Currently, it’s hard to think of a site more influential than Facebook. Google, Twitter, and YouTube are all in the mix, to be sure, but Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla of social media. As such, it seems more important than ever to have a presence there, both personal and professional.
One additional tool in your arsenal is one that you can place on your WordPress blog (and probably elsewhere, too, but since I’m familiar with WordPress, I’ll stick to what I know).
I’m referring to the “Share” button that you see on many WordPress posts these days. If you aren’t using it, you’re simply cheating yourself out of some potentially valuable exposure. Why not allow your readers to share your content with their friends? In the old days (read: pre-social media days), business owners would die for this kind of word-of-mouth advertising! Now it can be accomplished with a single click, along with a description (e.g. “Check out this interesting article I just found about nose hair!”).
The only equivalent that I can think of in the analog world would be for someone to call all of his/her friends to mention your post. Once the info is shared, it appears on the user’s wall as an endorsement that your post was worth reading.
The plugin itself is extremely easy to install in mere seconds. You can customize the location within your posts, too. On our blog here, you can see this button above the post and to the right. Feel free to use it liberally anytime you come here to read. 🙂 Along with the TweetMeme button, which is basically a “Share” for Twitter users, the Facebook Share feature is a must-have for bloggers.
But what about the “Like” button, Jason? Well, I think it’s handy, too, but I appreciate the “Share” feature even more, since it provides a deeper level of detail about the post, rather than just a link.
If you have any questions about the Facebook Share button or any other WordPress plugin which you’ve heard about or seen, we would love the opportunity to help. Ask away!
Thanks for reading!
Jason,
Thanks for sharing this… I agree with you, about the analogy of someone calling a friend up and telling them about your post.. or maybe e-mailing it. But all they have to do is click the like button. I am going to have this installed on our new outside post for Mortgage Myth Busters. Also, is installing the tweet button easy? thanks, jeff
Jeff- Both of the plugins are actually really easy to install and could be done in probably under 2 minutes. You can just search for them in plugins & install in seconds with the auto install.