A lot of people wonder how they can create a Breakout Blog that will help build platform and connect them to their audience. This series on Blogging Tips looks at ways to maximize blog performance so they can reach these goals.
People who know me know that I am big into sharing great writing content, helping to raise the profile of fellow bloggers/writers and utilizing social media to do both.
Why? Lots of people have helped me get to where I am, and I want to pay it forward. If I can do something to help another, I do my best to make it happen. (There isn’t anything special or amazing about this by the way–most people do this.) However, this type of community attitude IS what makes me feel privileged to call myself a writer!
But here’s the thing…sometimes sharing your content is DIFFICULT.
Rather than a single click to post your brilliant blog post to twitter and send more readers your way, I have to go through multiple steps.
What that looks like:
1) I read your blog post. I decide to share it. I look for a share button to twitter on your post….but there isn’t one.
2) I open a new window. I sign into Twitter.
3) I open another window to Bit.ly so I can shrink your URL into something Twitter friendly, leaving me room to describe what your blog post is about & title it.
4) I cut your URL, paste it to Bit.ly.
5) I copy the newly shortened URL.
6) I return to Twitter, paste the URL, add the title, commentary & a #hashtag and hit publish.
Compare that with having a share button on your post:
1) I read your blog post. I decide to share it. I find the share button and a window pops up with all the deets auto filled for me: URL, blog post title, etc.
2) I type in a #hashtag and hit publish.
I’ve talked before about making your blog easy to love. This is another one of those small ways you can really maximize opportunities to have your content shared. People are busy, and if it takes them too much time to try and share your content, they will move on to another blog.
Oh, did I mention adding a share button is incredibly EASY?
If you have a blogger blog, go to Design, then Blog Posts. Hit ‘edit’. Click the ‘Show Share Buttons‘ and save. WP has a ton of sharing options in Plug Ins.
Twitter is an amazing tool to network with other writers, and find great content to help you improve as a writer. If you have a blog, you should always be looking for ways to make it as user friendly as possible. This definitely means making your posts easy to share on Twitter.
FYI, I have two twitter accounts: @WriterThesaurus is for sharing amazing tools I find for writers, and @AngelaAckerman is for chit chat & sharing great blog content with my readers. If you tweet, please look me up!
Image: DemieHadji @ Pixabay
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Thanks so much, Anon! 🙂
I have never seen better than this site.
Great post!
Thank you, Angela. This is so helpful. I’m off to add a share button (hopefully) to my blog.
Oh, and about word verification, I loathe that thing. But once we took it off (after blogger had “improved” their spam filter) we got tons of spam posts. Word verification saves a lot of deleting.
Thanks for the tweet button link! Over at my crit group blog we were just discussing this this morning. Our share buttons (the blogger ones) aren’t showing for some reason.
Hi Angie. I found you via Linda O’Connell. She is not kidding comparing your blog to a gold mind. I am going to follow and come back soon to do more reading.
Thank you!
Great post! I just did it. I’d like to put a twitter follow button on my blog, but it always says that gadget isn’t working. Any ideas aroung that?
Oh, and I’ll add one more thing….it’s such a relief when I comment on a blog and the blogger has mercifully deleted the word verification tool.
I’m so glad you mentioned this! I want to share good information, and having the tweet button makes it so much easier. Thanks again for all you do.
Good info. now i have to go back and see if I have one of these buttons.
Have I mentioned lately how amazing you are?? Because you are! And FYI another great Twitter tool (not sure if it’s only for MAC stuff though) is Tweetdeck. It will automatically shorten your URLs. I hardly ever even hit the share button, just copy paste. 😀 And it keeps me organized!! I’m a Twitter addict in case you haven’t noticed. LOL
A wonderful blog!
Very useful advise. It bugs me when there’s no share button.
There are other widgets/add ins that can provide sharing opportunities.
If anyone is wondering how to do that on their WordPress blogs, I’d recommend the Sexy Bookmarks plugin. Very good.
Very useful information, thank you! I just incorporated your advice in both my blogs!
Angela, I thank you for following my blog. I feel like I stumbled upon a gold mine this morning. Your blog is truly a gift.
Angela, after reading this post, I did a long-needed overhaul of my blog. Since my posts wouldn’t show the share buttons, I added them at the top of the page under the heading.
I also found a better place for my Followers, so people don’t have to scroll down to see them. I now have a pageviews counter and a blogroll.
But now I have more ways for people to share my blog, so thank you!
Ah this is sound advice. I’m with Patti, a bit baffled by twittering as a concept, but I have a lot to learn with all this kind of media. I need to think more like you!
Twitter still baffles me, but if I ever get the hang of it, I’ll implement your advice.
The Firefox share bar is for your *server*, btw, not just certain sites. Forgot to clarify that. It will only be visible on *your* screen, across the top. And that’s why you can use it on ANYTHING. It’s much easier than trying to find the share button to all the sites you visit, especially if you’re like me and visit several different sites a day. That thing saves me a LOT of time.
If you have Firefox you can add a “share bar”, which I use daily.
All you do is hit the little “t” for twitter (the bar also includes other things like facebook and stumble upon, to name just two) and it opens twitter in a new tab so you can tweet whatever page you are on. It automatically includes a post title and shortened link in your tweet box. All you have to do is add your hashtags, adjust the tweet length if necessary (sometimes the post titles are too long), and then hit “tweet.”
It’s amazing. Better than the share button on blogger, in my opinion, because you can use it for ANY web page. Even YouTube. I love it. 😀
Aha! Great info. I think I have this on my blog but I’d better double check. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Have a great week,
Karen 🙂
I’m new to twitter… I think I’ve tweeted like four times ever, but I am starting to get into it and decided to take this advice to heart! Thanks =D
No idea if I did it properly, but it’s a start =P
I added these buttons last time you mentioned this, but it was on another computer that crashed and died, so I’m not sure if I used the site Angela mentions or something different.
I did a search and came up with http://sharethis.com. It looks pretty simple. Hope it helps.
Thanks for the advice. I put it to use today! 😉
Hi guys! So glad this tip helps most of you. For those experiencing difficulty getting an icon linked to your blog, you have a few choices. One is to simply put a sharing or twitter bar in your sidebar. You do this on blogger by adding a gadget, then selecting the HTML choice, and then cutting and pasting the code from the share site listed above that is provided (there will be an option that outlines the code is for an HTML addon to a blogger blog. For WordPress, I imagine the process is very similar–however you usually add on sidebar 3rd party links, you would add the HTML the same way.
Or, you can follow the directions to do a customizable HTML share bar that requires you to do some coding. Whenever playing with coding, I always recommend doing a back up of your blog first, or to have a ‘test blog’ where you can test before applying your real blog.
Here is a blog that offers a way to add the share bar with a custom Blogger toolbar, for example:
http://secrets-blogger.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-add-blogger-share-buttons-to.html
Bish, I messaged you, but no, you don’t need a twitter account to have your blog content shared on Twitter. It’s just for people who are on twitter (or other sharing sites like FB) to share your content easily. 🙂
Becca and Holly, just search around online for customizable share bars. You see lots of neat ones online. I’ve often messaged the blog owner asking where they found the code for a widget. 🙂
Glad this tip helps! We get a lot of references from Twitter. It’s a valuable asset to have a share bar, allowing you to better reach your readers.
Angela
Such a great tip. I would also love to see some options, to make the buttons more personalized, but oh well.
Hmmm, do I need to have a twitter account for me to have one of those share buttons that you can use in case you find something on my blog you simply MUST share? 🙂
Angela, I love your blogging tips!
Awesome tips as always! Thank you, Angela.
Great advice. I wish that the blogger buttons had a few options like being a bit larger or colorful.
Thanks so much for the advice! I originally left the share buttons off my blog because I thought, “Maybe it’ll look like I’m begging for attention.” But, you’re right, it is a pain to share a link by copying the url. Consider my blog changed. ^_^
Thanks, Angela. I have tried and tried to get the share buttons to show up at the bottom of my posts, but they just don’t. I just followed your link and added a Tweet button to my sidebar. 🙂
Thank you for the tip. I’m going to go do this on my blog.
Just went and fixed mine – thanks for the suggestion!
And now I added the ‘add this’ buttons. Looks awesome!
I always had the share it widget up there, the one that is built in to blogger, but thanks to your post I just went and checked, and it didn’t work!
I added a Tweet this button using the link you provided, so thanks Angela!
This is a great idea, but I have no idea how to do it on my Livejournal account. I did a search and now I’m wondering if it’s just not possible there.
Thanks for this post! I had no idea I could do that. 🙂
I don’t twitter or facebook so never really thought about it. I’ve now added the buttons in case it proves useful to others, will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.
thanks for the post,
mood
Moody Writing
Great tips!! What I have trouble with is putting a button that represents a site onto my wordpress account. I’ve tried everything to locate the place to do so but I can’t carry a button say from NanoWriMo onto my blog page. I’ve asked numerous people but don’t get an answer. Any ideas? Thanks for your time!!
I’m on WordPress but thankfully, my designer put an awesome and totaly easy way for people to share. It really makes all the difference for spreading it out easier. A must! :O)
Ha! I’ve always wondered how people got those buttons and now I know! Easy! Thanks!
I love when blogs have the share button. It makes it so easy! if not I try and find their tweet about their post and retweet that!
Read Angie’s blog and learn! Thanks Angie. Once again, you’ve helped an old dog with a new trick!
Unfortunately some blog designs refuse to let this happen, even though you’ve done all the steps. I’ve even tried adding the share button manually, but it still won’t work for either of my blogs. 😛
Great post and so true. I’ve found the same thing, on occasion. A friendly-user blog always brings on a smile. 🙂