Are you struggling with social media? Don’t feel alone. More businesses than you might imagine are eking by or have already quit in frustration. The companies that make it big with social networking are few and far between. That’s not a black mark against social media, but rather against the businesses using this platform the wrong way. One of the best options for improving your social media marketing and your branding efforts off of those sites is to tie your blog and social networks together. How do you do that and why should you bother?
Build It First
If you haven’t yet built a blog for your company, do this first. WordPress is the most popular option for a broad range of reasons, not the least of which is the incredible number of professionally designed WordPress templates available. Take your time and choose a theme that fits your industry and your business, and then customize it to your needs. It’s a relatively short process, and a quality theme will include all the documentation necessary to make installation and customization a breeze.
Make Your Content Shareable
Before we discuss actually connecting your blog and social media accounts, let’s address something a bit more pressing. That is, we need to discuss just how shareable your content actually is. This is one area where many business owner struggle. They seem to operate that anything they post should be shared like wildfire, but that’s not the case. Shareable content has several characteristics:
- Of interest to your readers
- Offers value to your readers
- Is original
- Is well written
- Offers unique insights
Creating content that fits the bill requires some time and effort (or outsourcing), but once you do it, you’ll find that your audience is much more likely to engage with you.
Add Sharing Buttons
If you haven’t yet added social media sharing buttons below each post on your blog, you could be the reason your content isn’t being shared. Don’t expect your readers to do everything themselves. With a simple WordPress plugin (available via Jetpack and through standalone plugins), you can give your readers the power to share your content easily.
Of course, you shouldn’t always leave sharing up to your audience. You should take the time to share your own content. Share links on Facebook, G+, Twitter and LinkedIn that lead back to your blog from the social network in question. This is an excellent way to bring in targeted traffic that you would otherwise miss, and if your content is interesting, they might stay and explore other parts of your site as well.
Go Beyond Social Networks
When you think of social media, what comes to mind first? Chances are good that you think of Facebook, Twitter, Linked In or G+. However, there’s much more to this world than the “big 4”. Don’t neglect social bookmarking sites, as these can be incredibly valuable resources for driving interest and traffic to your blog and other sites. Sites like Reddit and Delicious are powerful solutions for increasing interest in your online content, so make sure you’re allowing your readers to share content there, and link to your content on those sites as well.
Feeds and Like Buttons
As a final note, make sure that you make it clear to your blog readers and site visitors where they can find you in the world of social media. Put a Facebook like button and your Twitter feed in the sidebar of your site. Both of these can be done with a simple WordPress plugin, making it an easy process.
About author
Anny Solway is a dedicated writer at Theme Fuse – a leader in the premium WordPress themes area. She likes to discover new ideas about internet marketing, social media and blogging.
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