Did you ever wonder why social media share buttons are so popular on large websites and virtually never get clicked on a smaller website? Surprisingly the answer is not in how they look, but in the way that they are coded. Believe it or not, vast majority of social buttons aren’t programmed right. Lack of popularity at your blog could have started with your website developer, or a poor theme that was chosen.
When a social share button is pressed, it should open up a special sharing screen that is specific to the social platform that user selected and the content should already be pre-populated. A user would be able to click twice to painlessly share an article or a blog post. That’s how all of the up-to-date high budget websites have it setup.
Majority of smaller, inexpensive websites have serious issues when it comes to social sharing features. Majority of pre-built themes only link to a company’s generic social page which has nothing to do with article or blog sharing. When website is released with such poor functionality, often customers don’t question how social sharing supposed to work and simply assume that those icons are there to simply let people know that they also have a social account.
If a website has a blog, it is critical to have properly functioning social share icons. WHY? You might ask. You’ll be surprised to learn that they are there primarily for you as a business owner to save time and money! Yes you heard me right. Properly functioning social share buttons on your blogs are there to save you time and money, and the secondary benefit is that an occasional visitor might read an article and decide to share it.
Here is how social media share buttons really work:
First off we need to redefine their purpose. So the purpose of social media share buttons is to allow you to quickly share your content across multiple platforms without having to manually create a new post every time. You simply write an article, post it in your website’s blog and then go crazy sharing it across social media by simply hitting share icons one at a time. This setup will cut your time you’d usually take to share new content 10 fold, and it allows you to maintain your social accounts in good standing. This in turn allow your social platforms to grow and generate additional sales.
Another interesting item happens when you share it on social media through share icons on your website and that is the shared article links directly to your website. So now you are taking visitors from social media to your website!
When a visitor is on your website they would be more inclined to explore additional services that you are offering, and they might just order your product. Make sure to include information about yourself at the end of every article. For example, here how I would do it:
“If you feel like your website could use a minor update to social media code in order to make your business way more productive and profitable, then I’ll be looking forward to your email or call. To reach me you can submit contact form or call Peter at 717-543-8020”
