Many businesses may wonder why their Facebook or Twitter profiles don’t seem to be growing like they should. At first, they may seek to blame the employee or consultant that is responsible for updating and maintaining the profiles. However, before putting blame on the social media content provider, it may be time to look at the company’s website, especially the blog, to see what can be done to increase awareness and exposure of the company’s social media website.
In the sidebar, footer, or main page of a company’s website, they should have a Facebook Like Box, as well as a Twitter widget. For the blog, the sidebar is the best place for these engagement boxes. They allow visitors to instantly connect with the brand’s social media profiles without ever having to actually go to the external sites. This can help drive growth for the social media profiles instantly.
Besides making sure that visitors are aware of the company’s social media profiles, they should also be making their blog content more shareable by adding sharing widgets or plugins to each blog post. If a site is hosted on WordPress, great free sharing plugins include Shareable and Sharebar. For other websites, try AddtoAny.com or AddThis.com. These plugins and widgets are all free, and can greatly increase your company’s social exposure online.
Sharing content socially shouldn’t always be the visitor’s responsibility. The company can set up automatic posting of a new blog post, news piece, or any other content onto the social media profiles when they are posted on a blog or site that has an RSS feed. TwitterFeed.com is a good resource to do this, especially since they allow sharing on Facebook Pages, not just profiles. Be sure that your automatic posts include a photo preview when shared on Facebook– this instantly gives them more visibility and makes the content more eye-catching to the user.
For original or linkbait blog content, be sure to also make sure that posts are shared via social bookmarking sites, which can make them viral in a short amount of time. However, only use social bookmarking for truly original content, such as “The 12 Top Mosh Pit Photos of All Time” instead of “Greg’s Hardware Store Now Open.” Social bookmarking users aren’t interested in self-promotional posts.
Encompassing social media site widgets, sharing plugins, and a social bookmarking strategy into your overall social media strategy can help ensure growth and continued success.