Do you want to get more traffic from social networks?
According to Alexa research, social media networks drive 0.8% – 12.2% Website traffic, news and information sites receive the most social media traffic.
One way to drive social media traffic to your website is to encourage your website visitors to share your content with their social media connections.
In this article, we will show you how to add social sharing buttons to your website to increase social media traffic to your website.
Where should you use social share buttons
What is the most shareable content on your website?
Most likely, if you have a blog, it will be your blog content.
Think about the content on your site that people most want to share, and make sure the content has social sharing buttons.
According to some studies, exceptions are those with specific call to action.
According to VWO, the number of clicks to the main CTA (add to cart) button has increased 11.9% When the social share button is removed from the login page.
When making changes to your website, the best way to do it is to A/B test it.
Make sure the main goal of the page benefits from adding social sharing buttons.
How Top Publications Use Social Share Buttons
Since news and information sites get the most social media traffic, let’s see how the top news sites use social share buttons.
Starting with Billboard.com, you’ll see social sharing buttons at the top of the article, below the title.
Some social media experts believe that this is not the best place for a social share button.
Ideally, visitors don’t decide to share an article until they read it.
Entrepreneurs solve this problem with their social share buttons.
When you start scrolling through an article, social sharing buttons appear in the upper right corner of the screen.
Screenshot via Entrepreneur.com, December 2021This option allows readers to share the article as soon as it is ready, even if they haven’t finished it yet.
Yahoo Sports offers a similar feature on their website.
As you scroll through an article, their social share buttons float to the side of the screen.
Yahoo.com screenshot, December 2021This also allows readers to share articles when they are ready without having to scroll all the way to the top or end of the article.
Harvard Business Review provides social sharing buttons at the top of the article and below the author’s byline at the bottom of the article.
Screenshot via HBR.org, December 2021Unfortunately, those social sharing buttons will not be available to those who have not completed the article.
Publishers like CNET hide social share buttons with a simple share icon at the top of their posts.
Screenshot via CNET.com, December 2021Visitors won’t see separate social sharing buttons until they click the share icon.
This means that many visitors may not even notice these buttons.
Medium platform users get social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of the post.
Also, it’s possible to tweet when someone selects a small amount of text.
Screenshot from TowardsDataScience.com, December 2021Using this method, you can get shares from the beginning of the post, the end of the post, and custom tweets from start to finish.
As you can see, there are multiple ways to implement social share buttons in your content.
If your readers are used to visiting any of these or other popular blogs, they should be familiar with the sharing options available.
Official social sharing buttons
Most of the top social networks offer their own official social sharing buttons.
For example, Twitter provides customizable buttons that allow visitors to your website to share your content, follow you on Twitter, mention you on Twitter, tweet with hashtags, or send private messages.
Screenshot from Twitter.com, December 2021Meta for Developers provides a Facebook share button configurator.
It allows you to choose from different styles of Facebook share buttons including box counter, button counter or no counter.
Screenshot of Facebook.com, December 2021Pinterest provides a widget builder similar to Twitter and Facebook, so site owners can create Pin and Save buttons for their site content.
Screenshot of Pinterest.com, December 2021Social Sharing Plugins and Apps
Enable additional sharing options, such as email, and sharing to other social networks, not just Twitter and Facebook, you will need the help of a social sharing plugin or app.
These plugins and apps work with specific website platforms to help your visitors share your content with their contacts via email and social media.
Below are some of the most popular social sharing tools you can use to enable social sharing on your website.
Most work on multiple platforms, not just WordPress.
1. Share this
share this is a free-to-use service that allows you to add social sharing buttons to your WordPress or Shopify website.
They offer inline social share buttons and social share buttons floating next to your content.
2. add this
add this is another social sharing service that lets you add buttons to your website on several popular platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, Tumblr, and Blogger.
AddThis offers a variety of placement options, including inline social share buttons and social share buttons floating to the side of your content.
3. Add to any
add to any Social share buttons also work on various website platforms, including WordPress, Tumblr, Drupal, and Joomla. AddToAny offers several placement options, just like the other plugins above.
4. Sharer
sharing mania Allows you to add inline and floating social share buttons to your website. It works with WordPress, Drupal, Tumblr, and can embed code on any website.
5. The Eye of the Elf
Elf Eye is a premium social share button plugin that provides responsive social share buttons with customizable design and layout.
It works with most website platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Weebly, and more.
in conclusion
The key to using social share buttons in a beneficial way is choosing the right button for your content.
You must know on which social networks your readers want to share content and which social network users are most likely to click on your content.
Once you have these social networks in mind, add their social sharing buttons to your content.
be sure A/B testing Different placements and track your social media traffic for any changes.
More resources:
Featured image: vladwel/Shutterstock
