In blogging the #1 rule is Create Great Content #2 is Create Pinnable Images and #3 is Make Your Content Easy to Share. When I visit a site and read a post that I want to share I want to be able to click a button, write a brief comment and hit send. I like helping you amplify your awesome content, just like I hope you will help amplify mine. The easiest way to help your readers share your content is by using social sharing buttons.

Some of your Social Sharing Options

There are tons of different social sharing options available for both WordPress and Blogger blogs. Of course, WordPress has more options and IMHO you should first get off of Blogger and move to WordPress with the Total Blogger to WordPress Transfer Package, but that is also another blog post.

WordPress and Blogger Social Sharing Options

ShareThis is a very easy to configure and add to your site social sharing option. As you can see in the above picture, you have multiple choices as to how you want the buttons to look on your site. If you want to show the numbers or not is totally personal preference but I have read studies that show that, posts with large sharing numbers tend to get shared even more because the numbers give it more validity as an important post.

AddThis offers 4 styles of social sharing buttons for Blogger and WordPress blogs. WordPress users just need to download and configure the AddThis plugin.

Shareaholic is a very popular social sharing tool as of late with their signature “sharing is caring” tag to help encourage readers to share your content.

WordPress Only Social Sharing Options

Recently I changed my social sharing buttons to Digg Digg. I figure if it is good enough for Mashable it is good enough for me, right? Actually, I like the floating bar on the side of each post and having the buttons on the bottom of the post as well. I have tested button location and for me, side and bottom get more clicks than top but your blog and readers may respond differently.

Simple Share is another easy to configure WordPress social sharing plugin.

Jetpack is a powerful multi-faceted plugin for WordPress that can actually take the place of several of your other plugins. One of the many things Jetpack can do is add social sharing buttons to your posts. If you are on WordPress and you aren’t using Jetpack, I suggest you look into it.

Flare is the newest kid on the block and I like the way it looks. It is a bit more involved to install compared to the others I have listed here. If you are comfortable working in WordPress, more than just installing and configuring a plugin, then you should be able to install Flare to your site no problem.

These are just a few of the social sharing buttons available for WordPress and/or blogger. If none of these float your boat just Google Search “social sharing buttons for___” (insert your blogging platform) and you will find many more options available.

Which social media sites should I offer buttons for?

Unless you are a news site you don’t need to offer every social network known to man. I feel you need to offer the basic 5:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• G+
• StumbleUpon

I also like having Buffer as an option because if I am sharing a lot of posts I like to be able to schedule them so my stream doesn’t look spammy.

I hope you have found this post helpful. If you have, please use my social sharing buttons below to share it with your friends and followers :-).

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