Every blogger knows how much of an endeavor it is to create quality content. It may take hours just to research about a certain topic but it’s worth it in order to give the best information possible to your readers.
After you research, you still need to write about the topic and then invest the time to format and edit the post.



Promoting Your Content

After all of this work is done you have to take the second step which is to actively promote your content. Make this task easier by having web 2.0 sharing icons on each and every page of your blog. Having your readers spread the word can be as easy as clicking a button. By adding certain plugins to your blog you can get a lot more exposure and grow in popularity and credibility.

Deciding on the Best Social Plugin for Your Blog

There are many social sharing plugins available to choose from and install on your WordPress blog. That’s one of many the reasons why I personally love WordPress and use it as the content management system for all of my blogs. Usability should always be a huge factor when making decisions about your blog. Even though there are many social sharing plugins out there, I want to highlight the ones I feel are the best ones. Some social plugins have pop out boxes which quite frankly annoy most users. Others are very cluttered which only contributes to confuse visitors. I’ve even seen social icons that cover the actual reading content (which is never a good idea). The following 3 plugins are not cluttered, have great design and are simple to install.

1- Sketch Bookmarks

One of my favorite plugins is the Sketch Bookmarks plugin by Nicholas Cardot. The reason I like it so much is because it has never given me issues with glitches or bugs and the design is very clean. Here’s a screen shot of what it looks like:

It’s easy to install and set up too. You can download it from this link on the WordPress.org site. If you decide to use this plugin, make sure that every time you upgrade WordPress you go back and configure the settings in the backend because it won’t save your settings in an upgrade. This is a simple step that you can take by going under Settings → Sketch Bookmarks. Here’s an image of the backend settings:

I personally don’t use the Twitter share button on it because I use Tweetmeme for that. Also, make sure to configure the settings so that the share buttons don’t appear on the home page if you don’t want to clutter your home page with social links. Sketch bookmarks covers the following Web 2.0 sites: Digg, Facebook, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Twitter and Technoratti. If you’re looking for a plugin that has more options of Web 2.0 sites then you’ll want to check out the next plugin.

2 – Sociable by Joost de Valk

Sociable has a huge amount of options to choose from for social sharing. It gives you a total of 99 social sharing sites and you can configure whichever ones you want to use. If you want to add a site that’s not on their default list the instructions are here. You can download the plugin at this link or at this WordPress.org link.
*If you have a blogger blog or a static html page that you want to add these sharing icons to, you can find versions for those here.

3- Sexy BookMarks

Last but not least is the Sexy Bookmarks WordPress plugin. I really love this plugin because it has a “Web 2.0″ feel to it. The social sites move when you hover over them and it has 88 social site options. If that’s the design that you’re going for on your blog then you will love this plugin. Here’s a screenshot of how it looks.

You can download it from the WordPress plugin directory here and also see all of the documentation to use and install it at this link.
Now all you need to do is pick the best plugin for your specific situation and have fun sharing!

Eren Mckay is a work at home mom to 3 boys who provides backyardigans party supplies and finding nemo birthday ideas on her blog.

Thanks to Brian, over at Nowsourcing, Social Media Mom has a new look, one that reflects her life and love of social media.

The biggest single change is the fact that I have switched from Typepad to WordPress. I would love to take you through the process of getting this all set up, like Ben did over at Problogger, but honestly, besides adding some colorful widgets and repositioning them, I really don’t know all that Brian did to set it up.

Instead, I will give you 10 reasons why I decided to go with WordPress:

1. Hundreds and hundreds of FREE, cool WordPress themes to choose from.

2. Hundreds and hundreds of Plugins that make it easy for a non-coder like me to add functionality to my blog.

3. Everybody writes about how to make money using WordPress. No one writes about making money on Typepad.

4. Great tips to protect your blog from hackers.

5. Continuous WordPress support from around the web.

6. Inreasing my sociability.

7. Fabulous community.

8. Increase of Traffic.

9. RSS feeds

10. Search Engine Optimization

Whatever your reason for using WordPress, the fact remains, there is so much more you can do with it than any other blogging platform. I highly suggest contacting Brian if you are looking to implement WordPress in any way, and any compliments on my new look are highly suggested as well. (Just kidding – sort of)