Social media has become a ubiquitous internet structure. It's no longer a separate entity, but it's woven itself into every aspect of the web. For businesses, creating a successful website means considering the impact of social media. Consumers are used to constant connectivity on every channel, and as a result, social media trends are influencing every website.

As a designer, considering the impact of social media can deliver a more well-rounded design fit to encompass all web-based interactions. The tremendous presence of online social media in your web design will offer a better connection with consumers, readers, and followers. Web designers should be aware of just a few of the ways that social media has influenced web design for good.

The Total Need for Responsive Design

With the ease and convenience of accessing social media on smartphones nowadays, it's important to consider responsive web design for all websites. According to a June 2015 survey, Facebook has an average of 844 million mobile daily active users.

This means that if companies want people to visit their websites through social media, their websites must be optimized for mobile use. If a consumer wants to click on a link, they're not likely to put down their phone and go to a desktop to open the link. They're more likely to forget about it and your brand entirely. Gaining website conversions through social media means making the web design totally responsive.

Visuals Are Replacing Text

It's not that text is disappearing because it's still a highly lucrative way to attract followers. It's just that social media has conditioned consumers to expect visuals in multiple forms with every site they visit.

In the past, simple infographics and high-quality images could attract consumer attention with ease, but right now, videos and memes are taking over as the most attractive visual for consumers. Incorporate these into your web design, and then use them in a social setting to cross-promote your brand.

Revolves Around Backlinks

Companies rely on backlinking to gain customers through social media. For that reason, your website must be optimized to handle the influx of customers. It should be well designed with landing pages expecting visitors that click on targeted social posts.

In addition, websites should be designed to link to social media, whether through blog posts or a specific landing page devoted to that purpose. Cross-promotion is essential for leads and conversions, and both social media and your web design must have a strong link.

Social Icons Are a Must

Nowadays, social media has become so important to surviving as a company, that websites are only as successful as the shares they receive, making social media icons a staple in website design. They should be incorporated on multiple pages to make it easy for customers to share your pages instantly on their profiles.

When it comes to incorporating these icons into a great web design, add them in a way that's noticeable, but non-intrusive. Many websites will have icons blocking important content as the user scrolls, which is annoying, to say the least. Keep the function without sacrificing the benefit of your design.

Interactive Design Became Popular

Every social platform is filled to the brim with interactive content. For that reason, customers have come to expect that kind of interesting and engaging content in everything they do.

Successful websites will design with the intent of engaging the audience through artful displays. The kinds of interaction they seek include comment features, videos, other visuals, and one- on-one interaction. These features are necessary for excelling in both web design and social media page design, and can be incorporated on landing pages, blogs, "About Us" pages, and contact pages.

Storytelling Structure

One of the main reasons that people spend 28 percent of their online time on social media is to keep tabs on the stories of other people's lives. They like to look through photographs, celebrate important life moments, and even engage a little in daily drama. People don't read books anymore, so scrolling through social media is their daily story fix.

The same is expected from your website. The storytelling aspect of social media has conditioned users to only engage with online media when the story is present and interesting. Website design needs a story as well if you want comments, visitors, and conversions.

User-Generated Content Is King

Everything on social media is user-generated, and it's very successful at generating content between readers. Consumers trust user-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing more than any other marketing tactics, and this is a tool that can be harnessed on a website.

It would be foolish to ignore the benefits of user-generated content on your website. When working on the overall design, instead of hiring a copywriter to write all of the copy, replace some with reviews, testimonials, and other customer comments. Adding a comment box at the end of blog posts is also a great way to generate a customer's voice, just as long as the comments are filtered for offensive or negative comments.

Nowadays, there's no convention on the internet that doesn't have some kind of impact on web design. Everyday users are looking for interconnectivity, and the best way to deliver is to make your website reflect the social media experience. With the right plan, hearty research in the social media field, and a little skill, you can turn your website into one that easily integrates with other forms of media.