After I started writing the first post on 'The Social Side of WordPress' I realized there was no way I was going to cover it in one post, so here we are again. Part 2 (and who knows, maybe there will be a part 3... let's see how this one goes). I'll be the first one to admit that my social media efforts have been less than consistent until a few months ago. I always shared my content when I wrote new posts or published a new podcast episode, but I can't say that I was really great about engaging. All of that has changed. And it's been AWESOME! My decision was sort of organic in a conscious way (does that even make sense? :-) ). I started doing some Facebook advertising last fall and then helped a coaching client with her ads as well. I realized that the more activity and engagement I had on my page the better it was for my ads (kinda makes sense, huh?). The beauty of all of this is that on one hand it was a strategy and on the other hand it has created some amazing relationships. I knew if I was going to increase my engagement I had to do it as MYSELF. (click to tweet) I would find things that I thought were helpful, funny and inspiring and share them in a way that supported who I am and what kind of business I'm building. What I wouldn't do was just share my own stuff along with a handful of friends or big names. I LOVE finding uniqe and cool things that will help my audience as well as asking a question or starting a conversation. The BEST thing about this is that people have taken the time to tell me they appreciate what I'm sharing and have noticed the increased engagement. Exellent. I had an interaction on twitter recently that made me realize it was time to go a little deeper with the social side of WordPress. I think I tweeted something I was looking at (an analytics tool for measuring social engagement, I think... don't totally remember) and someone responded with a question as to whether or not sharing on Facebook for business was icky. It was a genuine question and I responded with a genuine answer. I simply said that I had noticed the connection and increased engagement since I stepped up my activity on my Facebook page (when I see it in writing it seems so obvious, doesn't it?). The thing is... I used to feel the same way. Until I realized that if I'm not going to promote my own content I can hardly expect other people to promote it, right? AND... People are more inclined to share your content when they know who you are and trust you.  (click to tweet) I know, I know. Nothing new. Yet it's still something people struggle with. O.K., I have yet to talk about WordPress... so let's shift gears here. It all begins with your WordPress Site EVERYTHING you do should be do get people back to your site and engaged with you and your brand, which is why you want to make sure that everything you do socially is congruent with what is on your site. And I don't mean just your branding. Your Voice and Your Message. Who you are on your site is who you should be socially. Personally I'm pretty much the same person everywhere. Who you see online is who I am in my personal life (of course I have a more private side, but you wouldn't meet me and wonder if I was the same person you saw online. Just the thought of being one way online and one way offline is exhausting). This is the ONLY way you're going to succeed. Let's start with the fundamentals. Social Sharing plugins I've tried a bunch of social sharing plugins and written posts about them as well. Now it comes down to: - what it looks like (of course) - is it lightweight (doesn't slow my site down) - easy to use - doesn't get in the way of content - doesn't automatically add a zillion social sites I've never heard of What I'm using now: - Floating Social bar (this sits above the post and scrolls with the post, which you can turn off if you want - this is currently not activated because I'm testing something else and the...