Decisions, decisions, decisions. It’s tough enough to come up with blog topics to fill your editorial calendar, and then also select a design for your blog. Now, with hundreds of social media sites to choose from, how do you decide which social networks to include in your social media buttons set?

Surely you want to optimize your blog for sharing and cater to all readers by offering their favorite social networks in your social media buttons. But if you try to be everything to everybody, you could clutter your site with too many choices.

How to Select the Right Social Networks

There are two ways you can be sure to select the social networks that matter most to your site. First, you can check out where your readers are already sharing your content the most with Shareaholic’s website profiles.

This breakdown for the NY Times shows that Facebook is the most popular site to share to.

Next, in your Google Analytics, check out which sites send you the most referral traffic and generate pageviews. Click on the Traffic Sources drop down menu to see a list of your referral sites.

Takeaway? Nevermind the endless infographics and reports that tell you what the most popular social networks. You know your readers. Include the buttons that are right for them.

The Social Network Breakdown

Facebook - With more than 800 million users, Facebook is by far the most widely-used social network. The Facebook “like” button shows your readers who else from their network recommended the article and enables them to post it to their Facebook profile. The Facebook “send” button helps readers send the article directly to a Facebook friend, several friends, or a Facebook group. If you’re going to choose either one, the Facebook “like” button is probably the one to get.

Twitter - Twitter is another highly popular site, processing more than 230 million Tweets a day! This button is a must-have, as the nature of how users get value out of Twitter lends itself to content sharing. Including this button on your blog, in combination with participating in the conversation yourself, will surely drive traffic to your posts.

LinkedIn - Professional social network LinkedIn has more than 100 million users. It features a Facebook-like newsfeed on the main page that shows the content users share. The most-shared content is curated on LinkedIn Today. If you run a B2B blog, the LinkedIn button is one you want to be sure to include.

Google+ - Google+ is a new kid on the block, but now that Google integrates Google+ shares into search results, it’s a must-have component of your social media button set.

Social Bookmarking - There are literally hundreds of sites that aggregate links for your potential readers to discover. Reddit, Stumbleupon, Digg and Delicious are among the most popular, with Reddit showing impressive growth and Stumbleupon sending more than 700 million pageviews to other sites in December 2011. Again, dig into your own analytics to find out the best site for your readers. That said, also pay attention to the mainstream trends of reading and sharing.

Pinterest – This photo story-boarding social network is yet another new kid on the block.

You may notice that you’re already getting traffic from Pinterest, especially if you run a photo-heavy lifestyle blog. Pinterest users collect photos (by “pinning” them) into online collages (called “boards.”) It is particularly popular among readers who consume lifestyle content. Think weddings, recipes, interior design, fashion, makeup etc. The Pinterest button is coming soon to Shareaholic’s button set, but in the meantime your readers can share photos from your site with our Pinterest Chrome plugin.

Think of your social media buttons as calls-to-action – if you offer too many choices, you may confuse your readers and they may not choose anything at all. Choose your buttons wisely. Like any feature on your blog, pay attention to trends, but include the ones that are the best fit for your audience.

How did you choose the buttons to put on your blog? Let us know in the comments!

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Get Shareaholic for Your Blog!

We’ve taught you before about the importance of optimizing your blog posts for SEO in order to make your content shareable. But beyond tags and keywords, there are ways you can structure your blog posts in order to generate traffic and shares. This perfect blog post blueprint from Business2Community shows you how to structure your posts for success. Follow this blog post blueprint to outline your content ideas and ensure you’re prepared to include the most important features when you publish them.

We may be biased, so we certainly agree that social sharing buttons are key. Recommending related posts at the bottom of your post and including a comments plugin like Livefyre are also quite important. One tip I’d add is to include a call to action to subscribe to your posts, either by email or RSS. However, the infographic creator may have left that out as you can include that in your sidebar and not below each post.

Top 3 Blogging Tips

These were my favorite blogging tips and takeaways from the infographic.

1. Blog post title: It should be creative and include your main keyword or phrase

The blog post headline is one of the most important parts of your post. It’s what potential readers see as a preview to your content when it’s shared on social media, and it plays a huge part in their decision of whether to click that link or not. So make it count.

2. Body copy and opening paragraph: State your purpose and objectives. Include keywords and variations of those phrases.

There’s so much content for your readers to consume these days. If you want them to share your content, you’ve got to have a hook to keep their attention so they read your piece and pass it along – versus quickly closing the page and moving on to the next intriguing link in their newsfeeds. Stating your purpose is a great way to hook them because it’s setting the value proposition right in the beginning. Answer these questions: What will your readers learn from your post? Why are you talking about the trend, research, or tools that you are talking about?

3. Include a list.

Breaking up your content into a list format makes it easy for your audience to digest. It shows off the teachings of your post in a simpler way than long paragraphs. Bold text, headings, H2 text and bullet points also serve this purpose. Give it a try.

What blogging tips did you glean from the infographic? Let us know in the comments!

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Get Shareaholic for Your Blog!

YCombinator’s popular content bookmarking site Hacker News is highly-trafficked by the entrepreneurial community. For those who aren’t familiar, don’t be fooled by the simple design – Hacker News attracts over 120,000 unique visitors on an average weekday and can drive serious traffic to the posts that are featured.

An important thing to remember for your business’ blog is that promoting your content is equally as important as creating it in the first place. Consistently, more and more channels emerge where potential readers can discover your content. Cross-posting the same stuff isn’t the most effective use of your network. You need to strategize your promotion on each platform individually.

When it comes to promoting your blog posts on Hacker News, here are some things to consider:

1. Participate First

It seems like just about every social media guru will tell you how important it is to “be authentic” and “listen first” before “joining the conversation” on Twitter, Facebook etc. While that advice has been repeated many times, it’s for a good reason: It’s true. It’s especially true for Hacker News. If you want others to vote up and comment on your own blog post links, it’s a good idea to do the same for them first.

This post by Hacker News community member Alex Blom caught my eye. One of Alex’s posts went viral on Hacker News, but it wasn’t something he typically tried to do on the site.

“In all honesty I’ve been a reader and occasional commenter on HN for some time but had never considered putting any of my articles into the feed. Now I’m glad I tried!”

He participated first, then reaped the benefits of the traffic bump later.

2. Determine if Hacker News is the Right Audience for Your Startup

If you’re a startup guy or gal, chances are you’re a fan of Hacker News. But does that necessarily mean that your potential customers are? Maybe, maybe not.

Not all traffic is created equal. A ton of visits from an unqualified source won’t convert into beta signups, leads or customers if what you’re selling isn’t relevant to them. From a content marketing standpoint, your time may actually be better spent on other things, like guest posting on an industry blog.

That said, the tech audience on Hacker News audience includes a ton of early adopters who are more open to things like beta invites than the average bear. So Hacker News could be worth your time, but your strategy for it may not be obvious and could require some brainstorming.

3. Write a Post That’s Relevant for the Hacker News Audience

Choose a topic that will resonate with the tech audience. Offering tips to your potential customers is already a great blogging strategy. Giving those tips a startup angle is a good way to connect with this specific segment of your target audience. If you take this route, be sure to optimize your blog post with a call to action so that you generate conversions with your content.

If your potential customers aren’t necessarily a fit for Hacker News, you can still generate visibility for your startup by promoting a post on there. Post on your personal blog about lessons learned from a marketing campaign or your perspective on a startup issue. Well-written pieces that teach the startup community something new or offers a fresh perspective on an often-talked about topic will get votes. And because you’re representing your brand on a certain level, you can generate awareness for your startup.

4. Get a Little Help From Your Friends

Your blog post is published and you’re ready to post to Hacker News. Good stuff! Now you need to enlist the help of your loyal comrads to get this thing on the front page.

Personally asking for a few votes is one way to go, but make sure you make it easy for people to share your post on Hacker News in the first place. Shareaholic’s WordPress plugin includes Hacker News as one of the dozens of sites your readers can share to. Be sure to include it in your social sharing buttons set.

Another bonus? If you use the Shareaholic Chrome plugin, you can share the article to Twitter and other social networks right from Hacker News as soon as you post it to the site.

Beyond Hacker News, the best content marketing tip I could give for a startup is to stick with it. With everyone creating content, there’s information overload out there and you have to be consistently remarkable to cut above the noise. A traffic bump from Hacker News would be amazing, but it isn’t the end-all-be-all for your blog. Frequent, outstanding content will generate subscribers and shares, as well as buzz and leads for your product. Things like Hacker News or getting retweeted by an influencer are a leg-up, but there really are no shortcuts. You still need to follow up that success with even more, and even better content in order to stand out from the crowd.

How do you promote your startup’s content? Let us know in the comments!

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Make it easier than ever to share your favorite posts right from Hacker News. Get Shareaholic for Chrome!

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