Social shares have the power to benefit your business in a number of ways including increased website traffic, increased visibility, free press and even increased sales. This week, Facebook has exciting news to share as they announce they have officially surpassed Google with regards to traffic to news websites.
Facebook and Google
How was Facebook able to surpass Google as a major source for news? Facebook has social shares to thank for the milestone! This is actually the second time that Facebook has outdone Google in the news realm, however, the first time was only for a brief period of time. This was last year and the difference in numbers was quite small whereas this time around, Facebook is significantly in the lead and research indicates the social media giant is a long way from slowing down.
Along with the power of social shares, Facebook surpassing Google as a news source is also a valid reflection of the continued support and push for social media as well as a reflection for the weakening of the importance of SEO in the eyes of many.
Taking Advantage of Social Shares
This is all further support for the importance of receiving shares for your content on social media. To encourage shares from visitors to your websites, help them along by making the experience simple and easy to access by way of social share buttons. Installing social share buttons is rather easy and straightforward and the benefits are significant. To add, many website visitors decide to share content they may not have considered sharing upon seeing social share buttons. They also serve as a reminder to share content they enjoy.
Get social share buttons for all of the most crucial social networks for your firm such as Facebook, Twitter Google+, LinkedIn and email. You may even customize them to draw further attention to them and to encourage more shares. It is also a great idea to make your website “pinnable” so that visitors may quickly and easily pin images and videos from your site to their Pinterest boards, gaining you increased reach and traffic in the process.
As with anything, too much of a good thing is not beneficial. Resist adding all of the social share buttons you can find. That can have the unintentional effect of scaring users away from sharing and it will simultaneously take away from the design balance and level of professionalism of your company website.
