Who knew social media was so sexy
Let’s face it, we are in a new world of online marketing and social media is one of the best ways to find a willing audience, interact with them, and build long lasting relationships for your blog. Sometimes I forget what I didn’t know when I sent off my first tweet, dug my first article, or tried to figure out why anyone would care what my status was on facebook. A year later and a healthy dose of social media and I can say that Twitter and Facebook have been one of the largest contributors to my blog’s success (besides content worth its weight in gold). Hopefully, you won’t realize that online content has no weight…
The Right Way to Gain Influence
Nine months after signing up for twitter I am now approaching 2,500 followers. I like to think the majority of them are really interested in what I have to say. I have not built up this list in sleazy ways by following hundreds of people, unfollowing them after they follow me back and then spamming another 100 people. DO NOT do this. Unless you are OK with being a Di#@. But if you do do it, I will protest, unfollow you and ban you from TBC. Yeah, it’s all the justice that I can deliver in my small part of the internet.
One excellent way of gaining relevant followers is by having your content Retweeted. It is also an excellent way of driving new traffic to your blog if you have linked to your article, or someone tweets your article after reading it. Recently, while tweeting TBC Challenger posts I found a consistent glaring mistake: Not adding twitter names to the retweets that are going out from tweet buttons on their blogs. Not only are you losing the chance to have credit added to your post (by adding via @toddwassel or RT @toddwassel) but you also might be limiting the number of people tweeting your content.
I hate it when a person’s twitter name does not come up when I tweet from their blog post. Partly because it seems like the post is mine to begin with and I don’t want anyone to assume I am stealing another person’s idea. So, if the name does not appear then I don’t tweet it.
Another problem that I have noticed is that the Share This plug-in that people are using adds the plug-in’s twitter name (like @addthis). Why on earth would you want to promote another person’s twitter account with your wonderful content? The joy of travel blogging is that we are trying to create a life where we have time to travel. The more time spent writing, promoting, engaging with social media, finding an audience, and encouraging traffic is less time spent traveling and experiencing life. You should ONLY install social media buttons that help you do all of these things at once, while you are off diving a house reef in the Maldives or trekking to Machu Pichu.
Social Media influence is an asset that will add value to your marketing strategy and advertising bottom lines. Plus you get to meet tons of cool new people 
Today’s Homework
Today your homework is simple but will reap significant benefits even while you are unplugged from the internet. Your homework is to optimize your social media buttons on your site. If you don’t have any social media buttons your first step is to get some! I have recently decided to try limiting the options to the sites I care most about (Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, good old E-mail). Others like to give all the options in the world. Try both and see what works best for you (we will talk more about split testing in the future).
Now that you have the buttons installed, check every single one to make sure your brand, name, whatever is attached. This is most obvious for twitter but you want to make sure things show up easy to read and pretty in facebook as well.
If you want an example go ahead and TWEET THIS ARTICLE. No, seriously, tweet it, I dare you. You know what you will find? You’ll find my twitter name. To accomplish this I had to remove the twitter function from my ShareThis plug-in and use a different plug-in (tweetmeme). For me this little extra effort pays off big time.
Share Your Latest Post
Join the discussion over at the forum and see what others have done and what social media buttons they like best. Share a link to your own post in the forum at Blog Homework 4 and let the community here help spread your wonderful stories, pictures and videos. If you are not registered in the forum yet, click the link to the top right to get started.
And of course we love it when you post your ideas in the comments so have at it. What plug-ins do you like best for social media sharing? Feel free to insert links to the plugins.
About Todd Wassel
Todd, this is also a pet peeve of mine. I use my Share This browser tool bar plugin when someone’s buttons aren’t sufficient. This is a prevalent problem on websites. Sharing and promoting your work should be a top priority on your blog, therefore these simple buttons, proper meta tags and meta pictures need to be set effectively.
When I retweet someone’s article that doesn’t have an @their_name sometimes I get answers back in a retweet because they think it was me that wrote the article.
Jason recently posted..Where to Travel Before the World Ends
Glad to know that I’m not the only one! I know that some things are just technical issues BUT, if a site does not care enough to include its name, why should I care enough to promote it?
I will often make the effort to manually post the author’s twitter name because I realize that people make technical mistakes all the time (background in tech support) and I sympathize. I have not made much of an effort to correct this — though now I can direct them to this article — but I do work on educating folks on one of the other major social networking tools: Facebook Fan Pages.
I was surprised at how many bloggers do NOT have FB fan pages. I think I have managed to convice 3-4 bloggers in the last week alone to set up fan pages. It makes it SO much easier to keep up on and promote their content! Heck, it’s how I found this post!
I encourage people to set one up and then give them 3 more bits of info:
1) how to get a clean URL after they get 25 ‘likes’: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=383008189821 (note from FB admins)
2) the importance of having a FAN page vs. adding friends to a personal account (against the ToS, in most cases; invites potential abuse of private information; is much easier to brand and promote; etc. etc.): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unfriend-Fake-Profiles-Not-a-Real-Person/156767774374769 (page recently set up by an IT friend of mine)
3) how to build your Facebook landing page (something I need to do myself): http://socialmouths.com/blog/2010/10/27/build-your-facebook-landing-page/
I have been considering setting up a sub-domain on my blog with exactly these kinds of tips.
Cheers!
Katrina recently posted..The Passport Initiative
Hey Katrina, thanks for pointing out the importance of FB Fan Page. Having mine for Todd’s Wanderings has been a huge help and a great way interact with readers and other bloggers. If you ever want to write a FB guest post please let me know.
Wow!! Thank you Katrina for pointing me to the landing/welcome page article. This is on my to-do list for the weekend now! You rock!!
@Gillian and @Globetrotter girls: my pleasure! I no longer work directly in IT, but I still love helping people with technology.
And yes, Todd, would love to do a post.
Katrina recently posted..Quote- If you follow your bliss…
We totally agree – A Facebook page is a great way to promote a new post, and we have to say that most blogs we read are the ones that come up in our Facebook updates (including this post!).
Katrina – thanks so much for that link to create a landing page, we’ve been trying to figure out how to do that for ages!!
Globetrottergirls recently posted..Polaroid of the week- Climbing for coconuts on Little Corn Island
Todd: Whoa! I checked the “ShareThis” pop-up window at the bottom of my posts and found the Tweets were being sent from AddThis, as you said. Not good! I’m modifying per your suggestion and taking it down to only a select few. Thank you so much for pointing this out.
Fortunately, I have a more prominent Tweet and Facebook button at the top of each post. I have switched from Tweetmeme to WP Tweet Button, which is the WordPress implementation of the official Twitter Tweet Button. It works better, IMHO.
Keep up the good work!
holeinthedonut recently posted..Officially Adopted by My Yoga Guru and his Nepali Family
Glad I can help Barbara
I was chastised by No Vacation Required for not having a Stumble button on my site here. OK, OK, not chastised but they did send a polite e-mail to me to remind me of good practices 
Sometimes we just need another eye to see things we forget about.
I currently use Share and Follow for the buttons that appear at the end of my posts, and then TweetMeme at the top of my posts. I have made sure my TweetMeme button adds @DangerousBiz to tweets. I’d like to add Facebook and Stumble Upon buttons at the top of my posts, but have not yet found a good plugin for them yet. So any suggestions would be great!
Amanda recently posted..Thursday Traveler- Lynda of Live Travel Blog
I have a great one and will post it tomorrow when I have time. I’m tired now and have had too much raki (Balkan grappa!)
Todd, in setting up my new blog I want to know this as well. I love digg digg but it doesn’t work for me any more. UGH!! I’ve got it set up, activated, and everything but they don’t show up at all on my page.
budgettravelsac recently posted..Photos of the valley
Not sure what is wrong with your Digg Digg. I use it on my WordPress.org blog and have no problems with it. What theme are you using? Amanda, Digg Digg was going to be my suggestion. I will dig (pun intended) around for other options. Would be great if others list which ones they use (that allow for the customization I talk about in the post) and I will create a resource document with our favorite plugins.
Todd | Todd’sWanderings recently posted..The First Time I Almost Died-Ha Long Bay- Vietnam
Thanks, Todd! Just downloaded and installed Digg Digg. Exactly what I was looking for!
DangerousBiz recently posted..The Forbidden City- Not So Forbidden Any More
I use Sexy Bookmarks. Tweets and posts on Facebook correctly, plus has a billion and one options for other social media venues, if you so desire: http://sexybookmarks.shareaholic.com/
Katrina recently posted..The Passport Initiative
You have a good point there!
My tweets also ended with “via addthis”.
It took me an evening and quite some customizing, but I have been able to adjust my tweets to:
SHORT URL — TITLE | via @Waldorf27 | nicolasdecorte.be
e.g. http://tinyurl.com/4deqoxf — Flying on a budget | via @Waldorf27 | nicolasdecorte.be
Now nothing is keeping you from tweeting my posts I guess :-p
Nicolas De Corte recently posted..5 Important tips for the beginning travel photographer
Hi Nicolas, Just my personal preference but I would but the Title first, then the link. Your twitter name can be before or after but I would get rid of the “|” as well as “nicolasdecorte.be” You need to pick one brand name on twitter and become known for it. I use my full name @toddwassel. I want people to like and follow Todd’s Wanderings BUT i want them the know my name more. It means that I will not be as well known as quickly but it also means I can use one twitter name for 2 blogs
Hi Todd, I like the switch between title and url. It’s indeed better to first read the title instead of a meaningless short URL.
But I do prefer to keep both my Twitter name and my domain name in the Tweet. The problem is that by my twitter name you can never figure out that I’m the guy from nicolasdecorte.be (wrong pick long time ago) so it might be interesting to get both names linked.
So currently it’s like this:
What to do with your digital photos while traveling? — http://tinyurl.com/48v8q7c via @Waldorf27 | nicolasdecorte.be
Nicolas De Corte recently posted..Why good photos require research and planning
Todd, thanks for pointing this out. I’ve just adjusted my TweetMeme plugin
Finally I will know who retweeted my posts! 
Magda @DestinationWorld recently posted..5 top reasons to go on a career break trip
Great!
yep- Mine didn’t work either… fixed it! Totally agree about RTing people’s links. The last two weeks have been crazy (rebuilding the site) that I’ve had a hard time keeping up with it, but now that the site is mostly back online, I know I can find the time. Great advice, as always!
jade recently posted..Traveler’s Night In- Australia Edition
I’ve had to your twitter name to a number of posts when I RT. Thanks for making it easier for me now!
budgettravelsac recently posted..Photos of the valley
I can’t tell you how frustrating this has been for me on my new blog. Getting this set up and finding the right plugin to use has been a pain. I like digg digg but now it won’t work on my new site. My current/old site (listed below) is wordpress.com in which we are extremely limited in which sharing features we can use and what we can modify (I can’t add my Twitter name to my tweets there but will fix this in the new blog). I love the social media buttons and use them on EVERY blog I read. It’s a great tool and a BIG mistake not to have these!
For a lot of people I read, they have the @addthis on there. I am nice enough to where I always take it off and will look up someone’s twitter name and at it to the tweet before them before I RT.
budgettravelsac recently posted..Photos of the valley
the RT button thing without the person’s @ being put in there is sooooooo annoying. Help me help you!! So frustrating that I just don’t RT their stuff.
Michael Hodson recently posted..2011 Travel Plans for… me
Excellent post, thank you for sharing. One thing I’ll note, I have used tweetmeme for a while and when you go through the process of retweeting an article with this plugin, it doesn’t appear that it is adding the RT@YourName, but once it is tweeted this is automatically added.
For example, if I try to RT this post using the plugin, at first glance I don’t see your twitter handle. It’s only after it’s been tweeted that it appears
Hey Matt, we may have a different setting because the RT @name always shows in the tweet preview box for me. Not sure why it would be different though. Does anyone else havemthw same issue as Matt?
Great advice about the tweet button. I am going to fix ours right now…
The NVR Guys recently posted..NVR Toolkit – Be Grateful
It was you guys who got me thinking about my stumble button! Always good to get another set of eyes from trusted peers. On that note I have been talking with Amar and we are considering doing some site evaluations for a lucky few who are signed up for the mail updates. That is, if people are interested
Yep you guys are one of the guilty ones too. I have kindly been adding RT @NVRguys to all your posts.
I have the same issue with my blog but I can’t change it til I switch over to wordpress.org.
budgettravelsac recently posted..Travel photo of the week – Big Lake- AZ
Your post and the comments have been very helpful. I guess I’ve got some work to do on this.
Cathy Sweeney recently posted..San Francisco Travel Tribe January 4- 2011
Fantastic idea! I always thought it was a raw deal that your name didn’t show, but didn’t know you could change it. I just updated mine and it was really easy. Great info, thanks! Definitely worth a RT!
Laurel@ExpatGermany recently posted..4 Reasons to Turn a Holiday Romance Into the Real Thing
Todd,
I just retweeted this, using the “retweet” button, but your name didn’t appear in my RT – just thought I’d let you know.
Laurel@ExpatGermany recently posted..4 Reasons to Turn a Holiday Romance Into the Real Thing
Really? I have tested it over and over again, and others have as well and it has always put my name! If anyone has any thoughts on this I would appreciate the feedback….embarrassing
I just checked your twitter feed and you are right it doesn’t show up. HELP
I tried again and this time your name came up. Very strange!
Expatgermany recently posted..4 Reasons to Turn a Holiday Romance Into the Real Thing
Great!!! I was feeling very very embarrassed
Gotta love technology and its hiccups 
Like Jeremy, I used the digg-digg plug in. All of a sudden, it disappeared. I’m now using something similar, Sharebar, Does the same stuff as digg-digg.
Michael Schuermann recently posted..An Après-Hike With Bill Bryson
Good suggestions Michael, I checked out Sharebar when I was designing the TBC. It looks good and I’m thinking of switching to it for Todd’s Wanderings as while I love Digg Digg it conflicts a bit with my theme and takes some time to load. Of course I am about to change Todd’s Wanderings to a new theme…but this a whole other Topic.
Cracking tip! Off to check mine now too! I’m back in the game baby, yeah!
JOOLS great to see you back! I still owe you a guest post…luckily I was just in Japan and have some great new info.
I’m the same way. I usually don’t retweet if they don’t have their name automatically entered. There are a few exceptions where I will search out someones twitter name and put it in there, but that can take too much time. I think we use tweetmeme for twitter and addthis for everything else.
Christy @ Ordinary Traveler recently posted..The TSA- Protecting Us From Snow Globes with X-Rays and Pat-Downs 5
Great post Todd! I get so peeved by this too, especially when I really want to retweet their work but doing so means a lot of extra time for me, and it is limited. When it is not set up with their name and I know their twitter handle I will still tweet it using my hootlet.
If I can make another suggestions. I think it might be share this but one of those little plug ins that come at the end of a post- if they have a list of a hundred social media sites to choose from I usually walk away. Scrolling through to find the twitter button is a real hassle.
I love digg digg. I think it is the best plug in. Buttons are easy to see and use. And it can be all done from the website rather than being taken through to another page.
Caz Makepeace recently posted..Daily Travel Photo- Giraffe- Kruger Park South Africa
Thanks Caz, I guess I should not be amazed that others have been frustrated by the NoName issue as well. I agree with you on the Share This issue and having too many choices. I hate it and hate having to search for my social media of choice. I am using ShareThis (rather than Share This, but they both have the same issue. There is a happy medium with ShareThis where you can have the buttons you want to show right away (like mine at the bottom left of my post) and then you can add a button that opens a box with all the choices.
But as I had no idea before I used the plugin how that box could be used, I figured my readers would also be confused. They they are confused they tend not to do anything. If someone only uses facebook, or twitter, or even e-mail I am happy. I decided to use e-mail as a test after studying Yahoo articles and I’m happy to say some people are using it.
Digg Digg is great. I just wish I could get it to work again. Like Michael, it worked for a while and now it doesn’t. Have no clue why. But with setting up a new blog, that is just one of many issues I am working on.
Caz, your blog has been my model for setting up my new one. So if you see some similarities when it is launched, you know why!
budgettravelsac recently posted..Travel photo of the week – Big Lake- AZ
No worries Jeremy! Glad we can help. We are actually going through a custom design, so ours should change over the next month., Just trying to make it look like a professional design rather than what we slapped together!
Caz Makepeace recently posted..Daily Travel Photo- Yosemite National Park- California
By the amount of comments to this post alone I must say that your social media tactics are working. I am still struggling but like twitter and digg it best.
inka recently posted..Karagöz and Hacivat- Turkish shadow theatre
A fellow blogger politely pointed out my tweet button deficiencies a little while ago. I was so grateful that she took the time to help me. I fixed it up right away and find that I now get more RT’s…yay! Thanks for bringing this to light Todd!
Gillian recently posted..FollowFriday 14Jan2011
I have used sexy bookmarks as a footer (but with the non-sexy image pointing to it). I think that it is a good and streamlined footer that is tailorable to the sites of your choosing. Included in those are facebook, stumbleupon, twitter, digg, reddit, and a few more.
The two complaints I have about it -
1) I put mine on my site when it was relatively new, I stole it from 1 person, now it seems like everyone has it. Not a bad thing, because bloggers know how to use it, but I like being unique
2) The images are half sunken, which doesn’t inspire people to hover to reveal them as much as other options. So I might look for something else.
I also have Tweetmeme in the top right of the post that has my ID embedded. I like that a lot. I tried getting a stumbleupon one too, but the coding just did not work at all so I gave up.
I feel like I am using social networking fairly well, except for my Facebook Fan Page… oops
+1 for being annoyed when people don’t include their twitter handle in the retweet buttons. How else are you supposed to know who has retweeted your post?
I recently installed Sharebar which floats along the side of the post. That works well but I don’t think it looks great.
I have used Sexybookmarks in the past but I found it created problems with my feed which stopped being updated. I didn’t have that problem with every site I was using it on but it was definitely causing problems. You might want to check your feed if you’re using that.
Andrea recently posted..5 Great Day Trips from Paris
Thank you! It took me a while, but I’ve finally added the TweetMeMe button at the top with my Twitter handle included as RT. I also updated my Facebook Fan Page url to be cleaner. Now I’m going to work on that Facebook Landing page – that project will definitely be a challenge, but every little bit counts! I have gotten so much helpful advice from TBC – thanks a lot for starting this project, Todd. I’m working!!
In addition to all the wonderful recommendations made here in the comments, I’m going to throw out my two cents. I recently stumbled upon the Wibiya toolbar on a friend’s blog and have become obsessed with it. It allows for tons of different content sharing methods including some I’d never heard of. In addition it’s very customizable and even imbeds a site specific search bar. It keeps traffic on your site and allows sharing without tweeting the @wibiya name and including your own @username as the author of the blog.
abbey recently posted..My Review of a Soon-To-Be Classic American Travel Novel
Hi Abbey,
Thanks for bring this up. I’d love to hear what people think who are using the Wibiya toolbar. I thought about it before but decided against is as I just didn’t like the look attached to my site. Can you track clicks on it?
Very embarrassing, I just found out that my tweeter button in my “damn sexy bookmark” gives gibberish webpage! At least I have different button (tweetmeme) that works. Ok, got to fix that now.
Dina recently posted..Ballsy Kangaroo
Btw, in my tweetmeme, automatically after the post title, it says “| Vagabond Quest”, which is a waste of space (I rather have it only with @VagabondQuest in the front). I notice your tweetmeme doesn’t give you that. What did you do to remove it?
Dina recently posted..Ballsy Kangaroo
yes, you have to go into your tweetmeme plug-in setting. You should be able to write what you want displayed and where.
Hey Todd, I´m happy to have found your advice here. However, I´ve been struggling to find inside the tweetmeme plug-in setting the place to add my twitter username. Could you please maybe give a coding example for this?
Hi Marilia, no coding needed, if you actually have the tweetmeme plug-in. Go to your left sidebar in your WordPress admin area and scroll down until you find the Tweetmeme section. Click the “tweetmeme” link (rather than the “twitter” link) and it will take you to the settings page. here scroll down until you find “Source RT @” and just enter your twitter name after the @
Good luck!
Great pointers as usual. I have tweeked my social media buttons in the last week, and as a result, my facebook fans have gone up almost 25% in just the last week alone, also helping me in one of my goals from one of the first homework assignments. Honestly, Todd, this site has helped me tremendously in getting me more focused. The goal setting alone, and finally making myself accountable and having a real plan, has been great these last few weeks. Thanks again!
aseper recently posted..Punta Tombo Picture and Video Post
Thank you I have been so frustrated with my Add This rewet button and wibyia.
Could you please list the steps of removing the twitter from the Share-This plug-in and inserting tweetme.
Hi Skychi, I don’t think you are able to replace the twitter function with the tweetme function in Share-This plug-in. The best that I was able to do was remove twitter, and then add another plugin for tweetme. You can see the results in my articles here on TBC. Also, I use ShareThis and not Share-This
I guess there is a difference.
Thanks a lot for your help Todd, now my tweetmeme is all set (I actually had another plugin and changed it).
Marilia recently posted..About our unconventional family