Do you know there are over 20 million people join as fans of Facebook Fan Pages daily? Forget about restricting Facebook as a private network. If you can get 5% of those people to land and join your fan page, the impact will be significant. Time to boost popularity of your fan page with the right Facebook applications.

I setup a fan page for Social @ Blogging Tracker 5 months ago. Since then I witnessed the wonders it did to my blog traffic, proven it’s one heck of a networking site to promote our blogs and online presence. If a Ms. Nobody like me can gain some from it, you definitely can too!

Facebook Applications to Boost Fan Page Popularity

Quit feeling comfortable with the basic fan page layout. You are gathering supporters to form a community. Make your fans proud with a decent fan page and give first-timers something to talk about. Get your coffee ready for we’re going on a Facebook app expedition. Check out what you can do to your Facebook fan page tabs and boxes with:

Media to Enhance Fan’s Participation & Engagement

1. SlideShare

One of the must have applications if you’re into slide presentations. Don’t limit your slides on SlideShare , integrate your account into fan page (limitation of one account per fan page). Import existing or selected presentations based on relevancy and you fans will love you for it.

Suggested Read : How to Design Effective Slides

2. NutshellMail

NutshellMail is originally a management tool to sum up your social network activities and have them sent to you via email. Its integration allows the page owner to update status, reply to comments easily from within the email:

But that’s not all.

NetshellMail has recently provided Facebook Fan Page admin the efficiency to create automated email newsletter for fans to subscribe! Now fans can decide what and when can they receive emails highlighting latest updates based on delivery preferences. A wonderful feature to assist busy fans to follow up and comment on wall posts through email directly. (Note: Does not support Discussion Board updates)

3. Reviews

Reviews are similar to testimonials. Now you can request your fans to review your blog, service or product to build credibility. Give new visitors some ideas about your branding. However, placing the ‘reviews’ tab meaning you are open to all positive and negative comments, kindly be aware of that. Here is an example of the review I did for my blogger friend, Luci on her fan page:

4. Poll

A fun and non-stressful way for all fans to participate. Insert a customized poll and have your fans select their choice of answer(s). Send an update to them about the poll will double the effect (be moderate with messages, not TOO frequent). Tweet about it, anything to get the message out. Fantastic way to collect data and monitor responses. Notify your fans the final results and request opinions. Here’s an example:

5. YouTube Video Box

Video sharing can never be easier in Facebook fan pages. Say if you’re a blogger, showcasing self-made YouTube tutorial videos on Wordpress customizations can both be helpful to your fans and own reputation. Or, import your favorite videos to share with fans depending on your page niche. Even humor can be an effective ice-breaker sometimes.

Tip: If you intend to upload videos from other video hosting sites, you can copy and paste the given video URL using the Link application. Alternatively, you can record and upload own video straight to Facebook using the Video application.

6. RSS Graffiti

When we talked about autopost from blogs to Facebook Fan Page, integration tools and NetworkedBlogs are among the favorites. Thanks to Hartley’s recommendation, I tried and fell in love with RSS Graffiti immediately – the updating is almost instantaneous! You can even configure a prefix to your latest blog post to be shown with the thumbnail image and post excerpt.

7. Static FBML

Here comes my favorite part of this article. For all bloggers you should be familiar with HTML codes for blog customizations and such. Well, now you can fix up a desired tab in your fan page according to your likings with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language). This advanced feature allows page admins to modify or add extra info to their fan pages using the HTML or FBML, for example setup a landing page, displaying social media profiles etc.

When you’re in my fan page, clearly you can see some added tabs above the Wall posts. These are just some of the examples you can get out of Static FBML:

i) Landing Page

ii) Member of the Month 2010!

The reason I setup this tab is to Give Back. Our fan page has started Weekly Post fr Member since launch, but now we will be featuring some really cool members monthly (starting March, 2010) based on their participations in the fan page. I do encourage fellow visitors/ readers to head right over and see how you can take part as well. A free promo tab been setup just for YOU !

Important Note to Embed YouTube Video:

To copy & paste the embedding code straight from YouTube video won’t work in Static FBML. Kindly follow the general FBML coding as shown below with minor adjustments (free to adjust the color, border size at will ; width and height can refer to the dimension for that particular video’s embedded code):

For example, If the Video link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcdef     (width=”425” ; height=”344“)

The FBML coding for the video will be:

<fb:swf swfbgcolor="000000" imgstyle="border-width:3px; border-color:white;" swfsrc='http://www.youtube.com/v/abcdef' imgsrc=http://img.youtube.com/vi/abcdef/2.jpg;" width='425' height='344' />

8. Extended Info

Ever felt like never been given enough space for your personal, company, service details in fan page? Extended Info solves your problem by providing a wide range of selections you can choose for insertion: videos, images, tags, categories, FBML block, with or without links. Position them in tabs, boxes or even info section to spice up your fan page.

Remark:  Extended Info vs. Static FBML

a) Extended Info

• Able to customize both personal account and Facebook Fan Page;

• A wide range of info styles to choose from;

• Unable to rename ‘Extended Info’ tab.

b) Static FBML

• Only works in Facebook Fan Page;

• Flexibility to rename your tab or boxes.

9. More Extended Info

No catch here. It works exactly as #8, enables you to add a clone or an extra Info tab whenever necessary.

Extra Tip: Profile HTML

This application is not grouped within fan page applications, but since we’re here talking about added info, I’m going to encourage you to include Profile HTML to your personal account. Make it a call to action: a sign up box, a display of your popular blog posts etc. For me, I publicize my fan page so friends can join if they like to:

10. Memorable Web Address

Ever came across this notice when you’re navigate within Facebook?

We do not know when will this happen, as I am currently using an awful lot of box tabs on my fan page, setup a memorable web address seems like a smart thing to do. Why regret later? Don’t forget to make your web address easy to find and memorable. Inform your fans about the new assigned URL for extra info.

11. Discussion Board

Discussion Board is normally ready on your tab when you setup Facebook Fan Page. Discussion Board is a mini forum for you and fans to hang out and help one another. Remind them about this tab frequently, encourage active discussions to build engaging relationship among the fans.

Suggested Read : How To Receive Notification for New Responses in Facebook Discussion Board

12. Notes

Another well known Facebook application that already placed on your tab when signed in. Most people use Notes to import their blog posts while at the same time using NetworkedBlogs or Social RSS for the same purpose. Actually we can diverse the use of Notes for special announcements instead. Notes has a ’share’ button that can be used to get the message viral. Don’t limit the good news within your fan page. Encourage your fans to share the note if they find it useful.

Applications to Display Social Media Profiles

Information that will help boost your online profile is a must:

13. My Account (is @ Twitter)

Showcase your Twitter account on fan page, at the same time you will able to find out who else on Facebook is currently using this application. Connect him or her to extend the network further in Twitter. Create a Twitter list and monitor them from time to time.

Another bonus given by this application is a Twitter badge for your sidebar:

Social Media Profile on Admin’s Facebook Account

I was feeling puzzled earlier why these applications allowing ‘Add to my Page’ but showing the customized tabs on admin’s personal account? Then it struck me that admin is also an important factor for a page’s popularity. If we can master the communication and community management, our networks will reap from the benefits:

14. LinkedIn profile

LikedIn profile offers you badges with multiple size range. You never know who you might meet and chances are, somebody who appreciate your talent is dying to cooperate with you professionally. Why throw away that chance to get acquainted? You may gain more supporters in your fan page out of a successful collaboration.

15. Skype Me

If you’re into real time conversations, Skype Me is a good option. This application puts a tab on your personal page that allows you to be contacted easily. Talk to your fans or setup a group chat on your network.

16. Web Profiles

If you have more social media profiles to be included, don’t limit yourself. Web profiles app amazes me with hundreds of embedding buttons, all we need to do is type in the username and voila! A link is placed for each social button chosen.

You don’t have to use all 16 but pick the suitable ones that will help instead of burdening your page with distractions. Review and improvise your fan page accordingly, request opinions from your existing fans on what they hope to gain from your fan page. Never stop Promoting your Facebook Fan Page outside the network. Apply Fan Box Widget on your website and make it visible to all visitors.

Now Is Your Turn…

What other Facebook applications you would suggest to be added to the list? How is your experience with Facebook Fan Page so far? If you have yet to start a fan page, what has hindered you from trying? Share your thoughts in the comments, love to hear them!

More Tips are on the way, so make sure you subscribe to this blog to get the latest updates.

A lot of resolutions been talked about lately. How many of you have set up goals based on what you’ve learned in the past? Now I must admit, initially I have no intention to do a blog review based on performances in 2009. To dig up old archive seem troublesome and it’s much better to save effort for a much productive work, right? Wrong.

Measuring blog success isn’t just about bragging how good you are, but identify how much you could or should have done to improve blog traffic. Bottom line, if you are serious to increase blog traffic, a review is needed for:

• Periodic goal-settings

• Understanding own potentials and ability

• Measuring current blog status and progress

• Knowing parts to improve and avoiding repeated mistakes

• Following up on lost comments & connections

Based on these 6 ways to track blog success, I can have a general idea how my blog survived all the way from March, 2009 (1st post about social media). During the process, I immediately realized the first and utmost lesson is to involve Analytics and Feedburner more in my planning instead of just a casual check monthly.

Popularity and Blog Traffic Review

Results are ranging from 17th March, 2009 to 6th January 2010 (my 1st day of work in 2010):

What I love about tracking comments is to find out which post type attracts the most discussions; what matters to the readers when they visit and the content that stands out from the rest. Engagement is a big deal here therefore I’m blessed to have a group of loyal readers who are taking comments very seriously! May the spirit continues in 2010. Of course, in order to obtain more accurate results, social media strategies and time factor are to be taken into considerations as well.

Other criteria that helped in commenting: Do-Follow, CommentLuv (Reasons To Love), Blog Promoting via Social Media

Top 5 Famous Posts via Google Analytics:

13 Facebook Applications to Promote Your Blog
How To Pick Up From Your Blogging Downturns
How Seriously Do You Take Blog Comments?
16 Social Bookmarking Plugins to Promote Your Posts
16 Misconceptions About ‘Serious’ Blogging

The results are slightly different but undeniably, Facebook is a hot topic here. The post was only written in October, 2009 but it overtook other posts and came first in Analytics. Also, it made me realized which type of posts are search-worthy; which are favored in social bookmarking sites and so on.

My Top 5 Traffic Source in 2009

I’m only active in Stumbleupon after migrating to wordpress in July. SU brought me a lot of new visitors but its bounce rate was still among the highest comparing to other traffic source. In order to capture the right audience in StumbleUpon, do make sure the submitted post is tagged correctly. Here’s a great post of 5 Tactis to drive in traffic from StumbleUpon, old tricks but good tips. As for Google Search that improves to rank #3 out of no where, no doubt that Wordpress plugins such as All In One SEO helped me a great deal.

I believe migrating to Wordpress from Blogger is the smartest decision I made in 2009 to increase blog traffic.

Power of Twitter & StumbleUpon in Promoting Blog Posts

Even though I started to blog in August, 2008, I only switched to social media blogging in March, 2009. Between my first and last social media post in 2009, I found 2 spikes happened in May and September respectively. It was during the time when these 2 posts were published:

a) The Best of Twitter Desktop Clients – Secrets Revealed!

- (61% direct traffic while 21% Twitter.com)

I remembered clearly it was the magic of Twitter that drove in the traffic. Loic from Seesmic tweeted about this post and soon the tweet went viral! You may be surprised why Analytics showed most of the visits are from ‘direct traffic’ instead of Twitter.com, this is because some clicks from Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck, Twhirl etc will not be counted in Twitter.com but as ‘direct traffic’ to your blog.

b) How To Pick Up From Your Blogging Downturns – ( 85% stumbleupon)

I was very surprised with this result but I think part of the reasons is the kind support given by my blogger friends. Could it be due to the Su.pr evolution and easy-to-adapt toolbar for browsers which made stumbling quick and easy? I think so too since I’m also an active stumbler in the same way. Everyone can easily participate in more than one social media sites nowadays so it will definitely help if we manage to assist one another in post-promoting. That’s the beauty of integration and networking.

Now It’s Your Turn…

What is your most popular post and which social media site has been your main traffic source so far? Share your post link and ideas in the comment below.

Are you a prolific blogger who owns multiple blogs and eager to share everything on your Facebook Fan Page? If yes, congratulations! This post is dedicated to you.

We all are aware of how easy it is to autopost from A BLOG to facebook account. You can have plenty of app choices even among the 13 Facebook Applications to Promote Your Blog. However when it comes to multiple blogs, sometimes we are forced to input them manually or rely on combination of apps such as Notes, Social RSS to make it happen. Actually there’s an easier way!

Here’s a request earlier from a blogger friend who posted on my blog’s fan page :

As much Wordbook sounds promising, we know it is not capable enough to post for multiple blogs and to Facebook Fan Pages. Truth is, you don’t have to add any Wordpress plugins. The answer lies in the hand of NetworkedBlogs and I’m gonna show you how:

Register Your Blogs to NetworkedBlogs

First requirement is you need to make sure all your blogs are registered to NetworkedBlogs and you’re following them individually (skip this section if you’ve done that already):

1.  Add NetworkedBlogs to your Facebook application.

2.  Then click ‘Register a new blog’. Fill up the details required.

3.  At ‘Blog Feed’ section, click ‘Pull Now’ to import all posts from your blog. Refresh the page if needed.

4.  Verify your account for each blog (either way) following the instructions given (Repeat step 2 – 4 for your multiple blogs) :

Configure Your Facebook Fan Page For Autoposting

1.  Go to your Facebook Fan Page. Click ‘Edit Page’ to enter management page.

2.  Scroll all the way down to locate ‘Networkedblogs’ and hit ‘Edit’.

3.  All the blogs you’re currently following will be displayed in the Page Settings. Select the blogs you wish to import to your Facebook page.

4.  Grant permission and Save your settings.

Done. Now whenever your blogs are updated with new posts, they will be published on both Facebook page and personal account.

But, what if you wish to prevent personal account from receiving blog updates?

Some people may not like to harass their real life friends with business related info, here’s what you can do:

1.  In NetworkedBlog, look for ‘Feed Settings’ at the right sidebar to change your feed-posting preferences.

2.  At ‘Fan Pages’ section, click ‘Configure’ and mark the ‘Auto-Publish blog posts to Page Wall’ ; whereas for Personal Profile remained un-ticked.

That’s it! All can be done within Facebook Fan Page! Import as many entries you need to enhance blog traffic.

Here’s A Great News…

We reached 100 members today so we got ourselves a custom URL ~ facebook.com/SocialBloggingTracker ! YAY! You guys rock and can’t thank you all enough for the participation. If you haven’t join us, by all means! It’s a perfect place for all readers/social media enthusiasts to meet and get inspired!

Do you find the tutorial useful? If you know a better way to autopost from multiple blogs to Facebook Fan Pages, do share with us in your comment.

Having trouble separating social lives between leisure and work? Let Facebook Pages help you out.

I’m on Facebook Page for days now and glad that I don’t have to bombard my own profile site with updates my friends find annoyed *chuckle*. But being active on Twitter, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we get to publish selective tweets between personal and Facebook Pages? Good thing that’s now doable in various Twitter platforms and I’m going to show you how.

3 Easy Ways to Share Selective Tweets on Facebook Pages

Tweetdeck (v0.30.5)

1. Go To Tweetdeck Settings > Accounts > Add New Account > Add Your Facebook account.

You will prompt to add your Facebook Pages as well. Isn’t that convenient?

2. Approve the authorization to connect with Facebook by logging in.

3. Tweetdeck will display all Facebook Pages that you are administrated.

Pick either or all for your preferences; publish posts or comments without repeated logins:

4. Now your can update your Facebook account or Page(s) via Tweetdeck.

Seesmic Desktop (v0.6.2)

1. Go to Control Panel > Accounts > Click the ‘+’ sign & Add your Facebook account.

2. Click at the newly added Facebook account, you’re optional to have either or both included for:

a. Administered pages – Facebook Pages you’re an admin of.

b. Fan Pages – Pages you followed.

3. Make your selections after you’ve authorized and integrated Facebook Pages with your Seesmic Desktop.

4. Configure the Extended Permissions to have posts/comments published via Seesmic Desktop without repeated prompting.

5. There! Add as many Facebook Pages you like and start your selective tweeting.

Twitter Web Page Interface

If your computer system is not compatible to either one of the desktop client above, Facebook has a plugin that’ll work just fine with Twitter web page interface. Introducing:

Selective Twitter Status – choose particular tweets to be published on either Facebook profile or Fan Pages. Make sure your Twitter updates are NOT protected on Twitter. Put ‘#fb‘ at the end of each selected tweet as shown below:

a. Put #fb at the end of your tweet, for example–
Your message here http://your link #fb

b. have #fb followed by a space then a link, for example–
Your message here #fb http://your link

Add the Selective Twitter Status to your application. Remember to click ‘Add to Page’ first before proceeding to your Facebook Pages setup.

During the configuration, you can have either Your Profile or Your Fan Page(s) to integrate with Twitter account. We’ll look at the Fan Page configuration first:

1. Go to ‘Your Fan Pages‘. Only pages you’re an admin of will be displayed. Make your pick.

2. Type in your Twitter username > Save Changes.

3. In order to have BOTH Fan Page and personal account compatible with the plugin, you need to grant permission for Fan Page first before doing the same for profile.

4. After ‘Grant Permission‘, you’ll be directed to allow status updates as illustrated.

Choose your Fan Page first and click ‘Allow Status Updates‘ before you do the same for your profile page.

But make sure you have filled in your Twitter name first before authorization.

5. This is how the updates will appear in Fan Pages:

Isn’t it great? Problems solved! Now you can post however and whatever you wish interchanging your Facebook personal account and Fan Pages.

It’s Your Turn To Share

What other difficulties you faced while trying to integrate social media with one another? Do share your thoughts. And if you’re on Facebook, why not say hi and let’s connect at Facebook Page.

Can you do me a little favor to share this post with your network? ^^

It has been 5 days since Stumbleupon had a makeover, or, plan to.

Stumbleupon has long been my favorite social bookmarking site & blog traffic source. Ever since the emerge of Su.pr & firefox plugin, I hardly log in to its main site except to check on messages and friends’ submissions occasionally.

Enough said. You must be wondering what’s new?

The 3S – Simpler, Searchable & Sociable!

Simpler

New skyblue-ish interface is now towards simplicity. Upon logged in, you’ll notice main options ‘Discover, Favorites, Stumblers’ are arranged systematically on top. No more distracting tags splattering over the page (listed in dropdown menu of ‘Topic’). When selected, sub-tabs of each main option will display horizontally as shown. Neat and easy to navigate. The grid & list options stay.

Page submission and tagging much easier done through SU toolbar plugin. Take notice, as the current Stumbler URL is listed as www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/username instead of username.stumbleupon.com. Maybe the SU team will auto-update it for us in November. Will look into this.

Searchable

It is said that new Stumbleupon is much search-friendly now. You can have the keywords search not just within your own favorites, but friends’ or everyone’s as well. Amount of page views shown for each stumbled page; suggested search terms will be given if no match was found. With Best Match & Recently Rated options, you can have all the scoops related to your niche in no time.

I’ve tested but found out present interface has more accurate search results comparing to new. Perhaps may upgrade after the full implementation? We’ll see.

Socialble

Apart from email import, new Stumbleupon is facilitated with Search for stumbler option. Friend request is no longer available. Site-sharing will base on Accept shares to my toolbar setup or mutual subscribers. So be your friend’s SU subscribers if you plan to receive their recommended sites.

Similarity meter is gone for good, replaced by We both like.

It’s Up To You Now…

Go ahead and taste the switch. You can switch old interface back anytime before November. Dislike it? Feedback to SU team to have them review the changes.

If you like this post, kindly share it with your friends:

Request: “Hope you can write about FB applications to promote blog in future ! Thanks !”

Do you own a Facebook and a blog? If so, think you’re going to enjoy this week’s discussion. Thanks to S.Pradeep Kumar for bringing up the question during his visit at 16 Social Bookmarking Plugins to Promote Your Post. I’ve started a little journey digging through Facebook in past weeks, hoping to find some relevant ideas on how to promote your blog using Facebook applications. Before we’re getting into any of those, make sure you fill up as much information on your Facebook Profile as possible — digital name card for first timers:

13 Facebook Applications To Promote Your Blog

There are ways to frequent your blog’s visibility within Facebook network. Do bear in mind you don’t have to use ALL of them or keep your Wall busy with all the blog updates – especially if you are a productive daily-blog-poster. It may get a little annoyed and your friends may secretly switch off your news feed reminder so be smart on picking the ones that suit your network.

Basic Features:

1. Links & Updates

- Share your blog / post link with your friends to have them feedback or comment on it. Or easier, announce an update to have them all aware of the blog launch. Just a snap!

2. Notes

- Copy and paste your individual blog articles or import the entire blog feed into Notes so your friends can read them, either through link sharing or by tagging them. They can spread the notes on your behalf or comment on it as well. The notes can be viewed in Full or Compact (shown in pic) mode.

Blog/Posts Exposures via Additional Applications:

3. Facebook Pages

- Facebook Fan Pages can be a good idea for blog promoting when:

a. You plan to keep your personal Facebook account separated from your blogging community.

b. You can have discussion board, customized applications while sending email updates to ALL fans, as I like to call them supporters instead.

I have just setup my blog’s Facebook Page. Hope to see you guys there!

Social @ Blogging Tracker

Suggested Read: you may be interested in 16 Facebook Applications to Boost Popularity of Facebook Fan Page

.

4. Networked Blogs

- The most-used application to promote your blog on Facebook with the ability to network with other blogs easily through ‘follow’ option. Followers can post comment, rate the blog and enjoy meeting other followers. Not to mention it equips the ability to autopost from multiple blogs to your Facebook Page too! I had my Social @ Blogging Tracker all fixed up in NetworkedBlogs. It’ll be a privilege to see you there!

You can have your networked blogs visible at the sidebar, underneath your Facebook Profile or on your Facebook Pages. Displaying yours and other blogs you’ve joined or liked, served as an active blogroll apart from blog promotion.

5. Social RSS

- Provide RSS feed subscription for your blog through Facebook. Make your Social RSS visible by setting it appeared as box tab or at the sidebar. Tag the RSS with a familiar name like ‘blog’ so others will notice. Configure and fill up the required fields before activate it. The feeds will update automatically in accordance to your latest post.

6. Simplaris Blogcast

- Display your latest or chosen posts with or without graphic on your Facebook Profile (box tab or sidebar) or on Facebook Page. Normally latest posts will be displayed on your Facebook Wall as well if you preset it. Visibility is what Simplaris Blogcast do best, however the updating is quite slow sometimes and require manually setup (free version).

Indirect Methods:

7. Blog

- How about a little indirect method to promote your main site via ‘Blog’ on Facebook? This application allows you to blog directly on Facebook – by unmark the ‘private’ option you can make the post public in ‘Explore’ section to whoever is using the application. Extra audiences, why not? An idea I picked up from those who are using Tumblr and Posterous to promote their main blog.

8. Blog Box

- The efficiency of writing a post on Blog Box (similar to no.7: Blog) or import from your existing blog. If for the latter, it will update every 6 hours checking for new post on your main site. Unless you prefer to spend some dime on Pro version that may save time on the updating, for me that’s unnecessary. Blog Box is said to be visible outside Facebook too, so people can add your blog to Google Reader freely.

9. Blog It

- Ability to inter-posting between your social media sites and Facebook. Choices ranging from microblogging to various types of blogging platforms. I’m more into using it for microblogging instead of blog posts but that’s just the matter of preferences. Some similarities shown as Mirror Blog application.

10. Tumblelog

- The ability to display content from your Tumblr blog on your Facebook profile. If you own a Tumblr blog this application is worth a shot.

Extra Facebook Features:

11. Create Facebook Groups

- Create a group that you’re passionate about and have like-minded people to join in. Have on-going and active discussions, connect with members often. You may even find some new members interested in your writings too.

12. Facebook Ads

- If you’re willing to pay for publicity, another idea is via Facebook Ads. You can create a campaign to drive in traffic to your website or your well-known Facebook Page and more. The idea of reaching out to targeted readers varied by age, location, interests is what Facebook Ads do best.

13. Social Media Integration

- Ever since Facebook has decided to open up and willing to integrate with other social media and microblogging sites, sharing a blog post or promotion has never been easier. Through a well-written post you can gain massive exposure on Facebook when blog readers submit your post to:  Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Twitter and have it shown on their Facebook Wall ! As you’ve noticed I’ve tried a few on my Facebook, along with LinkedIn account info and Twitter updates:

a. Social Twitter

b. LinkedIn

Now It’s Your Turn…

If you have any experience gaining popularity to your blog using Facebook applications, feel free to share in the comment section. If it’s relevant I’ll be including it in the post and credit you a mention.

If you like this post, kindly share it with your networks:

How would you like your blog posts to go viral?

Ask any blogger, he/she will tell you: Submit your posts to social bookmarking sites; promote them on social networks.  Sure, but have we optimized our blogs for that challenge yet? Do your readers ever bother to use those lovely social bookmarking plugins beneath your post?

Educate Readers To Utilize Social Bookmarking Plugins.. HOW?

Since self-submissions are prohibited, it lies in the hands of our readers. They may like your post so much but no idea how to share it. What you can do is :

1. Increase visibility of your social bookmarking plugins. Make a post to showcase the tool if you have to.

2. Announce your newly adapted plugin or a social network you just joined; encourage readers to try/join as well.

3. Make a summon at the end of each post to whether ’stumble/tweet’ the post if they like it. Needless to sound pitiful or demanding, just a friendly reminder that makes them realize  ‘Ohhh.. I can do that! ‘

4. Create a poll. Ask your readers what are their likes/dislikes in post-sharing.

I enjoyed Darren’s latest post about The Myth of ‘Great Content’ Marketing Itself. Post-promoting is a part of content-seeding. If you don’t care about that little post-sharing plugin, your readers won’t either. Remember,

“A Quality Content is Nothing Without Audiences!”

16 Social Bookmarking Plugins To Promote Your Posts

Before that, let me share with you a plugin-check I had on blogs I subscribed (nearly 60% of them are the frequent visitors of my blog). Although the figures do not represent the majority but at least they show the behavior of those who I am networking with for the time being.

Good to know that most of them are using social bookmarking tools, but how about 25% who aren’t? Do they aware of the plugins or simply not planning to include one? Thanks to Christie and the discussion we had in one of her posts’ comment, I decided to test the Wordpress plugins myself. Instead of going into lengthy reviews, I decided to share them visually instead — the images can speak well for themselves.

Expandable Plugins vs. Displayed Social Bookmarking Icons

Expandable plugins required mouse-over or a mouse-click to expand the bookmarking list, usually supporting up to 50 to 100+ bookmarking sites; while displayed social bookmarking icons are more focus and visible, but limited choices. If you’re a visual type of visitor like I am, probably you are more into the latter. There’s no exact right or wrong pick, simply self-preferences. If you don’t own any just yet, now it’s a good time to grab one!

Expandable Plugins — A Click/Hover to Expand

1. Share This

2. AddThis

3. Socialmarker

4. Sexy Expand Bookmarking

5. Add To Any

6. ibegin share

7. Social Bookmarks

- The setting is ‘hide’ in default, meaning you need to click to expand the social bookmarking icons. You can preset the preferred icons to be shown:

Or you can have the icons displayed without hiding (arranging from 1 to 5 lines) :

Displayed Social Bookmarking Icons — One Clear View

8. Tweet This

- Plenty of social bookmarking sites to choose from, come in various styles, colors and sizes. Settings available to tweet your latest post.

9. AddToThis

- Simple is better. 5 nice-looking icons as shown below:

10. Bookmarkify

- Can reposition the plugin on top or bottom of the post. The ability to display all the icons chosen (multiple sites to choose from):

Or prevent them from crowding the area by adding a ‘More’ option for expansion.

11. diggZ-Et

- The familiar, good-old Digg button on top of your post.

12. Social Bookmarking RELOADED

- Exactly how they will show up underneath your post:

13. Social Dropdow

- Preset your favored social bookmarking/media sites and have them appear in each post. Adjust the drop down width according to your likings. Do aware while activating this plugin, you may need to embed a code as instructed in ‘other information’ to have them displayed properly:

Too many of them? Configure it for 1-click expansion instead, or ‘more’:

14. SocioFluid

- Absolutely one of my favorites for fun visual effects. Not only it has plenty of social bookmarking options, but including the flexibility to resize the icons (16, 24, 32, 48) and adjust placements (top/bottom). Below are the examples of 16px and 48px respectively:

Or better! Have it configured as when hovering you get to see the fluid-movements from small to enlarged. Pretty neat huh?

15. Top Social Bookmarking Buttons

- Yes, only 7 sites provided. If that’s all you need, why not?

16. Tweetmeme

- Not only it comes with analytics, but visible and easy tweeting with just one click. If you’re a Twitter fanatic, you’ll agree this is a must-have.

Now Is Your Turn

What is/are the criteria(s) affecting your choice in social bookmarking plugin? Kindly share your experience or likes/dislikes while sharing posts.

One more thing…

If you like this post (or this blog), can I ask you a tiny favor to vote for me on Famous Bloggers Club contest? No pressure though, it’s all Free Will. ^^ I advanced my thanks to your support.