Online marketers usually consider three areas when developing an online presence: headlines, strategies for your content marketing, and quality of your content. And while these are especially important, you shouldn’t forget about another important component when promoting your business online: blog design.
How you design your blog significantly impacts how many social shares you get. Below are 11 ways to ensure that your blog is designed with the techniques needed to make it both social media-friendly and effective.
1. Use more than one network…
When it comes to social networking, the big three include Facebook, Twitter, and Google+; however, these networks aren’t the only effective ones you should include in your blog’s share buttons. Try other outlets too, such as Reddit, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon—and make sure to include numerous buttons that will let your readers share your posts on more than one network.
2. …but not too many!
Okay, I know I just mentioned using numerous share buttons, but when it comes to the number of buttons you develop for various networks, you should not overdo it. In particular, don’t use old, unused, and unknown sites like MySpace, Topsy, Yahoo! Buzz and others, as they aren’t likely to be effective. If your blog contains a ton of share buttons, users may become confused and will be unable to choose which one to use; this increases the likelihood that they will not do any sharing at all.
3. Make sure your social sharing buttons are prominent.
Whatever buttons you decide to include, make sure your readers can see them. This is a basic tenet of online promotion that some people still don’t comprehend. When I read blogs with excellent content but no obviously placed social sharing icons, it makes me realize how important this is—and how little many business owners know about social sharing buttons. So make your buttons noticeable and prominent! Don’t stick them underneath an author bio or a post; instead, try placing them under your blog title or above the comments section.
4. Make sure the buttons stand out from the background.
Try to either darken or lighten the blog's background; this way, when you make your share buttons more brightly colored, they will be more noticeable right from the start.
5. Make your buttons hoverable.
Share buttons that change color when you hover over them with your mouse are extremely effective. Not only is this an attractive feature, but it also encourages interaction. In other words, making your buttons hoverable increases the chance that they will be clicked on.
6. Be sticky.
One of my favorite examples of a share button plugin is Digg Digg’s sticky bar display. When the reader scrolls down on a Digg Digg blog, the bar with the buttons does, too. This means that a reader’s peripheral view will always have the bar in it, and they’ll have a continuous prompt for sharing the post.
7. Show numbers.
It can be a good idea to include numbers next to your share buttons—namely, how many people have already shared that specific content. This can be effective because it gives the readers social proof that others have also shared the post, which makes them more likely to do so themselves. Of course, there is also a downside to showing numbers, especially if there are no—or very low—statistics for you to show. So use your best judgment when it comes to including them.
8. Social “follow” buttons.
Most of us use social share buttons when designing our blogs; however, let’s talk about the online social “follow” buttons. Though often ignored by bloggers, these buttons can produce positive results—because when a logged in user clicks on them, they become an automatic “follower” of the site, which means you can use this to your advantage for all of your social marketing needs.
9. Make sure your posts have embedded Tweets in them.
Twitter lets you take a blog post and embed a Tweet into it, and it accomplishes this simply and quickly. Anyone with a Twitter account can then either reply to it, retweet it, or favorite it directly from the blog post itself.
10. Images that can be pinned.
Since its humble beginnings, the image-centered website known as Pinterest has grown dramatically in recent years. Pinterest now has 70 million users, and, according to Expanded Ramblings, women make up 80% of them. Whether your blog post has one or twenty images, make them easy to pin; in this way, you’ll be tapping into that large collection of users to make things better for your own site.
11. Last not but least, make sure your blog design is attractive.
Okay, this is yet another basic tip, but keep in mind that if your blog design is not attractive and appealing, its readers will be less inclined to want their social media followers to take a look at it.
For blogs to work properly and produce results, they must look attractive and be functional at all times. Providing an easy way for your readers to share your blog on social media networks is an excellent way to take advantage of all that social media has to offer your business.
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