A lot of business owners these days wonder what all the fuss is about and if and why they should bother to convert their business site into a social hub. At the risk of sounding rude, if you’re from an older generation you might have a harder time understanding what on earth the point is, after all, if they want your service they’ll come to you right?

The fact of the matter is that brand loyalty is becoming a big thing so even if you perform a better service at a lower price, if your competitor is a more entertaining host and actually communicates with their clients in a social manner – those clients will keep returning to them and not you. Corporate entities are quickly learning to become social entities as well because consumers want to see their suppliers taking an active interest in them now, and if you’re not engaging them then you can bet that more and more will take their business next door.

So how do you make the switch and convert your business site into a social hub, show your human side and yet maintain your professional appearance? Here are a few pointers.

• Create social profiles for your company

The first logical step is to hit LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +, Twitter and anything else that catches your eye and create a profile for your company. From here you can start to turn your company into a social entity and release comments which could include special offers, competitions or anything else you can think of. One word of caution though, don’t simply send update after update about your specials – although this can also be done the idea is to be interesting socially as well.

• Add social media buttons to your home page

This might strike you as a silly idea since you’d, in effect, potentially be leading prospective customers away from your site, but in modern times this has been weighed against gaining social media fans who will go out and spread the word about your site and link their social profiles back to your website. In short, you’re taking a minor gamble with a far higher potential gain and you can always arrange that a click on your social buttons simply opens that link in a new tab, rather than closing your site.

• Create a Blog

Your company blog should be linked to your site but you can use it to post interesting articles which relate to your industry. These should be pieces which you think people might want to share or even comment on themselves. Creating conversations creates interest, not just in your industry but in your company specifically. Whether you choose to use Posterous, Tumblr or WordPress, they’re all great and will serve you well for next to nothing, or simply at no cost. If your company site tends to be fairly static and lacking new content then posting links to your blog is a good way to get people coming back as well.

These are simply a few basic pointers to get you started if you’re feeling a touch lost. There are literally dozens of other major things you can do (like adding videos to your site) but those might be better left for a time when you’ve gotten the hang of the basics. For now, get excited and get your brand name out there – the rewards are limitless.

Warren Kings is an online content writer who specialises in writing articles about adobe training and mircosoft office courses for various Photography and designers websites.