In a relatively short period of time, social media has managed to transform the way we communicate, inform, advertise, entertain and do business online. These seemingly innocuous networking hubs have become powerful, cheap and effective means for entrepreneurs to reach out to their market and be closer to them than ever. This is the main reason why entrepreneurs are scrambling to capitalize on this new medium and boost their business forward.
Those who have not yet tried to harness the power of this growing medium will soon be left behind in the race towards faster, more effective engagement with the consumer. After all, social media are here to stay. Catching up and outperforming the competition ultimately means making good use of every available business trick and tool to gain a bigger share of the market and keep more customers in the long run.
Speaking of tricks, the good news is that social media are not just a one-off thing that functions in isolation from your other branding and PR strategies. For those companies and entrepreneurs who maintain their own WordPress blogs, social media can actually be a good way to increase site visits and encourage greater feedback.
What better way to do this than to use social media to promote your site and/or link back to it, right? WordPress brings together all the different social media accounts under your belt and helps your site visitors share your content quickly and in real-time. Here are ten of the best social media plug-ins you can use to optimize your interaction with your fans and readers:
1. Gravity Forms: Want to make it easy for your readers to shoot you an order form or request for project quote? Gravity Forms eliminates the hassle of having to type in your code for different types of custom forms. Just copy the short line of code that corresponds to the form number into the html section of WordPress editor, and you have an easy-to-fill-out form on your blog.
2. Share This : this plug-in takes the word “integration” to a whole new level by enabling your readers to instantly share and post your content on more than 50 different social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. If you want to reach people across various types of platforms, be sure to include this plug-in to your blog and watch your content make its rounds in social media networks.
3. Digg This: if you want a plug-in that lets you customize the size of the share button and its location on your page, Digg is the right one for you. Digg can considerably increase your site traffic more than any other social media, as it allows readers to easily share content in top 20 social networks.
4. Sociable: it’s no small wonder why Sociable is a favorite among WordPress bloggers. For one thing, it puts all the buttons to a number of bookmarking sites on every page of your blog, making it easy for readers to vote for you. To top it off, you can choose what buttons you want to include so you can target the bookmarking sites that matter most.
5. Wbiya toolbar: make your blog more fun and interactive with this plug-in that functions as a toolbar at the bottom of your site. While your readers go through your posts, they can monitor the activity on their Facebook and Twitter accounts without leaving your site altogether.
6. WP Super Cache: handling the traffic to your site doesn’t always mean that you have to save up for a server with a bigger memory. WP Super Cache delivers pages without accessing your database and basically lightening the load of your server.
7. Twitter Counter: let your site visitors know how much the Tweeple love you by including a Twitter Counter. This cute button can be placed in any widget and proudly shows readers how many Twitter followers you have in real time.
8. Facebook Like Button: possibly the single hottest and most powerful social network today, Facebook is definitely at the top of the list of every entrepreneur who wants to make life online so much easier. Make it easy for readers to like your posts by including the small thumbs-up button.
9. Tweet Meme Retweet button: encourage your site visitors to retweet your content and spread the word by including this button on your site. No more copy-pasting URLs for your readers means hassle-free sharing.
10. Add to any Bookmark: your site visitors can have a favorite bookmarking site they like to use, so give them the freedom to take note of your site with any bookmark using this button.
Before you go all-out on revamping your WordPress blog to include these plug-ins, remember that great content is still what attracts your readers to the site. Don’t get carried away building your social media base and neglect your content.
Cathy is part of the team that manages Personal Loan Finder , a complimentary credit card comparison service and a personal finance blog based in Sydney, Australia. Before she joined PLF, she was a staff nurse at Clark Airbase Hospital and conducted lectures on First Aid, Bio-terrorism and Disaster Management.
