Even if you’re not trying to “go viral,” a WordPress site without social media presence probably won’t go very far. Having regular blog posts and RSS subscription options is great, but gone are most visitors get to your site via social media. You don’t even need millions of followers to be successful, but if you’re the only one reading your site’s information, there’s no way to get the word out.
Social media may have changed the way information on the internet gets to its users, but WordPress plugins can help distribute your site’s information to the channels that are the best fits for your target audience. The list of plugins and tips below will help spread the word about your site’s information to the right people.
Find the right social media plugin types for you
Each WordPress site’s a little different, but how they distribute their content usually falls into a handful of social media categories. Depending on the size of your audience and how frequently they use social media, you may need only one or two plugins of a certain type. Regardless of which you choose, make sure each has a strong user track record and releases updates regularly!
While not exhaustive, most break down into the following categories:
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Automated poster
These plugins schedule dates and times for a social media post and are widely used across industries. You could have it automatically share information about a new product or even recycle older posts from your site that didn’t get shared on Facebook or Twitter previously.
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Sharing buttons
You’ve probably seen these — small social media images linking to a site’s SM channels. They show customers that your site has more direct audience engagement, allowing them to follow your updates on the platform of their choice.
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On-site Social Media Feed
This shows your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter posts directly on the site. They essentially add previews of what your official social media pages look like without taking viewers off-site.
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On-site Comments via Social Media
The built-in WordPress comments section has no social media involvement. If a visitor responds to your post, nothing gets displayed to show other users to post their own responses. But with a social media plugin like Heateor, Facebook comments can be seen right on your blog, getting word about your site out a lot quicker.
Optimize your social media use
Amidst the plethora of social media tools and strategies available, it’s often hard to nail down which ones work best for a particular business or site without some help. We’ve compiled some strategies and plugins that help you figure out just what’s working and how for your site’s social media footprint.
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Track your follower growth
Some posts and platforms might be working better, which probably means you have a stronger audience appeal in one channel vs another. The variables in content types, post timing, and whether certain social media influencers are part of your audience can get tricky, but the FollowerWonk plugin helps streamline user data by breaking those trends down into visual chunks.
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Curate social media content
This is where you, in part, decide how much original and re-posted content need the desires of your brand’s audience. It’s probably helpful to have about 25% of your social media content be news from elsewhere and others’ social media posts that are still relevant to your readership. Juicer and Flipboard are well known content curation tools to help get you started and keep you organized.
