At times it can be a little tricky to stay on top of your social media game. In this post I address some common issues I see on your blogs (that's right I mean you!) and provide simple solutions and a few short steps you can take to make sure you come out a winner. 
Get Your Social Media Game Right!
- #1. You’re not even on Twitter or Facebook yet – there’s an old saying: “Get a glove and get into the game!”
- #2. You don’t have sharing buttons next to your posts: I recommend the Digg Digg plugin (installation instructions are below) but the bare minimum you should have the Google +1 button, a Retweet button and a Facebook share button at the top of your post. These buttons are a subtle call to action, asking your readers to share your content without saying a word. If those buttons are missing you can pretty much bet that your content won't be shared. Search engines can send you traffic, but you want “people” to send you traffic too.
- #3. You don’t have your Twitter name set in whatever plugin you’re using: Stop what you're doing right now and fix this! Log into your dashboard, go to the settings page of the social sharing plugin and add your Twitter handle! Are you done yet? Look at it this way, if people Retweet your content and they don't include your Twitter handle, how are you ever going to know? How are you going to connect with people and find out who is out there evangelizing for your brand? Monitor your @ mentions, this way you can thank people and start making connections with them.
Use Social Media to Grow Your Network
- #4. You don’t belong to a network: If your a business professionals you should check out this awesome network I joined called Social Buzz Club, especially if you're a fan of Facebook and LinkedIn. If Twitter is your network of choice, join JustRetweet and Triberr – read my review here. I'm getting fabulous results and really expanding my reach with these two networks.
- #5. You don’t have your social media profile links on your blog: Your profile links should be above the fold DUH! Don't you realize that there are Twitter and Facebook fanatics like me out there who will add anyone to their networks just because they landed on the page 🙂 If we have to search high and low for your profile link that tells us you don't care about social networking (basically you've been benched). Even if that's true, don't let word get out to the public ok?
- #6. You don't share other people's content: Remember, like everything in life, you have to give in order to receive. This is another reason I highly recommend curating content with services like Paper.li and Scoop.it so you can share content that helps build your authority and provides value to your followers.
- #7. You don’t @ mention the source or person who generated the content you’re sharing: You can’t expect to make connections on social networks when you’re being selfish. That's why Twitter, Google+ and Facebook all have this feature. Use it and give people their props!
Make Your Content Share Worthy
- #8. Your article is downright boring…. Add attractive images or interesting quotes to spice up your posts. Think “Pinterest“.
- #9. Your title isn’t catchy enough: Download a free copy of “Headline Hacks” and get 52 viral headline suggestions from Jon Morrow from CopyBlogger. More headline writing tips can be found here: Sharpen Your Headline Writing Skills
- #10. You’re not using hashtags in your Tweets or on Google+: Remember there are millions of people who are online searching for stuff, use # hashtags to help them find your content. Here’s a tutorial for on using hashtags in Google+, it blew me away when I saw this because even I wasn’t doing this until the other day. Shout out to Chris Lang and Ronnie Bincer for the workshop.
Your Social Media Game Bonus Tip!
Just ask! Yup, that's the bonus tip and trust me, you can score a home run with this one. Be sure to ask people to share your stuff. Be honest with yourself – when is the last time you ended a post by asking your readers to share it? Just like I'm going to do now 🙂
Here is a video recap of this article
10 Social Media Mistakes New Bloggers Make by MsIleaneSpeaks