so, there are elements that create the same effect for websites. For those who wish to know the other side of ‘stickiness for sites’, can read on for 5 sticky ideas for your websites!

Those who are still perplexed with this term: Stickiness for a website means the user is kept on the page for a longer time. The content and presentation should be embedded in the minds of the users!

Top 5 Sticky Ideas: Interaction is what you need

Many webmasters strive to add the stickiness factor to their websites. What you need here is social interaction on the page. A website that only contains graphics and content may attract users but may not make them return back to the websites. The need thus arises to create a kind of social interaction on the page. Here’s a look at some ideas that will help to bring about social interaction on websites.

Publish Authentic Content

Words and visuals go together. The content for the site should be authentic and appeal to all readers, precision and catchy headlines help!

For example: An article directory site that is interspersed with links is bound to drive away genuine readers. Articles that are published on many sites in one go also tend to put off readers, hence the requirement of authentic content.

Start a Forum

A forum is like a space where users can interact with each other. This peps up the overall look of a website.

For example: A product website that adds forums to its site will ensure that users interact with each other. In this manner, users can discuss the products, recommend stuff and perhaps even suggest areas for improvement.

Include a Poll

Another way to add to the stickiness of the website is to include a poll on the page. This increases the curiosity amongst the users to know what others users feel about the topic.

For example: If you have a news related website, you can highlight important points in the form of polls. By gathering opinions, users will actively participate and will always remain interested in the website.

Allow Special Users to Blog

A blog option helps to add to the stickiness factor. It keeps users on the page, besides, it even gives them the option to contribute and be active with the website.

For example: A fashion website can include a blog section wherein reputed names in the industry can contribute. This will add to the interest factor as fashionistas will enjoy returning back to the site to be up-to-date with the latest trends.

Resource Sharing

Provide a space for users to share, recommend links or share photographs. The idea of photo sharing or link sharing online will increase social interaction amongst users.

For example: A site dedicated to photography can include these options. Avid photographers can share their photographs with users and will spend more time on the web page.

These points listed in random order are only some of the many other points to add the stickiness factor to websites. Watch this space for more information!!

Increasing stickiness and engagement of website

When taking a stock of things that happened in 2008, I was thinking of few terms in Web world which have ruled the market. Some of the terms which came to my mind were mash-ups, web services, micro-blogging, social networking etc. A major challenge faced by every website in 2008 was to increase stickiness and engagement of the web site so that the user spends maximum time on web site.

There is a subtle difference between stickiness and engagement which makes a huge difference on how you design your web page. A fine balance must be struck between stickiness and engagement.

Stickiness concerns itself with keeping the user on the page whereas engagement has to do with keeping user involved in doing something. Most engagement tools (hyperlinks, buttons, blog links etc) actually drive the user away from the webpage, thus reducing stickiness. On the other hand stickiness enhancing tools (widgets, mash-ups, RSS feeds etc) end up in a one-way communication, eliminating engagement.

Below is a graph which shows Engagement vs. Stickiness.

Websites which are designed for Content Syndication is an example of high stickiness, but low engagement.

iGoogle / Gaming websites are a good example of website which has high engagement but low stickiness.

When we write an article and just provide few related references of other articles/websites, has neither engagement nor stickiness.

The right way to make a web page interactive is to provide both engagement and stickiness. Hence, to provide high engagement and stickiness to your web page, it should be embedded with social interaction. TeemingPod is a great way to embed social interactions in any web page. To know the process of embedding TeemingPod in your web page, click here.

Increasing Social Interaction in a Blog Using TeemingPod

As blogging evolves, one natural trend that is emerging strongly is making your blog more social. It becomes less of something to simply read, and more of a community destination in which to interact.

TeemingPod is a platform that helps you embed powerful social interactions right inside any web page, such as your blog. It provides a space on the blog for readers to do things together. It enables users to poll, debate, ask questions, leave useful links and perform group search. The idea is to bring community features to life on your blog and to stimulate social interaction.

The process for adding TeemingPod to your blog is quick and easy. TeemingPod provides a small code snippet which you can drop in your blog page easily.

Depending on how you want to control access to social interactions on your blog, TeemingPod provides two options.

TeemingPod provides public pods where blog readers can contribute to the pod with a “Guest” identity.

TeemingPod also supports private pods where user can login to the pod using her/his TeemingPod login, if she/he is a member of that pod.

Blogger has moderation rights for the pod to remove unwanted content. This keeps the social collaboration space clean and free of unwanted clutter. Blogger can also extract data from TeemingPod to a simple text file for further reference.

TeemingPod adds all the Web2.0 sizzle to any web page in no time, and your blog is no exception. This in turn increases stickiness and engagement of your blog. To read an interesting post on the tradeoffs between stickiness and engagement, do read our next article on this blog.