Do You Use Social Book Marking / Sharing Plug-ins?

Would you like to have SEVEN times! more people read your blog or visit your website?
Yes?  So, how do you get folks to share your posts or website content online?  Make it easy for them to share what you have written with their social networks, so that others can discover your content – and forward it to their followers and friends, and these also forward it to their friends and followers …. You get the idea!

The best way to start this process is to include click-able buttons to offer the idea of sharing front and center, and make it incredibly simple for your readers to post your link to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or other social networks.
Some Social Book Marking Plug-ins even measure your content’s impact across social streams by displaying traffic and audience data generated from sharing tools, search, Facebook Like buttons, Tweet buttons, browser address bar sharing and more places.  Learn which social networks, geographies and influencers drive the most sharing for you.

See the best 10 Social Sharing Plug-ins on Web Designer Depot’s site:

WordPress Users
Add Twitter, Facebook Like, Google+ Social share… This WordPress plugin for Twitter, Facebook, Google +1 (plus one) and other social shares can add the share box before post contents, after and also floating on the left side of your post. Display all popular social sharing buttons including a counter, such as Twitter, Buffer, Facebook Share, Facebook Like, Digg, LinkedIn, Google +1, Reddit, dZone, TweetMeme, Topsy, Yahoo Buzz, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Sphinn, Designbump, WebBlend, BlogEngage and Serpd, Pinterest.

Visitors, who find your blog content valuable, can link it with one click to their Google+, Twitter and Facebook site.  Very easy for your visitors: They do not need to write the post manually – and for you it is a great publicity! Your post might even go viral!

Download it for free.
How to install it on your blog can be found on their WordPress site or use Digg Digg, which is one of the most popular sharing plug-ins for WordPress blogs with over 330,000 downloads to date. It adds a nice floating bar to your blog:

Those are not the only ones: there are many Social Bookmarking options available for WordPress. The idea is to find the plugin that best fits into the theme and style of your site.  “Share this” for sample is an unobtrusive way for your visitors to post your site content to various social bookmarking sites, or send a link via e-mail & other communication channels (like Facebook and MySpace) to a friend.

Adding a floating sharing bar with Digg Digg, just like Mashable does for example, can have a huge impact for any blog.  Some great research from BrightEdge showed that more visible sharing buttons will increase the number of shares your posts get. This might seem quite obvious. Yet the real impact is easily underestimated. Get your site more exposure and traffic: an info graphic shows that blogs and websites with a Twitter button, will get 7 times more shares than sites without! 

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Hyper Smash

 

Why Are You on Social Media? To Give or Take?

Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Chime.In, Tumblr, Reddit, Squidoo, LinkedIn… 

I network with lots of people online, and the ones that keep me coming back consistently offer something interesting, something helpful, and an overall positive, fun tone. Your own “brand” or reputation as we said in the good old days, is something that must be lovingly built, one post at a time and then carefully maintained. Its value is priceless.

There is a huge selection of social media sites to spend time online. If you want to keep your readers engaged with you, nurture your relationships with them through what you choose to share online, and respond to them.  Consider how your actions reflect on your author status in regards to your work. Make valuable contributions and allow yourself to shine by putting your work and your reputation always in the best light.

What doesn’t work?
Talking at people and not with them, and making it all about you.  Being repetitive and only shouting about where people can buy your books, your latest review, your book blurbs, etc., over and over again.  People will just tune you out if that’s all you offer.  Why should they return if you sing the same old tune time after time? Keep it fresh and develop your online personality into something that would keep you coming back if the tables were turned.

Be generous and engage with people
It actually shouldn’t be all about you.  I know a lot of authors who see every online post as a golden opportunity to sell a book.  However, people like those who help them and who give of themselves freely.  We all rely on others to various degrees. Therefore, use your online presence to benefit more than just yourself.  Pay it forward.  Not only does it feel really good, but it will foster loyalty and warmth.  Pass along the word about books you like or want to read, interesting authors, news items or tips that you think will help others, and a variety of other items that add value in different ways.

You will also find others much more willing to help you and get the word out about your work if you are generous and help them, too.  Do a good turn for someone else and always acknowledge how others have helped you. Show gratitude, and reciprocate good deeds.  Have a generous spirit and people will gravitate towards you.

As an author, you write for yourself, but also to entertain and move other people in some way.  Before every post consider, what’s in it for them?   Your writing success depends on more than simple sales.  Engage and intrigue and people will happily come back.
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Hyper Smash