Is that what YOU do?

Of the 500+ authors I’ve had the honour and pleasure to host at my treehouse blog and the (literally) thousands of visitors, only a few have actually used more than one of the many share buttons available under the articles to send them into the ethers of the Internet …..

The most used button?

Twitter!

This I can understand because you don’t have to think up any catchy phrases or do any thinking about what to say – all you need to do is click it and the article heading is sent out to all your Twitterati (SHOULD be a word)

(My little Twittersphere currently has 5000+ followers who receive notification of all my blog and re-blog posts!)

The second most used button?

Facebook!

This is usually an author who wants to share their article, but only to their own Timeline – they tend to forget to send it also to all their FB Groups!

(Currently, I have 1100+ FB friends who can see my blog and re-blog posts.

The other buttons for Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Pinterest, Pocket and Tumblr are almost never used.

So I ask myself why are they not being used and why do WordPress make them available?

Maybe authors and visitors don’t know how useful these other types of media may be, let me try (in my stumbling, bumbling ape-like way) to help.

Google+

It may not, by now, surprise you to know that every post you see on my blog, including re-blogs, are automatically and manually sent out to the Public at large PLUS my G+ Followers, connections and circles.

What is the result?  Well, currently I have 1900+ followers plus 2000+ other connections there in my circles and my page has had almost 2,000,000+ views to date – that’s a LOT of publicity for authors.

LinkedIn

This is not just a site for ‘Professionals’ to promote themselves, it can also be used by Authors (published or aspiring) to promote themselves as well and Readers who are looking for new authors, reading groups, etc!

(Currently I have 5000+ contacts who receive my posts automatically.

Pinterest

This is a great way to show folks your interests in all manner of things.

My 31 boards are viewed regularly by 1300+ followers who often either like, or re-pin things they like, or even leave comments against them!

Two of my boards are dedicated to Authors Photos and their Book Covers and they are looked at often too – MORE publicity for authors!

StumbleUpon

This is a great way to get my blog posts out into the wider world and have had many blog visitors almost every day calling by through an article posted there.

Reddit

I must be honest and am still trying to figure this one out – it seems a little restrictive, however it does seem to bring visitors into my blog.

Digg

I don’t really know much about this or how it’s supposed to work, but I post my authors articles there and do get visitors from it as well 🙂

Pocket

You can use this to save articles you want to keep for reading later or re-reading (e.g., informative, advice, editing tips, etc)

Finally

Thank goodness I hear you say – thought he was NEVER going to shut up!)

All the above followers and connections and views are on top of my SRA blog’s 5000+ followers and 1,000,000+ views to date!

SO – my message is:

Use ALL the share buttons you can – (for best results, share them directly from the blog article – this was advice given to me by Moderators of several groups)

Use some of them MORE THAN ONCE, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and StumbleUpon (but DO NOT SPAM)

Share with your online groups in Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc, (again, for best results, share them directly from the blog article).

REMEMBER it’s never too late to share your article around – even if it’s months old – it will still be of interest to people, especially those who didn’t see it when it was first published!

GO ON – you KNOW you WANT to 😀

Stats updated 12 March 2017