Share Buttons: Good or Bad?
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David
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February 21st, 2013
Social media marketing has become the number one way bloggers and content creators market their content. The reason behind this is twofold. First it’s free so it isn’t as financially burdensome as traditional advertising, and second because it cultivates a community around the content, which advertising fails to do. Every blogger, therefore probably recognizes the benefit of offering readers the opportunity of sharing their content on certain social networks through share buttons. Are there any disadvantages to offering share buttons on your blog?
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing at its core is very simple. It basically consists of sharing your blog content on social networks. Of course there are things that you need to be aware of to properly market your content over social media. The first thing to know is that every social network is different and has a different audience. This means that you need to cultivate your community on each social network separately. Second, you need to know that every social network requires participation if you want your social media marketing plan to be successful.
The final thing you need to know about social media marketing is that it takes time and effort before you see any results. The reason is that you need to actively communicate with your community, instead of just spewing your content forth and hoping people click on the links. It also takes time for people to come to know your content. At first they won’t know you, so they will not be as likely to click on your links.
Share Buttons and their advantages
Every social network has share buttons that allow bloggers to offer their readers with ways of sharing content through social media. The advantages are pretty obvious. Your content can be marketed much better through the lips of others than it will ever be marketed through your social media accounts. Other people sharing your content means that they are giving their seal of approval to that content, which means their friends will trust that content more than if it came from a stranger. It also broadens your audience to people who would never come to your blog without the prod from their friends and followers.
Share Buttons and their Disadvantages
The main disadvantage to having share buttons on your site is slowness. All social share buttons require outside code to render on your page, which means your page will have to go fetch that code. The technical details aside, the bottom line is that your site will load slower. Slower load times means two things. First, visitors, who are notoriously impatient, will leave your site more often. Second, Google will penalize your blog for slow load times in their search rankings, which could affect your traffic significantly.
You have to weigh whether the accompanying slowness is worth it for you. For most people the advantages outweigh the disadvantages when it comes social share buttons. Prioritize what share buttons you put on your blog. It makes no sense to include a button that no one clicks.