The Social Side of WordPress – Part 2 WPCP: 044

Social Side of WordPress

After I started writing the first post on ‘The Social Side of WordPress‘ I realized there was no way I was going to cover it in one post, so here we are again. Part 2 (and who knows, maybe there will be a part 3… let’s see how this one goes). I’ll be the first one to admit that my social media efforts have been less than consistent until a few months ago. I always shared my content when I wrote new posts or published a new podcast episode, but I can’t say that I was really great about engaging.

All of that has changed.

And it’s been AWESOME!

My decision was sort of organic in a conscious way (does that even make sense? 🙂 ). I started doing some Facebook advertising last fall and then helped a coaching client with her ads as well. I realized that the more activity and engagement I had on my page the better it was for my ads (kinda makes sense, huh?). The beauty of all of this is that on one hand it was a strategy and on the other hand it has created some amazing relationships.

I knew if I was going to increase my engagement I had to do it as MYSELF.

I would find things that I thought were helpful, funny, and inspiring and share them in a way that supported who I am and what kind of business I’m building.

What I wouldn’t do was just share my own stuff along with a handful of friends or big names.

I LOVE finding unique and cool things that will help my audience as well as asking a question or starting a conversation. The BEST thing about this is that people have taken the time to tell me they appreciate what I’m sharing and have noticed the increased engagement.

Excellent.

I had an interaction on twitter recently that made me realize it was time to go a little deeper with the social side of WordPress. I think I tweeted something I was looking at (an analytics tool for measuring social engagement, I think… don’t totally remember) and someone responded with a question as to whether or not sharing on Facebook for business was icky. It was a genuine question and I responded with a genuine answer.

I simply said that I had noticed the connection and increased engagement since I stepped up my activity on my Facebook page (when I see it in writing it seems so obvious, doesn’t it?). The thing is… I used to feel the same way. Until I realized that if I’m not going to promote my own content I can hardly expect other people to promote it, right?
AND…

People are more inclined to share your content when they know who you are and trust you.  (click to tweet)

I know, I know. Nothing new.

Yet it’s still something people struggle with.

O.K., I have yet to talk about WordPress… so let’s shift gears here.

It all begins with your WordPress Sitesocial-wordpress

EVERYTHING you do should be doing get people back to your site and engaged with you and your brand, which is why you want to make sure that everything you do socially is congruent with what is on your site. And I don’t mean just your branding.

Your Voice and Your Message.

Who you are on your site is who you should be socially.

Personally, I’m pretty much the same person everywhere. Who you see online is who I am in my personal life (of course I have a more private side, but you wouldn’t meet me and wonder if I was the same person you saw online. Just the thought of being one way online and one way offline is exhausting).

This is the ONLY way you’re going to succeed.

Let’s start with the fundamentals.

Social Sharing plugins

I’ve tried a bunch of social sharing plugins and written posts about them as well. Now it comes down to:
– what it looks like (of course)
– is it lightweight (doesn’t slow my site down)
– easy to use
– doesn’t get in the way of content
– doesn’t automatically add a zillion social sites I’ve never heard of

What I’m using now:

Floating Social bar (this sits above the post and scrolls with the post, which you can turn off if you want – this is currently not activated because I’m testing something else and there was a conflict)

Add this

I’ll probably add back in the Pinit plugin so when you hover over my images in my posts a ‘Pin it’ button appears. I had this installed and removed it because of a conflict (this was a while ago, definitely time to give it a go again).

Links to Your Social Profiles

Yep, you should have links to all your social profiles (at least the sites you’re active on) on your site. Don’t make people dig for these and don’t have them conflict with your primary call to action (like I’m doing on this site.. haha, which I’m changing when I change my theme). I’d rather get people on my mailing list when they first find my site as opposed to having them click away to connect on social media (and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this impacts your bounce rate too… any SEO peeps want to chime in here?).

Beyond Fundamentals

I have a few widgets embedded on my site from a few of my profiles:

– Facebook

– Twitter

– Google+

I haven’t tracked whether or not these widgets are doing much for me (although I think the Facebook Like box probably does and possibly the Google+ since they’re both in my primary sidebar), but I have to question whether or not they deserve the ‘real estate’ they have right now. My guess is probably not? Note to self: start measuring!

Install, set up, and USE WordPress SEO by Yoast.

There are social settings that will connect your accounts and allow you to set up default images for posting (think when other people share your content or if you’re using a 3rd party tool).

Is Your Content Shareable?

This seems like it should be TOTALLY obvious, but for some reason, it’s not. I get a little bummed when I find great content and there aren’t any good images to share, which then means I have to make my own. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t bother and move on, which is a bummer but I wouldn’t get any work done if I spent the day creating images for other people’s content.

But I’m not just talking about images.

Does your content provide value or connection – in one way or another?

And here’s something to think about:

– Are you creating content for your audience or your peers?

– What social network do you spend the most time on? Are you engaging with peers or your target market? (mind you I’m not saying it has to be one or the other, just food for thought)

Some Advanced ideas

Track & measure (which really isn’t advanced, but I get that we can only do one thing at a time)

Advertise

Retargeting

Leveraging your relationships and audience

Mixing the personal with the professional (note I didn’t say private… I’m not one for airing dirty laundry on my social sites)

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Let me know what’s working for you socially – with your WordPress site!

Don’t forget!

Sign up for the Bloom Your Audience Challenge

Links from this episode

Add this

Floating Social Bar

Pinit button

The Millionaire Master Plan

Wealth Dynamics Test

Bloom Your Audience Challenge

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