Social Media: Make Your Posts Shareable

Do you dream of writing a viral post? Imagine creating a social media surge where your post is shared widely on Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon and many other social sites.

There is one small thing you need to have in place to make that dream come true:

A share bar.

Yes. Quite simply, if you want your readers to share your posts, you need to offer them an easy way to do it.

For example, research shows websites that display Twitter sharing buttons are linked to on Twitter nearly seven times more often than sites that do not display tweet buttons.

There are many different share bar plugins.

 

How to choose a share bar

 

There are some questions you need to ask when choosing a share bar:

  • Is it a floating share bar?
    Some share bars float at the side of the text so that the reader can always see them. This can be intrusive.
  • Are there many placement options?
    You want to have the option of placing the share bar at the top, at the bottom, or both at the top and bottom of a post.
  • Which social media can be chosen?
    It’s important that you should be able to choose the particular social media sites that fit your blog.
  • Can the look be modified?
    If you want to make sure the share bar is in line with your blog’s overall look, it’s important to be able to customize the way the share bar looks.

 

A share bar that ticks all the boxes

 

One share bar plugin that can be customized is called Twitter Facebook Social Share.

Here is a short run-down on how to customize it.

 

Step 1: Search for the plugin

In the Dashboard, click on Plugins and then on Add new.

Install the Plugin.

 

 

Step 2: Customize the plugin

Click on Settings and find TF Social Share in the drop-down list.

Here is the Options pane:

 

As you can see above, you can choose a fair range of share buttons. You can also choose the position of the share bar, as well as whether it has a round or straight border. Use the Color Picker on this website to choose other background colors.

In the next set of options, you can also determine whether it will appear as a floating or fixed bar, and how the buttons are spaced:

 

The options shown above generated this share bar on WritetoDone.com:

Other popular share bars

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Get Social

 

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As you can see, there are many different share bars out there. If you are unsure which one to choose, start with Twitter Facebook Social Share because of its ease of use and many configuration options.

 

Author: A-List Team