Make Things Easy for Your Blog Readers by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Lots of people feel pressured to build their online platform and they jump head first into blogging without really planning for their target audience and the kind of content they will provide their blog readers. Therefore, they aren't sure which plugins would best help them utilize their efforts across multiple social media platforms. That's okay. Many of us learn best by doing--the old fashion trial and error.

However, today I want to discuss some basic blogging tips regardless of what kind of blog you have. These tips will make it easier on your blog readers to share and promote the great content you're putting out there. It's easy and may already be something you're implementing, but if not, I hope this helps.

Insert Social Media Buttons in Every Post
If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's the small buttons at the end of every post that allows readers to click Gmail and email the post to friends, or click the F button and post on the Facebook wall, and so forth. They need to be present either before each post or after each post. Small, but not overbearing. Here is an image of what I'm talking about on Hartline's blog. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

To insert this feature on Blogger, go to Design. Now go to the section where your blog posts are and click the edit button. See below.

A small window will pop open, titled Configure Blog Posts. All you need to do is check the box next to the Show Share Buttons option. Once you set this configuration, all the social media buttons shown in the image below will automatically appear with each blog post you write and you won't have to worry about it anymore. See the image below.

Wordpress has their own options for social media plugins, but if you have a different blog that you host directly from your website, there are a few options out there that you might want to consider. One that I personally prefer since I've used it and it is easy to install and uninstall, is www.addthis.com. It allows you to add the social media buttons for each blog post and it also provides analytical reports for each click where someone shares your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc. It's another option in addition to Google's analytic tools. I've switched to Google, but not because I didn't like this feature, there were more options I wanted with my blog stats that Google provides.

Have you used these features either on your blog or to share with others on other blogs? Do you find them helpful?