Sunday 22 September 2013

Integrating Social Media with a WordPress Blog

While most web designers, online marketers, and other people in the tech industry know just how influential social media can be, the average web design or online marketing client may not realize that this is a valuable resource. Even people who are aware of the vast audiences that can be reached through social media often do not know where to start or how to optimize this opportunity. When executed correctly, social media pages can drive a lot of profitable traffic to a company website.


Engaging New and Current Customers


Social Media and BloggingAny successful entrepreneur will tell you that it is just as important to keep existing customers interested than it is to attract new customers, if not more important. Social media provides ample opportunities to accomplish both of these goals as it allows businesses to interact with consumers on a personal level.


Businesses and/or bloggers can engage and attract readers simply by following them on Twitter, commenting on Facebook posts, or partaking in any other type of social media activity. Simply by providing informative or promotional updates on social media, websites can remind audiences that they exist, and provide links that will direct traffic to the site. It could hardly be any simpler.


Modifications to Make to the WordPress Blog Itself


The good news is that premium WordPress themes make it very simple and easy to add and modify features in order to increase social media activity. The first step is to make sure that all of your important content and blog posts can easily be saved as bookmarks using sites such as StumbleUpon or Digg. This simple act alone can have a positive affect on search engine rankings.


Explaining social bookmarking sites to clients can be accomplished very easily. Using these websites is fairly similar to adding a webpage to the bookmarks section within your browser; only the process is actually made easier. If a blog post has a Digg or StumbleUpon button attached, the reader can click the button in order to mark the page to be read or referred to later. The social bookmarking site saves the information in very organized favorites lists. These websites also make it very easy for users to share and recommend interesting pages.


Adding Social Media Sharing Buttons to the Blog


Speaking of having readers share information, it is also important to add social media sharing buttons to the blog posts. Like the social bookmarking buttons, the social media buttons put users one click away from sharing content with their networks. There is a very simple WordPress widget, called the Social Media Widget, available that makes it possible to add and customize which social media icons will be displayed on your blog posts. It is important to target only a few major social media platforms, as too many icons will cause your post to appear too cluttered and overwhelming.


Incorporating Other WordPress Social Media Related Widgets


Along with widgets to enable sharing buttons, WordPress also enables users to display live feeds from Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts. Having these feeds displayed stylishly within the WordPress theme can be a great way to introduce your visitors to your social networking pages.


Create a YouTube Page


The biggest trend in online marketing right now is certainly the web video. Many businesses are embracing this trend by starting a YouTube channel that contains promotional and informational videos, often introducing and explaining new products. This YouTube channel, or particular videos, can be embedded within the web content or used as part of blog posts in order to keep visitors interested and to increase search engine optimization.


About the author
Anny Solway is a dedicated writer at ThemeFuse – a web studio that creates original WordPress templates, that can be used out of the box. She loves to share blogging and technology tips.

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