Last year we released the results of a study which analysed the social media activity of the 2010 Deloitte Fast Tech 50 – a list of the UK’s 50 fastest growing technology companies.

It found that most are missing out on the potential of social media by not being social and failing to use these new channels to engage with their audiences. For example, only 31% of brands with a Facebook account used it to engage with users and, of those that used Twitter, only 14% of tweets were replies and retweets. When it came to the companies that had a blog, only 20% received comments and only one company took the trouble to reply to comments received.

You can download the full report here – it’s filled with best practice advice and tips, some of which we want to pull out and share on the blog over the next few weeks. To kick off, here are ten tips on how to use your website homepage as part of your social media PR strategy:

1. Provide prominent links – clearly advertise social network accounts on every page
2. Explain what customers will be getting if they join your social network – for example, something like: “for regular service updates, follow us on Twitter”
3. Keep social network links at the top of your webpage – or at least further up the page so they don’t get missed. By your telephone number is a good place; after all, it’s just another way to get in touch
4. Use social network logos – they are instantly recognisable and take up less space
5. Add your blog to your site navigation bar – if you have a navigation bar on your website, add your blog as one of the tabs
6. Put your latest blog posts on your homepage – encourage visitors to visit your blog by pulling in your latest post on the homepage or even featuring relevant posts throughout the site
7. Feed in your latest tweet or status update on your homepage – this gives your website a real-time and dynamic appearance while demonstrating that you regularly update content and that it’s worth visiting again
8. Include links to your social media profiles on your contact page – if you are advertising your phone number and email, why not your Twitter or Facebook details too?
9. Add staff social media profiles – do you have a ‘staff’ page on your website? Add their social media profiles alongside telephone numbers or email addresses
10. Add ‘Like’, ‘tweet this’ or +1 links – adding these will encourage visitors to share website content with like-minded peers on social networks

You can download the full report here and do get in touch if you’d like to pick our brains on how to build a social media programme into your technology PR campaign.