Social Media Overview for WordPress

SOCIAL MEDIA + WORDPRESS Integrating Social Media Plugins and Tools with WordPress to increase brand awareness and website traffic Noel Saw, Co-organizer SoCal WordPress & Santa Monica WordPress Meetup Groups, WPVerse.com © Noel Saw - All Rights Reserved | [email protected] | @wpverse | noelsaw.com/+

Best Practices • Content, Content, Content

• Did I mention (good) content Is king?

• Usual checklist: •  Are the home page and navigation bar easy to understand? •  And does your search box work as it should? •  Does your site load quickly – target 5 to 7 seconds

• Make sure you can see results of campaigns •  Recommended plugins: Google Analyticator, XML-Sitemaps, and

All-in-One SEO

Best Practices (Cont’d) • Use SEO services: ScribeSEO, WooRank

• Using aggregator service like Pixelpipe to post across Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin

Traffic Sources

Feb. 2010 / TechCrunch

Traffic Sources (Cont’d)

Dec. 2010 / TechCrunch

Traffic Sources (Cont’d) Remember, the chart numbers are mainstream demographics – consider your target market. For example tech savy users might have higher usage of Twitter than the general public. • Don’t forget – there’s also:

•  Linkedin •  Viral:

•  Word of mouth •  Email •  Meetup groups!

•  Local Review Sites •  Blogroll (link trade) •  Organic search engine traffic •  Advertising

The New Google+ system • What’s Google+1 and What’s Google+ ? • Google+ is a social network hybrid like Twitter & FB combined • Google+1 button is similar to Facebook’s Like button

•  The +1 button is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.”

•  Your +1 selections show up in your Google+ social network profile under “+1’s” on the main navigation

•  Think of it as a sort of a universal bookmarking tool that you can retrieve from multiple devices. A “Delicious” app in the making.

• Add Google+1 button to sidebar widget •  “Google +1” plugin widget •  Or “Add Twitter, Facebook Like, Google plus one Social share” plugin

Post/Page sharing tools • Why do you want your readers to share posts or pages?

•  Facebook like/share or Tweet the post/page

• Recommended plugins for inline content sharing: •  Sharedaddy (also part of Jetpack – does not include Linkedin) •  Share and Follow

• Alternative method is to have a sidebar or an overlay at the bottom of your page •  Sidebar: “Add Twitter, Facebook Like, Google plus one Social

share” •  Bottom: “WP Social Toolbar” by Daddy Design

Social Profile Links • Some themes incorporate a row or column of social

network profile icons like Platform Pro at the top of the site • Or add to widget area with “Social Profiles Sidebar

Widget” plugin • You’ll will probably need to tweak CSS to match the theme • Use “My Custom CSS” plugin to modify CSS so theme

and plugin upgrades are not lost.

How to use Twitter • Did you register your Twitter name? • What do you use Twitter for? • Scheduling Twitter feeds for free with Timely.is • Make friends who will re-tweet you to amplify • Recommended plugin:

•  Twitter Goodies Widget •  Is Twitter overrated? You decide – depending on your

demographics. • Use Klout to get an estimate on someone’s popularity

Facebook & FB fan page • Possibly #1 driver of traffic depending on your

demographics • Create a Facebook fan page • Use Networked Blogs service to automatically pull in new

blog titles and links into your personal or fan page

Free Tools to Schedule Tweets •  Timely.is – built in analytics • Hoot suite - limited free • Pixelpipe - pushes across many networks except Google+

for now. Even has IM robot to let you IM updates! • Unfortunately there is no official Google+ API so

aggregator services are not supporting it yet

Going Local •  “Yelp It” plugin shows your business rating and link • Also add your business profile to Google Places

somewhere on your site like the widget area

Recommended Plugins/Services – Stuff I’ve personally used and like: •  Google +1” plugin •  Google Analyticator •  Sharedaddy plugin •  Share and Follow plugin •  Twitter Goodies plugin •  All-in-One SEO plugin •  “Yelp it” plugin •  Pixelpipe service •  WooRank service •  Networked Blogs service •  Timely.is service •  Klout service

Thank you! If you’d like to contact me

[email protected] @wpverse noelsaw.com/+

I am available for custom development and/or one one training sessions Please do not distribute without permission © Copyright 2011 Noel Saw - All Rights Reserved

Bonus material • Web Design / User Experience Guiding Principles:

•  http://goo.gl/TUrI •  Understand the problem / Don’t hurt anyone / Make Things Simple

& Intuitive / Acknowledge the user is not like you / Have Empathy

• Google’s 8 Pillars of Innovation •  http://goo.gl/q1vCd

•  7 Essentials of a Customer-centric Business: •  http://goo.gl/puwT9 •  Predictable / Efficient / Convenient / Personal / Advocacy / Affirming