Getting Started on Social Media Marketing

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Is Social Media Right For Your Business?

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A few years ago many people still saw social media as a fad, and rightfully so, it wasn’t completely established as a quality marketing medium. However, the adoption rates by companies’ marketing efforts are rising and so are the amount of time consumers and other businesses are spending online.

So, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/4-reasons-why-you-must-use-social-media-do-it-and-increase-your-revenue/" target="_blank">is social media right for your business? The simple answer is yes.

Here’s why…

Benefits of Social Media

Minimal cost – Because social media is based (mostly) on free platforms, the only resource you need is time. When compared to the cost of other mediums (TV, print, PPC), the cost is minimal.

Established expertise –By sharing your knowledge of the industry you work in via social media, your end users will begin to see you as an expert and will more quickly develop the trust necessary to do business with you.

Online Reputation Management & Customer Service – People will talk about your brand whether you are online or not. If you want to monitor what people are saying, you simply need to be connected. Social media can serve as reinforcement to your brand’s evangelists and also serve as a way for you to reconcile to your brand adversaries.

Competitive research – You are able to quickly and easily see not only what your competitors are doing, but how the market is responding to them.

Word of Mouth/Creating a Buzz – Social media users love to be the first ones sharing about a new product, idea, situation, etc. They are active on social media because they want to be part of the buzz. By sharing your news on social media you can allow your following (fans, friends, connections, etc.) to spread the word about the product.

Instant Feedback – Not only to social media users love sharing new brands with their friends, they also love to let the brand know what they like don’t like. If you aren’t sure how your audience feels about a specific idea, ask them!

Connect on an international level – Because social media is global in nature and many people connect with a wide geographical variety of people, the buzz about your product can quickly spread internationally.

Build relationships – Marketing communications is no longer one sided. Social media opens the opportunity to converse and build relationships with your following.

Lead Generation – This increase in ability to build relationships will likely generate more leads.

Increase traffic to your website & SEO – Not only do the links and content you post via social media increase your sites’ traffic, they can also benefit your SEO efforts. Unfortunately, some of the biggest networks (Facebook, Twitter) don’t do much for SEO, but platforms such as Flickr, Digg, YouTube, and many others can greatly increase your search result rankings.

More accessible – The more ways an individual can find out a business, the more reputable you will appear.

Direct access to specific niches – As social media became more popular, organizations began creating ways for specific niches to build online communities. There are many unique networks that are highly trafficked by individuals with similar interests (href="http://www.convertiv.com/niche-social-networking-sites/" target="_blank">here’s a list of some of the popular ones).

The benefits of social media are only increasing as the current networks are improved and new ideas and networks are brought into the shuffle. To avoid this marketing opportunity could be very detrimental to the success and sustainability of your business.

Case Studies: How Social Media Impact Businesses

Because a social media strategy is dependent on the industry you are in and the audience you are trying to service, I have compiled links to a wide variety of case studies for you to check out.

1. title="Permanent Link to Pink Ponies: The World’s Best Case Study Video" href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/pink-ponies-the-worlds-best-case-study-video/" target="_blank">Pink Ponies: The World’s Best Case Study Video
2. href="http://www.casestudiesonline.com/disneystep" target="_blank">Disney (Step Up 2 The Streets)
3. title="Permanent Link to NOKIA: The8N8 Twitter Campaign" href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/nokia-the8n8-twitter-campaign/" target="_blank">NOKIA: The8N8 Twitter Campaign
4. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/archive-2008/yahoos-yodel-anecdotal-read-co/" target="_blank">Yahoo!’s Yodel Anecdotal: Read. Comment. Repeat.
5. href="http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2008/03/21/case-study-how-to-blatantly-advertise-through-social-media-%E2%80%A6-and-get-away-with-it/" target="_blank">H&R Block Friends Stressed Out Taxed Americans
6. title="Permanent Link to Cannes Cyber Lions: The Winning Case Studies" href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/cannes-cyber-lions-the-winning-case-studies/" target="_blank">Cannes Cyber Lions: The Winning Case Studies
7. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/create-pass-along-tools-or-objects/reintroducing-tv-guide-through/" target="_blank">Re-introducing TV Guide Through Online WOM
8. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/work-with-social-networks/einstein-bros-bagels-gives-bac/" target="_blank">Einstein Bros. Bagels Gives Back to Fans With Bagels and Shmear
9. title="Permanent Link to Sony Ericsson XperimentsCase Study" href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/sony-ericsson-xperiments-case-study/" target="_blank">Sony Ericsson Xperiments Case Study
10. href="http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/29/case-study-how-sony-leveraged-a-popular-vampire-facebook-widget-to-reach-its-community/" target="_blank">Sony drives approximately 11,000,000 million
11. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/2010-wommy-winners/the-marmarati/" target="_blank">TheMarmarati
12. href="http://geofflivingston.com/2011/09/21/online-collaboration-a-b2b-case-study-from-cbanc/" target="_blank">Online Collaboration: A B2B Case Study from cbanc
13. title="Permanent Link to Volkswagen Fox: Twitter Zoom Campaign" href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/volkswagen-fox-twitter-zoom-campaign/" target="_blank">Volkswagen Fox: Twitter Zoom Campaign
14. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/work-with-social-networks/kohls-inspires-colorful-momtom/" target="_blank">Kohl’s Inspires Colorful Mom-to-Mom Conversation on CafeMom
15. title="Permanent Link to Lacta Chocolate: Facebook Campaign Case Study" href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/lacta-chocolate-facebook-campaign-case-study/" target="_blank">Lacta Chocolate: Facebook Campaign Case Study
16. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/preproduct-launch-marketing/why-cirque-du-soleil-loves-wor/" target="_blank">Why Cirque Du Soleil LOVES Word of Mouth for Pre-Show Awareness
17. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/2010-wommy-winners/building-momentum-through-soci/" target="_blank">Eloqua: Building Momentum through Social Sharing and Content Giveaways
18. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/work-with-consumer-generated-media/curating-the-long-tail-purinas/" target="_blank">Curating the Long Tail – Purina’s Pet Charts
19. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/work-with-online-video/msl-gets-students-buzzing-abou/" target="_blank">MS&L Gets Students Buzzing About Its NY Intern Challenge
20. href="http://www.womma.org/casestudy/examples/create-a-viral-campaign/klondike/" target="_blank">Klondike

Know of any other case studies, want to share your own, or have a comment? Share it with us!

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Tips For Effective Social Media Posting

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Social media is a crucial tool for promoting your business online.

Whatever kind of business you have, the different social media platforms available give you a variety of captive audiences who might be interested in your products and services. For that audience to stay captive, however, you need to provide social media content that’s valuable and effective for your business. Providing the right kind of content to your fans and followers over time will href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-copy-writing/5-steps-to-writing-a-blog-post-that-goes-viral/">widen your customer base and increase sales. The steps below cover some basic actions you can take to start providing valuable and effective social media content that helps your customers and your business.

Turn up regularly

Turning up regularly and showing your fans and followers you are actively maintaining your social networking profiles will encourage others to engage with you. Social media is a conversation, and if you’re absent from your profiles for a long period of time, you won’t be part of the dialogue. You can show your current and future customers that you’re present by posting on a regular basis, and interacting with their posts and comments.

Deciding how often to post can be tricky, and the frequency with which you choose to turn up online depends on what kind of business you have, as well as how much spare time you have. href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-business-ideas/20-must-have-tools-for-small-online-businesses/">Using social media tools such as HootSuite and SproutSocial can help limit the amount of time you spend updating profiles. If you’re a solopreneur or have a small number of employees, it’s important to be realistic about just how often you can update. Some organizations and entrepreneurs choose to update their networks three or four times per day, whereas others have managed to build a community by updating three or four times per week. The final number is your decision, what’s more important is that you show up regularly and demonstrate to fans that you’re active and interesting.

Provide information

Providing useful information is one of the key ways you can gain trust and credibility with fans. “Useful” information doesn’t mean posting solely about what your business is doing, as it’s also about including tidbits that are relevant to your fans’ lives. This might include videos, links, and images, as well as text updates. When thinking about what kind of information you want to provide your audience, try making a list of types of content you can include as part of your social media strategy. It also helps to provide provide variety, as posting the same kind of content all the time could get monotonous for your followers, which will deter them from making the transition from fan to customer in the future.

Share other people’s content

Sharing other people’s content is a useful way of providing valuable information to your fans, especially if you don’t have much time to create content yourself. You might feel like you’re in competition with the people who produce content that’s relevant to your audience, but the social media world can be karmic. If you behave generously towards others, they are more likely to behave generously towards you, share your material, and promote your website in a positive light. Showing your customers that you’re confident enough to share material from the competition, and that providing them with useful content is a priority, will help build your credibility too.

Twitter is one of the easiest social media platforms for sharing other people’s content, as re-tweeting is as simple as the click of a mouse.

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2013/0330-1.jpg" alt="Twitter Message" width="750" />

Be human

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Social Media Marketing Tips For Online Stores In 2013

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dir="ltr">class="alignright size-full wp-image-720" style="border: 0px;" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1103-2.jpg" alt="Social Media" width="262" height="394" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1103-2.jpg 262w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1103-2-199x300.jpg 199w" sizes="(max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px" />

dir="ltr">Social media marketing is evolving constantly, as fast as technology is. The first question you need to ask yourself is whether your company’s strategy evolves at the same rate. When was the last time you changed something in the marketing strategy for your online store? I still come across executives who think keywords are the most important thing they should pay attention to concerning the SEO of their online store, and who focus only on technical aspects of SEO, completely neglecting any social component.

dir="ltr">The first and foremost piece of information regarding href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/social-media-marketing-basics-the-2014-starter-guide-for-smm-managers/" target="_blank">social media marketing in 2013 you need to know is the fact that ignoring or misunderstanding the importance of social media for online stores significantly reduces the ROI due to losses caused by falling way behind the competition. The implications of social media marketing development for e-commerce online stores are extensive, and dealing with the essence of changes will help you understand these changes and adapt to them, preparing your company for social media marketing in 2013.

Online Stores and Branding

dir="ltr">Let’s say you want to buy a new cell phone. You found out everything there was to know about the model you are interested in, and now all you need to do is to choose the retailer you are going to buy your phone from. If you had to choose between Amazon and an online shop named Mobile Phones, which you have never even heard of, but is cheaper, which would you choose? Of course you would go for Amazon, because it is a familiar, omnipresent retailer. No one ever buys from someone they are not familiar enough with.

dir="ltr">Now, how does one become familiar with a brand? How do people start trusting a brand?

dir="ltr">One always trusts those brands they see everywhere, those brands that provide consumers a chance to read about them, get to know their employees as experts in the field, and generally become involved with the life of the company in some way. This will be the most important role of social media marketing in 2013 – branding, building trust and prompting interaction which contributes to building that trust.

dir="ltr">Companies need to stop hiding behind their brand in 2013, and so do online retailers. Consumers feel the need to interact on a personal level with companies who want their trust, and those companies need to include their employees as individuals into such interactions.

Overcoming The ROI Issues

The ROI issues arise when social media metrics are brought to the table. Namely, it is really difficult to title="Measuring Social Media ROI" href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-measure-social-media-return-on-investment-for-the-complex-sale/" target="_blank">precisely determine the ROI from social media marketing, and that is the most common reason for neglecting it, especially when it comes to online stores, whose success is often measured by profits.

However, is a measurable ROI (ie. direct profit) really the most important gain from social media marketing? My opinion is that it is not so.

dir="ltr">Social media marketing creates leads, which lead to selling goods when combined with some other necessary factors. Though leads do not immediately sell, if a lead does not exist, chances are there will be no purchase. The year 2013 will most likely bring about the acceptance of this fact, and a deeper understanding of social media marketing required for social media success.

Online Store Owners: Here’s What You Should Do in 2013

Accept social media

Your customers spend a lot of time on social networks, and this is where you should interact with them. The logic is the same as with television – advertising through a medium which is interesting to your customers, only, with social media, a certain level of interaction is necessary, which wasn’t the case with television.

Be open-minded

Social media may not bring direct income at first, but nevertheless you need to dive into it sooner or later. If you never start dealing with it, you will fall so far behind your competition that it will be very difficult to get back on track. Experiment a little, provide interesting content and develop a strategy along the way, if you are skeptical about social media, and you will soon see how important it is.

Hire a person who understands content marketing

This should be done as soon as possible, since you cannot do everything on your own. An employee who is gifted in communication will know what type of content needs to be shared and how the interaction with the customers should look like, which will save you a lot of effort in trying to figure it out on your own.

Include your employees in content creation

They are your most valuable asset for presenting your online store in the best possible light.

Pay attention to sites with ratings of the products you sell or online shops in general

People do check the reviews of what they are planning to buy before they buy it, so it may be essential that you interact with them while they are doing this, to secure a positive impression by politely explaining things and answering potential complaints.

Be present on several chosen platforms

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-717" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0619-1.jpg" alt="CEO's Presence On Social Media" width="600" height="353" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0619-1.jpg 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0619-1-300x176.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

Do a little research or a survey to find out where your customers are, and then create a presence on their favorite platforms. Currently, href="http://heidicohen.com/fortune-500-ceos-dont-get-social-media-research/" target="_blank">70% of the Fortune 500 company executives are not present in social media. This is bound to change in 2013, as the executives become increasingly aware of the importance of social media. You should create a presence right now so as to be ahead of those who still fail to comprehend social media.

Be aware of the different ways the content is consumed

In 2013, you will need to provide the content about your online shop which is just the right thing for your audience. Also, be aware that you should carefully dose sharing content which promotes your business, and share more purely informational and entertaining content to keep your audience’s attention.

And One Last Final Tip

Keep in mind that social media is not a “revenue engine”. It’s most important value lies in creating a firm bond of familiarity and trust with your customers.

With Google’s semantic search, social media becomes your way of creating a complete image of your online store for your customers. Do not miss out on that.

If you want to learn about social media in 2013 in more detail, watch this great video “Social Media in 2013”.

Several ideas expressed in it were incorporated into this article. Enjoy 2013 with social media!

Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

The Shortest Possible Novice Guide to SEO and Social Media World

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dir="ltr">class="alignright wp-image-922" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shhhhhh....social-media-tips.jpg" alt="shhhhhh....social media tips" width="289" height="400" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shhhhhh....social-media-tips.jpg 289w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/shhhhhh....social-media-tips-216x300.jpg 216w" sizes="(max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px" />

dir="ltr">The first impression your clients get about your company often comes from your website. The type and the quality of textual and visual materials your website contains, its information architecture, link structure, as well as search engine and social media positioning, usually determine this first impression by making it easier or harder for a customer to find your business, find their way through the website itself and trust your business.

dir="ltr">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/smm-tips-for-bloggers-taking-your-social-media-to-the-next-level/">The same goes for blogs.

dir="ltr">Ask yourself this: “Would I trust a business whose website doesn’t appear on the first page of SERPs, which is hard to browse once I have found it and which has no social media presence?” Would you? Of course not.

dir="ltr">This is why SEO was created in the first place – to make your business and your website stand out, get noticed and leave an impression of being trustworthy. SEO and Social Media can make it easy for your customers to find your website, get a good impression about your business and trust you. Combined with other marketing techniques, SEO and Social Media Marketing can bring outstanding results.

dir="ltr">I will now guide you through the world of SEO and Social Media and advise you about the things you need to know if you are just entering this world and you are not quite clear how things work, and you want to earn good money from your website.

Know How to Take Full Advantage of SEO and Social Media

dir="ltr">The benefits of SEO and Social Media are manifold. Aside from costing less than traditional marketing, they bring great results in relatively short periods of time. Full advantage of SEO and SMM can be taken if you use it for:

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Spreading the name of your brand across the Internet.

dir="ltr">Different SEO and link building techniques, especially guest blogging and social media marketing, can disseminate the name of your brand really fast. SEO and SEM are excellent if you want your brand to be heard and read about.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Increasing brand awareness.

dir="ltr">This one is tightly related to the previous one. Once your brand name reaches the audience, brand awareness needs to be sustained and further increased. This is achievable through a long-term branding strategy.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Increasing the visibility of your website.

dir="ltr">It is not enough that everyone hears about the existence of your business and your brand. What happens when people want to find your website, but they can’t find you on the first page of the SERPs? They usually give up. The task of SEO and SMM is to increase the visibility of your website by positioning it in just the right place in the organic search.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Getting targeted traffic.

dir="ltr">Targeted traffic is of the utmost importance for conversions, because conversions bring you money and not traffic itself. SEO and SMM are both focused on bringing in the targeted traffic, SEO through the usage of organic search engine results targeting and SMM through the leveraging of social profiles and connections.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Achieving high ROI.

dir="ltr">Achieving high ROI is the main goal of all SEO and SMM efforts. This is achieved through the usage of SEO and SMM techniques which increase CTR, conversion rates, and ultimately the ROI.

Learn From the Case Studies

class="alignright size-full wp-image-923" style="border: 0px;" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blue-ribbon.jpg" alt="shhhhhh....social media tips" width="300" height="300" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blue-ribbon.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blue-ribbon-150x150.jpg 150w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blue-ribbon-130x130.jpg 130w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

dir="ltr">SEO and Social Media campaigns are often done on a large scale, and they include several of the aforementioned benefits. I have chosen two case studies as an example of what I was saying, and they emphasize social media and content marketing, but include other benefits as well.

dir="ltr">A good example of a successful social media campaign is the href="http://mashable.com/2009/11/17/coke-expedition-206/">Expedition 206 by Coca-Cola. Though Coca-Cola was already a large brand, the principle they used could be applied to other, smaller brands. Namely, they used social media in order to pick three lucky people to travel around the world in 2010.

dir="ltr">These people, however, had to go to 206 markets where the Coca-Cola Company had a presence. The chosen team promoted Coca-Cola when promoting themselves in order to be chosen by the voters, and when they went on their trip they took photos and were very active on social media, where a large number of people wanted to see all the places they traveled to, so again Coca-Cola was being promoted on a large scale.

dir="ltr">Imagine all the benefits the Coca-Cola Company got from this. Considering that it was already a widespread brand, you may wonder why they needed it in the first place. This way they improved their presence on the market, sparked an increase in consumption, improved their ROI, reinforced their internet presence and popularized their social network presence.

dir="ltr">The other case study I found interesting is related to href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study">the impact of tweets on rankings. The Beginners Guide to SEO by SEOMoz started ranking on the first page of SERPs for the keyword “beginner’s guide” after Smashing magazine tweeted about it.  It was a large scale tweet, re-tweeted by many, and it proves that with the right SEO strategy, you can get such a significant tweet which would boost your traffic for a certain keyword.

dir="ltr">You can find more web marketing case studies on the href="http://www.startupremarkable.com/marketing-case-studies">Startupremarkable website.

Questions to Ask Your SEO Agency If You Are Planning to Hire One

dir="ltr">Website owners of different profile usually pose a bunch of questions when choosing an SEO  agency, and later on, during the whole process of SEO strategy implementation. That is good, because the clearer it is to you, the better. Some of the most often posed questions which you should also ask the SEO agencies when choosing the right one are:

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Questions about the costs.

dir="ltr">This is completely understandable, concerning the limited budget most businesses face. However, you need not worry. You have to pay a certain price to get real results, but usually the cost, and thus the service, can be adapted to your budget and your needs successfully.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Questions about the focus.

dir="ltr">If you are confused concerning SEO and SMM services, the agency you would want to hire will certainly explain everything to you. Be careful when choosing the agency, though. The focus needs to be on your return on investment, profit and long-term results.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Questions about the ways of organizing the cooperation.

dir="ltr">This should also be discussed, since you need to keep a constant line of communication and coordination with the SEO and SMM teams if you want results. The strategy needs to be made and constantly adapted according to your business plans.

Common Problems and Difficulties to Pay Attention To

dir="ltr">In this part of the article, I wanted to introduce you to some of the potential problems and difficulties you may experience after you decide to use the potential of SEO and SMM campaigns. These obstacles can easily be overcome and shouldn’t frustrate you.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Setting unrealistic goals for SEO. SEO is powerful, but it isn’t almighty. You cannot expect it to bring you 10000 visitors overnight. Any SEO company which makes promises such as this one is a pure scam. The sooner you accept this fact, the better the SEO results will be. Your SEO consultant knows what he is doing, and he will make sure your site realizes its full potential. If you are doing SEO on your own, make sure to be realistic.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Thinking you can get it done cheaply. SEO and SMM offer an affordable strategy, but they are not cheap, only cheaper than traditional marketing. Be ready to invest if you want real ROI.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Thinking it can all be done in a jiff. SEO and SMM require some time and testing, as well as constant work. SEO is a good investment, but it will take some time before it pays off.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Facing challenges because you do not have an established brand. Think of it as a chance to create an image for your brand you always wanted. It is a bit difficult to establish a brand, but once you do it the way you always wanted it, all the effort will pay off. Just adapt your strategy and include branding, or hire someone to do it for you. A business coach, for example, can find an agency to do it for you, and he or she can take care of all the requirements.

style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Facing challenges because you compete against powerful websites. When I say powerful, I mean large websites that have been around for a long time and have a successful SEO history. Fear not, for a proper SEO and SMM strategy can slowly, but successfully beat this kind of websites. Of course, it needs to be combined with an outstanding business strategy.

And to finish off…

SEO and SMM have a large marketing potential. An intelligent strategy can bring your website a long way. Since you have probably already done something in this field, I would like to finish off by asking you for your opinion on the matter. What is your experience with SEO and SMM? Share with us; leave your comments, so that we can work on this together.

Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How to run a social media presence in 30 minutes per week or less

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A social media presence is one of the most important marketing tools you can have for your business. Not only does social media enable you to expose your business to thousands, possibly millions, of potential customers around the world, but it can help you save time on marketing and promotion.

When href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/how-to-use-twitter-for-small-business/">business owners start using social media, the practice can seem like a waste of time. Unless you compartmentalize the time you spend on your social media presence, it can quickly seep into time you had set aside for other more important activities, with seemingly little reward or extra profit.

The secret to running a successful social media presence doesn’t lie in being around on social networks all day, every day. Responding to comments and questions from followers and fans is important, but it can also be very time consuming.

In this article, we’re going to discuss how you can run an effective social media campaign in 30 minutes per week – or even less. Although you can take specific practical steps to help you do this, the main principle is to be conscious about how you’re spending your time. Refreshing your Facebook fan page every five minutes might satisfy your curiosity around your new follower numbers, but it will distract you from other money-making activities.

Developing a 30-minute social media routine might take time – initially you will have to spend longer as you tweak your practices and develop your own social media routine. Soon, however, you can have a strong presence up and running, providing you with effective marketing, while leaving you with more time to run your business.

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Focus, focus, focus

Before you take any further steps towards your social media presence, you need to decide which sites you’re going to use. A key mistake that business-owners make when starting out in social media is trying to maintain a presence on all major sites. Not only is this incredibly time-consuming, but it won’t pay off in the long run. A more effective way of marketing your business through social media is to choose two, maximum three, sites at a time. If you’re just starting out, begin with one and only branch out once that’s up and running.

The kind of sites you choose will depend on your business. Facebook fan pages are a useful asset for most types of business as they are customizable, and the Facebook audience is larger than any other social website. Twitter is also popular, although some people can find the constant stream of chatter irritating. Visual-based businesses, that deal in areas like fashion, art, crafts, food and so on, might consider Pinterest, a picture-based social network. Among the rest, popular sites include Google+, as well as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Delicious, which all provide user-generated news links.

In the screenshot below, from rel="nofollow" href="http://freelanceswitch.com/">Freelanceswitch.com, the company demonstrates where they have focused their social media efforts: Facebook, Twitter and Google+.  With their social media links, they also give readers the chance to join email updates, or follow the website’s RSS feed.

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New social networks are emerging all the time, and you don’t have to stick to the two or three sites you initially choose forever. The most important thing is to do what’s right for your business. Just remember that if your newly-created presence on an alternative social network takes you over the magic number three, one of your other accounts has to go.

Use social media tools

Social media tools are designed for people like you, who are using social media for business and marketing purposes. Countless programs and companies have started offering social media services specifically for businesses, and popular software packages include rel="nofollow" href="http://hootsuite.com/">HootSuite, rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow" href="https://seesmic.com/">Seesmic, and href="http://sproutsocial.com/">Sprout Social.

Some software and services come with a monthly fee, while others allow you to use basic features for free. HootSuite, for example, has a free option, which enables you to update a limited number of accounts and use some features, and a subscription option, which offers the full range of services available.

Different social media tools work in different ways, but, as a minimum, they all allow you to schedule posts, analyze engagement, and manage different accounts from one place. The main benefit of using these services is that they save you huge amounts of time, and it will be difficult to limit how long you spend on social media to 30 minutes per week if you’re not using one.

Once you’ve chosen and set up your social media tool, you can sit down and schedule a series of posts for the next week in one sitting. In the same session, you can analyze post statistics from the previous week, looking at which posts created the most engagement, how many links resulted in clicks, and so on. Once you’ve scheduled these posts, you don’t need to worry about posting again for another week. By organizing your social media in this way, you won’t have to spend time every day creating status updates, leaving you free to get on with other tasks.

Social media tools also give you easy access to fan and follower comments, for example HootSuite displays follower activity and mentions in separate columns. This frees you from constantly watching over your Twitter feed, and allows you to check on and respond to any interactions once a day, or even less frequently.

To look at what social media tools others are using, simply log on to Twitter or Facebook and look at an individual’s posting data.

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Organize your content

Another way to save time is to develop a href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-business-ideas/content-curation-to-drive-traffic/">content strategy for your social media posts.

To maintain an effective presence, you’ll want to post a mixture of content that’s relevant to your audience. This can include old blog posts, promotional information, reposting others’ updates, and competition details. To make this simpler, try designating a certain number of posts per week to certain topics. For example, you might decide to post one promotional Tweet per day, containing a direct link to one of your products or services, and to post links to two blog posts per week.

Lisa Buyer from rel="nofollow" href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2136988/How-to-Create-a-Social-Media-Editorial-Calendar">Search Engine Watch recommends setting up a spreadsheet or designated calendar to create a social media content plan for the weeks and months ahead.

Tell followers what you want

The technical name for this is a “call to action” and it can be one of the hardest aspects of your social media presence. A call to action involves asking or telling your customers to buy your product, sign up to your mailing list, or take some other action associated with your business. Some people struggle with calls to action, as they feel they could be pressuring people, and rationalize that if people want to take these actions, they’ll do so anyway without being asked.

In reality, some people don’t think to act without being explicitly asked or told. Even if they’ve just read 500 words on the benefits of signing up to your new mailing list, they might not think to sign up themselves until you tell them to at the end. Rather than waiting for the few readers who will take the initiative and sign up of their own accord, you’ll increase your retention rate by including a call to action. This also applies to your social media posts, as demonstrated by rel="nofollow" href="http://smlacyart.com/">Sarah Marie Lacy, a Canadian artist who markets her work online:

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Page 22 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How To Build A Long-Term Successful Social Media Campaign

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Focus on Your Brand First

Before you begin a campaign- or enter the realm of social media marketing in general, be sure you understand EXACTLY who you are, what your brand is, what you offer customers and what the benefit of your art or service is to your potential customer. Know this well, speak it clearly and embody it in everything you do.

“The #1 reason people fail at social media marketing is that they don’t have a solid foundation. They don’t have a brand, they don’t understand the outcome they provide, and they have absolutely no way of differentiating themselves from the competition.” – href="http://zenofsocialmedia.com/" target="_blank">Zen of Social Media Marketing.

It may sound simple, but every action you take- both offline and online- is a reflection of your brand.

Leveraging Your Expertise To Build A Long-Term Social Media Campaign

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7648" alt="Expertise in your niche" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/talents.jpg" width="750" height="379" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/talents.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/talents-300x151.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

Social media platforms are simply the tools that amplify your message to the world. In order for you to impact your potential audience and bring them into your world- your online personality must reflect your true self. Your authentic voice- and thus your artistic brand- must be in close alignment with who you are as an artist.

And your visual brand identity must clearly reflect these truths.

Be sure that your logo, website, social media profiles and photos all clearly reflect you and your artistic brand before truly diving into the deep end of social media marketing.

“Authenticity is critical. The message conveyed by each platform must pull in the same direction. Text styles must be uniform. Even the paper stock between print projects must remain true. When these factors vary, trust suffers. But if potential customers recognize a consistent, authentic message across multiple platforms, trust flourishes – and they’ll be far more likely to engage,” excerpt from the Brand Played On. Agency Access published an amazing resource for artists and the branding efforts they must undertake for their business to flourish.

Find & Connect

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After your brand is clearly defined and represented in all of your online platforms, it is time to connect with your audience. Connecting with href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/building-a-tribe-around-your-art-one-lovely-person-at-a-time/" target="_blank">your Tribe, or the people who truly support and champion your art, is your next major hurtle in tackling a social media campaign.

Identify

Identify who will benefit and connect most with your type of artwork. Study the means in which this community uses social media to communicate and enter the conversation in their territory.

For example, if you create hand-woven rugs for personal spaces, you might have a large number of high-end interior designers who both support your work and incorporate it within their own businesses. Find an active online community of interior designers who use blogging and Pinterest to share their work and scan their Twitter feeds or blog comment sections for questions that you might be able to answer regarding custom flooring, color palettes or fiber textures.

Communication

With this example in mind- and not to be redundant here- your online brand is key to opening that door of communication. If you contact a high-end interior designer and engage them in conversation, they are more than likely to reply and continue the conversation if your social media avatar is a smiling face (rather than a sterile logo) and if they follow your links to your web site, your platform needs to reflect the caliber and quality of your work for this designer to take your advice seriously. In this instant, an effective and distinct brand will lend additional support and legitimacy to your advice and give your voice more strength in this new community of potential fans and customers.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to create a means of opening a deliberate and permission based direct communication channels. You need to convert a casual visitor of your social media space to someone who actively want to receive information and specials from you. Use an incentive based conversion option for opt-in newsletter subscribers on your website.

Furthering our fiber artist example, once the interior designer has clicked through our artist’s Twitter profile and landed on her website, she’s enthralled by the artwork she has found and wants to learn more. She notices an email subscription offering a free downloadable PDF booklet about interior fibers and custom rug design in exchange for a newsletter sign-up. Our interior designer recognizes the value of this free information and wants to receive more information and specials about this artwork that her clients will love in their homes.

Our artist now has the permission of a new fan and future customer to send product specials, custom rug tips and design advice. The artist can now cultivate this relationship over time by providing value to her new fan.

Amplify

When used strategically and mindfully, permission based marketing will convert customers and develop quality relationships that support the artist in many ways. The artist also has an audience who has stated that they want to hear from you and will likely purchase from you in the future.

Amplify this effect by scanning social media channels and engaging in conversations with people who are likely to connect with your art. Use the basic search tools of each social media channel to help you better scan conversations.

Our fiber artist will want to monitor hashtags related to her artwork and her potential buyers. She’ll want to use a tool like href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" target="_blank">Tweet Deck and create special columns with a hashtag for each term she wants to search. Her terms should be somewhat broad, but not overwhelming. For example, if she searched “#design” the conversations would be rapid and too diverse to focus on targeting conversations where she might participate. By changing the term to “#urbaninteriordesign” or “#fiberart” she might find people talking directly about her area of expertise.

Another excellent tool for scanning blogs in href="http://www.google.com/blogsearch" target="_blank">Google Blog Search.

Simply enter a topic and Google will scan for blogs that address this area of interest. Setting up a Google Alert for specific terms, such as “interior design in Manhattan” might help our NYC based fiber artist find local interior designers to connect with. The Google Alert will email daily with search results pertaining to the terms entered in the Alert. This is also an excellent tool for an individual to use to monitor conversations happening about them or their product.

Building Relationships

Now that the brand has been clearly defined online and an audience has been identified and targeted, it’s time to cultivate the emerging relationships. Depending on your approach, this will include continuing the conversations using your preferred social media platform, finding new points of engagement, emailing tips, information or specials to your newsletter list and looking for additional methods of providing value to your community.

With this in mind, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-launch-a-blog-for-under-100/">stepping into the world of blogging might be the next logical step. Many artists might already have a basic blog associated with their website and for many, blogging is more sporadic without a clearly defined goal or purpose. At this step, you have already clearly defined your audience and understanding if a blog is appropriate should be obvious at this point.

If your audience and potential buyers continually seek a certain type of information from you then there is a need in the marketplace for your expertise- beyond the artwork that you create. Identifying this need and speaking to this specific gap in the marketplace might provide you with an opportunity to connect with even more people who relate to your work.

class="alignright" alt="BlogCastFM" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0530-1.jpg" width="350" />

The main aspect of a href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-create-a-successful-blog/">successful blogging campaign is to be consistent and concise in what you are providing to the community. This step does require a greater time commitment and might not be appropriate for all artists, due to time or industry constraints. But bear in mind that writing is not the only means of communication for your blog. Many successful artists who use blogging as a main method of identifying and communicating with their audience use multiple forms of communication. Video, audio podcasts, webinars and visual essays are all effective means of providing valuable information to your community. If blogging is on your list of possibilities, visit href="http://blogcastfm.com/" target="_blank">BlogCast FM and listen to some of the leaders in the blogging community for tips, advice and strategies for self-publishing.

Our fiber artist has noticed a distinct gap in the online community for information regarding fiber textures, color pigmentation techniques and care of custom rugs. Interior designers- and now regular customers of hers- are constantly asking similar questions and show can see a place online to provide a valuable service to her fans and grow her potential customer base. But she hates writing. So, our artist purchases an inexpensive FlipCamera, finds a nicely lit corner of her studio, sets the camera on a makeshift tripod and starts speaking to her community about fiber textures using examples from her studio.

She uses a basic video editing program to place her logo graphic and an introduction at the beginning, uploads it to YouTube and places the video on her newly created Tumblr. She linked the Tumblr to her Twitter and Facebook accounts when she set up the blog, so it automatically send her new video post out to all of her online community. People begin to ask her additional questions in the comment section of the blog and her interior designers start to forward the video on Tumblr- also known as “reblogging” in the Tumblr world.

Soon, her video is spreading all over social media platforms and since the interior design community is strong on Tumblr, she’s gained new followers to her blog, Twitter and more newsletter sign-ups. She also has her next video topic based on the additional questions from her comment section.

And this is how the connections work in the online social media world. For many people using these platforms to expand their reach, the building takes time, deliberation and creativity. But the rewards are tangible and can be seen over time with increased web site traffic, engaging conversations throughout the day and loyal customers and fans. By investing in building your brand from the start, you can successfully make a name for yourself online in your area of artistic expertise and build an engaging social media marketing strategy.

Site note: Also read Crystal’s previous article on href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/building-a-tribe-around-your-art-one-lovely-person-at-a-time/">Building A Tribe Around Your Art; One Lovely Person At A Time.

Page 24 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

5 Apps and Strategies to Improve Your Social Media Productivity

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Showing up on social media is no longer optional; an active presence on the channels where your customers hang out is crucial to finding new prospects, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/featured-articles/how-to-build-a-long-term-successful-social-media-campaign/">establishing yourself as an authority, and deepening relationships with existing clients.

But finding the time to do it all is really hard.

A rel="nofollow" href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008327" target="_blank">recent study from EMarketer shows that 73% of people find creating content is their biggest marketing challenge.  Other issues arise around scheduling content, responding to inquiries, and basic account maintenance.  Assuming that outsourcing your social media isn’t an option, here are 5 apps and strategies that can help you get organized and stay on top of your social media flow.

Scheduling posts in advance

Recommended app: Buffer

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Strategy: Set up your posts and status updates to post automatically, in advance.

Changing your relationship with time and social media is one of the best ways to get traction without having to panic about having access to Twitter and Facebook three times a day to post content.  Before we dive into the specific tools that can help you, let’s look at what this really means.  Scheduling your posts isn’t just about adding a post to WordPress the day before it’s set to go live.

Really changing the time – social media relationship is about href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-business-ideas/how-popular-websites-use-high-posting-frequencies-to-succeed/">anticipating, planning, preparing, and deploying content before there’s a content crunch or before there’s a noticeable gap. Do you have a content strategy (link to other post once it’s live)? One of the best ways to handle scheduling your content is to develop an editorial calendar. This can focus on a single channel such as your blog or the themes you’ll focus on via Twitter.  Or it can be a vast document that encompasses everything from your blog posts to your email outreach to external publishing efforts.  The goal is to find a system that keeps you on target without overcomplicating the process.

Once you’ve sketched out a plan, the other key to success is scheduling the time to generate the content.  It’s important to figure out how to effectively manage your time around content creation.  There are many options: outsource; create blocks of time where you focus exclusively on content generation for 3 or 4 hours at a stretch; or dedicate 30 minutes a day to the process. Whatever works for you, figure out and stick to it.

There are a whole host of programs out there that will allow you to do this with ease.  rel="nofollow" href="http://hootsuite.com/" target="_blank">Hootsuite, rel="nofollow" href="http://bufferapp.com/" target="_blank">Buffer, and rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" target="_blank">Tweetdeck are great examples.  Here is how they work.  You input your account details, preload the content, and tell the program when to post it.  Then your account has a heartbeat – content – without you needing to take another step (until it’s time to upload the next tranche of content).

Getting Started With Buffer

For purposes of this article, I’m going to recommend that you consider going with Buffer.  It’s one of the most natural tools, in that it doesn’t schedule in bursts and user feedback suggests that a broad range of people from social media experts to regular small business users love the program.

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Here’s a quick tutorial on how to use it.

1. Visit rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bufferapp.com">www.bufferapp.com.
2. Create a new account by entering an email address and password of your choice, and selecting “Create New Account.”  A window will then open that allows you to install an extension to your browser.
3. Click the orange “Install in Seconds” button.  Go through the brief, intuitive install process.
4. Connect each of your accounts to Buffer.  You then are able to post in real time by typing something in the box and clicking “Post Now.”  To schedule something for later, click the “Add to Buffer.”  You’ll receive the confirmation screen advising you of when Buffer elected to schedule it for.  This random timing (in my case, 8:51am EST tomorrow morning) is meant to feel organic and avoid bursts of content that tend to occur with awkward scheduling.

So install Buffer (or one of the other recommended apps if you prefer) and experiment.  See how much more active you are with tools like Buffer working on your behalf 24/7.

Blocking time in your day for social media – then leaving it

Recommended tool: Your calendar

Strategy: Stop wasting time on social media by specifically scheduling time.

Another factor that contributes to the idea of social media as a time suck is that we can be on it – literally all day.  We go about our days with Facebook open in our browser.  We check our Twitter feed on our phone while waiting in line.  That’s fine when you’re following vacation pictures from your best friend’s trip or watching everyone’s reactions to the latest game.

But when your social media use transitions to a marketing strategy or part of your business, schedule it the way you’d schedule any other activity.  Hopefully you’re already using an app discussed above to preschedule your content, so block out a maximum of 30 minutes a day to add any breaking news content, respond to comments, etc.

There are a few ways to do this. Use your social media time as a way to ease into your day.  Or check in at the end of the day, and catch up on all the day’s news.  If you are a bit more of a junkie, preschedule 3 10 minute sessions throughout your day (morning, afternoon, end of day) where you get to interact.

Use the rapid fire approach.  The goal here is not to aim for 30 minutes and then be happy when it’s 60.  The goal is to transform your understanding of what it means to be productive on social media by taking massive action and getting massive results within the allotted time.  In order to do this, you need to triage priority messages. Consider having lists within specific sites that highlight your Most Important People (MIPs).  Your MIPs can be personal, such as family and friends, or they can be high value professional contacts such as business partners, clients, or thought leaders in your field. Start with your MIPs and then allocate whatever time is left over to your general stream.

To keep yourself honest, schedule your 30 minutes between hard appointments that will force you to stop.  If your schedule is more fluid, use a timer that will shriek and remind you that you should be done. If technology or calendaring won’t work, consider using an accountability partner that will pry the laptop/mobile phone/iPad from your fingers until you learn to be honest about the time you’re spending on social media.

Save content ideas easily

Recommended App: Evernote

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Strategy: Reduce the amount of time it takes to write content by organizing your systems for tracking ideas and inspiration

If you haven’t used rel="nofollow" href="http://www.evernote.com" target="_blank">Evernote, your life is about to change.

Evernote is a program that allows you to add notes, take photographs and tag them by keyword, and more.  This means that from a simple handheld device, you can create an evolving database of your best ideas, inspiration you encounter, real time whiteboard brainstorms, and more. You can then share these ideas via various social media channels, or call them up when you are drafting your next tranche of content.

Evernote and its place in our strategy are important for a couple of reasons.  Feeding the content beast is one of the biggest issues with maintaining an active social media presence.  It can be a huge time sink, even if it’s carefully planned out.  One of the major aspects in the process is to ensure that as you encounter ideas when you’re reading, working or in conversation that you can efficiently recall those when you sit down to write content or generate lists for your freelance writers to work on.

Here’s how Evernote works.  You begin by downloading the app to your phone.  You’re then able to snap photos with your built in camera.  When the photograph is taken, you’re able to add titles and keywords which can later be searched as well as the possibility to add to folder, etc.  For a complete tutorial on Evernote, rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHeVZvnCjNA" target="_blank">check out this video tutorial.

If this, then that with ifttt

Recommended App: Ifttt

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Strategy: Automate routine tasks related to archiving, notifications, and more

rel="nofollow" href="http://ifttt.com/wtf" target="_blank">Ifttt is a fascinating program that allows you to set triggers (if this happens) that set off actions (then do this).  So for example, you might say “if someone tags me in a photograph on Facebook, then send me a text message.”  Or “If I add a new file to Evernote, then email it to my assistant.”  Ifttt essentially creates the ability for you to automate non-linear streams of your social media work process, similar to a macro in Excel.  If there are steps you take every time something happens, with Ifttt, you might be able to let the program do that work for you.

Personally, I use Ifttt to help me with some of the cross-platform activities.  So for example, as you browse your Twitter feed you might find motivational quotes that you like and later want to use in a different context. One way to keep track of them is to Favorite them; but using Ifttt, you can set up a trigger where anytime you favorite a quote on Twitter, you can have it added to a file on your Dropbox or a list in Evernote.

Another way to use Ifttt is to help you track priority information or discussions happening in social media.  For example, if anyone on a selected list of people tags you in a post, tags you in a picture, or tweets at you, you can have Ifttt configured to send you a text message.  This can help you respond quickly to priority conversations with valued contacts and customers.

So whether your challenge is staying organized, responding quickly, effectively archiving materials, or just automating routine processes, Ifttt can get you headed in the right direction.

Find your tribe online

Recommended App: Rapportive

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Strategy: Maximize your productivity by spending your time cultivating the right relationships

Sometimes the hardest part of social media is reaching your audience, especially when they are active beyond the standard channels of Facebook and Twitter.  Two of the biggest myths I hear related to social media focus on the fact that it’s difficult to reach the right people, or that you need to pursue numbers just for the sake of getting your followers up.  While it certainly helps to have a robust following, it’s more relevant to href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/simple-steps-to-get-ahead-of-your-competition-using-social-media-marketing/">focus on the quality and engagement of followers.

With rel="nofollow" href="http://rapportive.com/" target="_blank">Rapportive, there is now an app you can add on to Gmail that will show you where your contacts are active online.  This information can help you make important decisions about which channels are worth investing your time on in terms of social media, and ensure that you are maximizing the return on your investment. Simply install the app and it integrates seamlessly with the Gmail interface.

Here are three more ideas to connect with the right people online:

1. Centralize your contacts on your computer in one place, like an outlook file.  Then ensure that you’ve connected with all your contacts on priority networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Each of these sites also allows you to check for contacts on other social networks. It can be time consuming to build these linkages, but they can give your social connections a tremendous bump.
2. Spend time expanding your reach by participating in groups on LinkedIn, joining Fan Pages on Facebook, and answering questions on Quora on subjects related to your area of interest. By proactively reaching out, you’ll make new connections and quickly gauge the individuals that are interesting and influencers that are worth your time to follow.
3. Develop a short list of individuals whose work you admire, and set out to build a relationship with them.  Let me be clear; I don’t mean stalking.  Read their blog posts and comment. Interact with them on social media. Share resources that might be useful on topics that are of interest. Consider pitching a guest post or creating value for them in some other way.  The goal is not to barrage them, but rather to make an investment in insightful and interesting interactions that can help you become a valued colleague and friend.

The time you spend on social media can help you reap great rewards in terms of your bottom line.  The key is to be strategic about how you invest your time, and use planning and tools to maximize the returns you get for the time you invest.

Page 22 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

30 Free Social Media Plugins for Your WordPress Blog

alt="30 Free Social Media Plugins for Your WordPress Blog" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/social-media-500x270_c.jpg" />

Social media is a vital part of every single website. Even if you do not use social media services frequently yourself, you need to ensure that your website accommodates those who do.

WordPress does not come with any social media functionality built in, however there are hundreds of social media plugins available. There are many great premium social media plugins available in marketplaces such as title="CodeCanyon" href="http://codecanyon.net/">CodeCanyon but today I would like to showcase some of the best free plugins that are available to you.

I have included login plugins, follow widgets, sharing plugins and metric plugins that show the performance of your posts on social media websites. Enjoy :)

1. Jetpack by WordPress.com

Jetpack now offers 25 different modules to WordPress users. There are many great social media modules included in this list. Jetpack comments will enhance your comment area by allowing users to login using WordPress.com, Twitter or Facebook. The publicize module allows you to automatically share posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr. Last but not least is the sharing module, which lets you add sharing buttons to your posts, pages and front page.

style="text-align: center;">href="Jetpack by WordPress.com">class="aligncenter wp-image-1678 border" alt="Jetpack" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/jetpack.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/jetpack.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/jetpack-300x111.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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Visit online: title="JetPack by WordPress" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/

2. Social Plugin for WordPress

Developed by title="MailChimp" href="http://mailchimp.com/">MailChimp, Social is a great plugin that offers many Twitter and Facebook integration features. It allows posts to be automatically uploaded to Facebook and Twitter. Twitter replies and Facebook comments can be pulled into the discussion on your website and visitors can login using Twitter and Facebook and leave a comment. It’s a fantastic plugin though there is no support for other social media services such as Google+.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1679 border" alt="Social Plugin for WordPress" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-300x180.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Social Plugin for WordPress" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social/

3. LoginRadius

LoginRadius is a social media service that over 50,000 websites are using to add social media integration to their websites. Once the plugin has been installed and you have signed up to LoginRadius to get your API key, visitors will be able to login to your website and leave comments using services such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and LinkedIn. The plugin also allows you to add social media sharing buttons to your above and below posts and floated to the side of your content.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/loginradius-for-wordpress/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1680 border" alt="LoginRadius" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/login-radius.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/login-radius.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/login-radius-300x267.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="LoginRadius" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/loginradius-for-wordpress/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/loginradius-for-wordpress/

4. Social Login

Powered by title="OneAll" href="http://www.oneall.com/">OneAll, Social Login allows visitors to connect to your website using over 20 different social media services. The OneAll website also provides an insight into how people are sharing content on your website.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/oa-social-login/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1681 border" alt="Social Login" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-login.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-login.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-login-300x267.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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  Visit online: title="Social Login" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/oa-social-login/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/oa-social-login/

5. Social Login & Social Sharing by Janrain

Powered by the title="Janrain" href="http://janrain.com/products/engage/social-login/">Janrain service, this social login plugin allows visitors to login using one of over 20 supported social media services. It looks great and it is optimised for mobile devices. It also provides stats on how many people have logged in using their service.

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 Visit online: title="Social Login & Social Sharing by Janrain" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/rpx/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/rpx/

6. Social Media Widget

A great social media widget that supports most major social media services. There are four different icon styles to choose from, three different sizes and four animations. Additional options include the opacity level of icons, whether links are opened in a new tab and whether links are dofollow.

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 Visit online: title="Social Media Widget" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-widget/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-widget/

7. My Pinterest Badge

My Pinterest Badge is a Pinterest widget that shows your number of followers and likes. It contains a large follow button and lists your recent pins.

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  Visit online: title="My Pinterest Badge" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/my-pinterest-badge/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/my-pinterest-badge/

8. Social Media Tabs

Social Media Tabs is a cool WordPress widget that can display profiles for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, RSS and Pinterest. It works differently to most other social media follow plugins. Icons are displayed discretely at the side of your website design and when a user clicks on an icon, the corresponding social media profile slides out. It sounds quite gimmicky but it works well in practice.

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 Visit online: title="Social Media Tabs" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-tabs/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-tabs/

9. Social Stickers

Social Stickers is a follow plugin that offers a range of different sizes and styles.

It supports shortcodes and it can be used to display the number of Twitter and Facebook followers you have.

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 Visit online: title="Social Stickers" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-stickers/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-stickers/

10. Floating Social Media Icon

This plugin is quite unique in that social media icons can be displayed within your widget area or be floated outside your main design. There are lots of different sizes and styles to choose from and you can choose the alignment of icons too.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/floating-social-media-icon/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1687 border" alt="Floating Social Media Icon" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/floating-social-media-icon.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/floating-social-media-icon.png 529w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/floating-social-media-icon-300x230.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px" />

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 Visit online: title="Floating Social Media Icon" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/floating-social-media-icon/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/floating-social-media-icon/

11. Simple Social Icons

Released by StudioPress, Simple Social Icons is a stylish social media follow plugin that supports all major social media services. It offers a lot of control over how the buttons are styled. You can icon size, alignment and the font and background colours.

href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-social-icons/">class="size-full wp-image-1688 alignright border" alt="Simple Social Icons" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/simple-social-icons.png" width="340" height="98" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/simple-social-icons.png 340w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/simple-social-icons-300x86.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px" />

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 Visit online: title="Simple Social Icons" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-social-icons/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-social-icons/

12. Brankic Social Media Widget

The Brankic social media widget supports a whopping 49 social media services. When you hover over the dark icon, it transitions to a bright coloured version of the same icon.

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 Visit online: title="Brankic Social Media Widget" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/brankic-social-media-widget/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/brankic-social-media-widget/

13. Social Media Feather

A clean looking social media plugin that offers follow and sharing buttons. There are lots of different styles and sizes to choose from and buttons load quickly as it does not use Javascript.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-feather/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1694 border" alt="Social Media Feather" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-media-feather.png" width="750" height="431" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-media-feather.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-media-feather-300x172.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

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 Visit online: title="Social Media Feather" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-feather/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-feather/

14. Facebook

The official plugin from Facebook offers everything you need. With regards to widgets, it adds a follow button, like box, like button, recent activity, recommendations and a send button. It also allows you to integrate Facebook comments into your website and has support for the open graph protocol.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/facebook/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1690 border" alt="Facebook" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/facebook.png" width="750" />

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 Visit online: title="Facebook" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/facebook/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/facebook/

15. Simply Instagram

Simply Instagram lets you display your latest Instagram photos using a widget or shortcode. It gives you a lot of flexibility over what is displayed. You can simply display your latest photos or you can add additional information such as a follow button and your number of followers. The size of thumbnails can also be adjusted.

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 Visit online: title="Simply Instagram" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-instagram/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-instagram/

16. WP to Twitter

WP to Twitter allows you to automatically update your Twitter account with your latest tweets. It supports hashtags and you can shorten URL’s using your favourite URL shortener. It also offers support for Google Analytics.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-to-twitter/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1692 border" alt="WP to Twitter" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wp-to-twitter.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wp-to-twitter.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wp-to-twitter-300x106.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="WP to Twitter" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-to-twitter/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-to-twitter/

17. Sociable

Sociable is one of the most popular sharing plugins available for WordPress. It is also one of the oldest. Most popular social media services are supported and the plugin offers a lot of different icon styles too. Sharing buttons can be displayed above and below posts. You can also use a floating share bar to display your content outside your main content area.

href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sociable/">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1683" alt="Sociable" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sociable.png" width="600" height="313" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sociable.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sociable-300x156.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Sociable" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sociable/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/sociable/

18. Shareaholic

Formerly known as Sexy Bookmarks, Shareaholic offers sharing buttons, analytics and the ability to display related content. There are different styles, sizes and layouts of sharing buttons. You can also add a counter to buttons to highlight how many shares an article has.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sexybookmarks/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1695 border" alt="Shareaholic" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/shareaholic.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/shareaholic.png 523w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/shareaholic-300x180.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 523px) 100vw, 523px" />

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 Visit online: title="Shareaholic" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sexybookmarks/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/sexybookmarks/

19. Sharebar

A versatile floating share bar that lets you define the exact position on your page. Small or large buttons can be displayed though you can add your own button code if you wish. A horizontal share bar is displayed if the width of the page is less than 1,000 pixels.

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 Visit online: title="Sharebar" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sharebar/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/sharebar/

20. Slick Social Share Buttons

Slick Social Share Buttons offers a vertical or a horizontal sharing bar. The bar can be floated or can be slid out. You can control how the bar is displayed such as its offset position and the speed the bar slides out. Different button sizes can be displayed and the admin area displays the number of shares for each article.

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 Visit online: title="Slick Social Share Buttons" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/slick-social-share-buttons/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/slick-social-share-buttons/

21. Flare

Flare is a plugin that is growing in popularity. It allows you to show the total number of shares above posts, below posts and on a floating share bar. When a visitor hovers over the count of a particular social media service, the standard sharing button is displayed that allows them to share the article. It also offers a follow widget. If you want to see Flare in action, look no further, as it is currently being used on href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net">Web Hosting Secret Revealed.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/flare/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1698" alt="Flare" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/flare.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/flare.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/flare-300x105.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Flare" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/flare/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/flare/

22. Floating Social Media Links

A flexible social media floating share bar that has five predefined styles. You can also add your own custom style and define your own sharing buttons.

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 Visit online: title="Floating Social Media Links" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/floating-social-media-links/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/floating-social-media-links/

23. WP Socializer

WP Socializer is a self-declared “All in One” sharing solution for WordPress that lets you add a sharing bar above posts, below posts and in a floating share bar. It also allows you to use Facebook and Google+ like widgets on your website.

There are a few features that set WP Socializer apart such as the sheer volume of social media services that are supported. It currently supports a whopping 107 social media services. This is probably more than anyone ever needs though I am sure this appeals to those of you need support for less popular social media services. It also allows you to define exactly where sharing buttons are displayed. You can choose to show buttons in areas such as category pages, tag pages, author pages, data archives, search results, excerpts and RSS feeds.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-socializer/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1701 border" alt="WP Socializer" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wp-socializer.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wp-socializer.png 552w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wp-socializer-300x160.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 552px) 100vw, 552px" />

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  Visit online: title="WP Socializer" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-socializer/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-socializer/

24. Sharexy

Sharexy is another plugin that allows you to place sharing buttons above posts, below posts and within a floating share bar. It supports over 20 social media services and there are six different styles to choose from. The icons are very stylish so it should appeal to those of you who are looking for something different.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sharexy/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1702" alt="Sharexy" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sharexy.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sharexy.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sharexy-300x167.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Sharexy" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/sharexy/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/sharexy/

25. AddThis

AddThis is one of the most popular sharing services on the internet, apparently being used by over 14 million websites. The WordPress plugin allows you to add sharing buttons above or below your posts. Signing up to their service is not necessary though doing so allows you to see additional stats such as the number of shares and clicks an article has.

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 Visit online: title="AddThis" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/addthis/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/addthis/

26. Digg Digg

Digg Digg is another all-in-one sharing plugin you might want to consider. It offers a floating share bar or a standard sharing bar that can be placed above or below posts. Small and large official sharing buttons are supported.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/digg-digg/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1704 border" alt="Digg Digg" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/diggdigg.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/diggdigg.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/diggdigg-300x110.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Digg Digg" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/digg-digg/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/digg-digg/

27. ShareThis

style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/share-this/">class=" wp-image-1705 alignright border" alt="ShareThis" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sharethis.png" width="346" height="66" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sharethis.png 432w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sharethis-300x57.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px" />

In addition to AddThis, ShareThis is one of the most common sharing services you will see online. The WordPress plugin allows you to integrate sharing buttons onto your website easily. Vertical floating bars and regular horizontal sharing bars can be selected. There are lots of different styles to choose from and a ridiculous 120 social media services to choose from. There is also a feature called CopyNShare that allows you to track the number of times visitors have copied and shared your URL or content.

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 Visit online: title="ShareThis" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/share-this/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/share-this/

28. Word Count and Social Shares

One of the most interesting social media stat plugins available for WordPress. The plugin highlights the number of words your articles have and the corresponding number of shares on social media services.

This will help you analyse what types of articles do well on particular websites. For example, you may find that shorter articles get a lot of tweets but very few comments on Facebook in comparison to longer articles.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/word-count-and-social-shares/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1706 border" alt="Word Count and Social Shares" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/word-count-and-social-shares.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/word-count-and-social-shares.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/word-count-and-social-shares-300x148.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Word Count and Social Shares" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/word-count-and-social-shares/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/word-count-and-social-shares/

29. Social Sharing Analytics

A social analysis plugin that supports supports Twitter, Facebook and Google+. One of the great things about Social Sharing Analytics is that it adds sharing counts for your posts directly within your post listing screen. The downside to this is that your post area will take slightly longer to load, however this is the price you pay for having everything displayed on the one page.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-sharing-stats/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1707 border" alt="Social Sharing Analytics" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-sharing-stats.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-sharing-stats.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-sharing-stats-300x211.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

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 Visit online: title="Social Sharing Analytics" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-sharing-stats/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-sharing-stats/

30. Social Metrics

Social Metrics offers similar functionality to Social Sharing Analytics. The key difference is that metrics are displayed on a dedicated page on your site. This is a much more practical way to display this information as it does not slow down your main post listings page. Social Metrics also offers additional social media services. In addition to Twitter, Facebook and Google+, it also supports StumbleUpon, Digg and LinkedIn. Results can be filtered easily by category or date. The pro version of the plugin has some great features such as displaying your most popular posts in your sidebar.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-metrics/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1708 border" alt="Social Metrics" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-metrics.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-metrics.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/social-metrics-300x143.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

class="meteor-icon" style="font-size:15px !important;">
class="icon-file-text-alt" style="color:inherit !important;">
 Visit online: title="Social Metrics" href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-metrics/" target="_blank">http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-metrics/

I hope you have enjoyed this list of social media plugins for WordPress. If I have missed out your favourite plugin from this list, please feel free to share it in the comment area.

Good luck,
Kevin

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