Social shares are important due to many different reasons. We do not need to highlight why that is the case since you are surely already aware of that. It is enough to say that sharing will bring in more traffic to your website. This is enough of a benefit to show you why you need to do all that you can in order to increase share rates.
We cannot guarantee an increase in percentages as we cannot tell you that these tips will make your visitors share your content by 50% or more. However, it is a guarantee that you will see share increases when you follow the advice offered below.
Include Mobile Social Sharing
Around 30% of all website traffic is mobile and this is expected to grow in the future. It might be a lot more at the time you read these lines. The problem is that many of the social sharing icons will not work when trying to click them with the use of mobile devices. There are even situation in which they do not appear.
Different plugins are available at the moment, especially for WordPress users. Make sure that you implement one and that it works on a mobile device. It might not seem that important for many but as time passes, you will reap the benefits of having a site that works really well on mobile devices.
Extra tip: When social sharing buttons do not work on a mobile device there may be other elements that are also not working properly.
Use Social Sharing In Emails
Email subscribers are a wonderful source of practically anything, including social sharing. They are your subscribers so they are committed. This means that they are much more likely to share content but you still need to make that as easy as you can. There are many emails that give you the possibility of becoming a Facebook fan or following an account on Twitter. Do the same!
Extra tip: If your current emailing system does not make it easy for you to embed sharing buttons, try Mail Chimp.
Offer Incentives For Social Shares
In the event that you offer a guide, an ebook, a report or whatever piece of content that people want, ask for a share instead of a registration to a newsletter. You can actually use both but offer different content. This form of “payment” is quite popular at the moment and it is highly effective. Many options are available and you have to be sure that you test them to see exactly what works best on your site.
Use Fewer Social Sharing Icons
In the event you do not get enough shares, you can always try this option. There are many marketers that just use social sharing buttons for Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook. You can try that and see how it goes. Even if you want to offer many options, keep in mind that too many is always a bad idea when referring to anything. Just use the most important once and neglect or join the others.
These four tips are quite effective and you should not dismiss them before trying to see what results are offered. We are sure you will be happy with the increase in social shares and that is what you wanted, right?
