If you spend a lot of time reading the latest blogs posts and news sites you will have noticed the proliferation of social sharing widgets that are available. Choosing the right one for your own blog or website will increase the likelihood that your content gets shared and talked about. One of my favorite sharing widgets is the one used by the
top social media blog Mashable.
Find out how to install a similar one on your blog
What I like most about it is that it stays on the side of the page when viewers scroll down the post, which means no matter where they are reading, if they decide it’s worth sharing they can. This is important considering the average attention span of most web users is around 3 seconds.
Another reason for choosing this particular style is that since I know Mashable have been using it for over a year it’s probably working well. It’s also common on a lot of other sites which means the added familiarity will mean your audience will be much more likely to use it.
After a lot of searching I found a simple WordPress plugin that replicates the look and feel of the Mashable plugin and I made a quick tutorial to show you how you can install it on your own blog.
As you scroll down the post the widget stays in place which means its always visible on the page increasing the liklihood of people sharing
The plugin we are going to use is called “Twitter, Facebook Like, Google Plus One Social Share“
To add a WordPress plugin to your website login to your WordPress admin dashboard and select plugins on the left hands side
Click on “Add New”
Enter “Twitter Facebook Social Share”in the search box and install
Install the plugin and activate it
Now under Settings select TF Social Share
You can now configure the plugin, select what social media sites you want displayed and where you want it to show up on your blog
You can configure how the left side floating option will be shown
You can also adjust the width and size of the social media buttons to match your blog design
By default the share box displays above each blog post
If you want it to show on the left side of the post you need to alter the position setting
You can select where on the screen you want it to display
So now the plugin is activated and showing in the correct place all you now need to do is send some traffic and encourage people to share your content
No matter what type of plugin or widget you use it’s important to ask people to share your content and give them a good reason why. Better yet ask them to make a comment too.
Here are a few ideas to get you started…
- What do you think about this article?
- If you enjoyed this article please share with your friends
- Spread the love…Share this with your friends
- Have any comments? Your feedback is valuable
- How has this affected you in your business?
- Do you agree? if not leave a comment below
- Please join the debate – your opinion is important
- Help me get this information out to as many people as possible by sharing this post
- Improve your karma by sharing this post
- I know some of you may disagree with me; I’d love to get your feedback
- Don’t share this post
- Is this information useful to you, let me know in the comments below
- What other subjects would you like me to write about; leave a comment and share
- If you are a regular reader help me grow my community by sharing this post
- If you have any questions leave them in the comments below
- You know your friends will enjoy this so why not share this post with them?
- Yes or No – do you agree with this post?
- Click “Like” if this has helped you in any way
- How many of these XXX are you familiar with?
I hope this will encourage you start to engaging your audience more effectively and get you the exposure you deserve. I look forward to your comments.
To your success
