Step 7: Set up social sharing (Internet word of mouth)

This is part of the series ‘Step-by-step guide to getting started as a food blogger’.

Step 7: Set up social sharing (Internet word of mouth)

As Gary Vaynerchuck says in his book ‘Crush It’ (which is well worth reading by the way), word of mouth is the most powerful selling tool there is. On the Internet, word of mouth can spread further and faster and in more languages than conventional media can – and it can do it at zero cost.

To aid word of mouth, you should make it very quick and easy for visitors of your blog to share your content with others, whether it is with their friends, family or social networks.

Sharing via a Button

Buttons can be added to a blog to allow users to quickly and easily share the page (or content within the page) with other people, or broadcast it to their followers in a chosen social service.

Some of the most popular methods sharing content are:

• E-mail
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Print

E-mail

Everyone (almost everyone!) has an e-mail account, so there should always be an option to share using this medium.

Also, e-mail distribution lists are perhaps the best way to engage with visitors on a regular basis, as e-mails are more likely to be read than Facebook messages, tweets and RSS. Therefore, if you set up an e-mail sharing option, you should include within the e-mail that gets sent, a link to a sign-up page for your blog’s e-mail distribution list.

Facebook

Facebook can have multiple states for sharing:

Facebook ‘like’

When a visitor on your blog clicks ‘like’:

• A message is posted on their Facebook wall (which all their friends can see) to say that they like your page
• The visitor will be prompted to (optionally) post an additional message about the page/site on their Facebook wall

Facebook 'send'

Twitter

Twitter is great for sharing links. From a website they can be sent in 2 formats:

Tweets

Tweets – The 140 character message will contain someone’s Twitter username, plus a URL (usually shortened) to the blog post.

The message will then be sent to that person, but will be viewable by anyone on the Internet (assuming the user account is not private).

Retweets

Retweets will be in the format: RT @<blog_twitter_address> <message>

This will ‘broadcast’ the tweet to all of the followers of the person tweeting. It will not be aimed at an individual. It will also be publicly viewable by anyone on the Internet (assuming the user account is not private).

Google +1

When a user selects the Google +1 button, the content doesn’t get sent to a particular person, instead it gets highlighted in their Google+ profile, plus it ‘adds weight’ to it in search engine social rankings (see below for details).

Google +1’s also get saved to your Google account and you can share them, so they are viewable by everyone, or keep them private.

Print

The good old-fashioned method of printing something out and handing it to people shouldn’t be discounted. Especially with regards to recipes (which often get printed for use in the kitchen anyway).

The print format should differ from your screen format. That is, it should not include any menus, unnecessary images or other items that shouldn’t appear in paper format.

Search Engine Social Rankings

Large search engines such as Bing and Google now let you link your account with social accounts (e.g. sites such as Facebook and Twitter). The search engines then know who your friends are and give you personalised search results which are ‘weighted/influenced’ by what you friends have shared or ‘liked’ via those accounts. They also know that word of mouth (or friend recommendations) is the best recommendation that you can get!

Creating the Sharing Functionality

Creating the functionality that I have discussed is quite easy. Your blogging platform might have the functionality built in, or might have plug-ins available.

You can look at these links for more information:

• AddThis – a good resource for virtually any method of sharing (including Facebook and Twitter). It also monitors the statistics so you can see which social media streams are working best for you
• Facebook – guides and code samples for adding Facebook to your blog (including 'like' and 'send')
• Google +1 – lets you create a customised Google +1 button
• Twitter – explains how to add the Tweet Button to your blog

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