One quick fix that will increase your blog’s impact

Yes, this is really about making ONE fix, that should not take more than a few minutes, and that will make difference in how many people see your blog. It involves your sharing capabilities.

You must have sharing capabilities. That’s not even up for discussion. If you don’t, go add it right now. If you have a WordPress.org blog, then go do a search for “sharing buttons” in the plugins. There are several to choose from. My current favorite is ShareThis (and is what I am using, right there at the bottom of this post).  If you are on another platform, use your search engine to search for “sharing tools” or “sharing buttons” for your platform.

Most sharing tools are free, and most give you the options to share on the main social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Some let you share to dozens of other networks. Choose the one that best suits your needs (and where your audience is likely to share and read).

If you already have sharing on your blog, I want you to go to your blog and choose a random post and hit your Tweet this/Twitter share button and see what comes up. Ideally, what should come up should be

“Title/ headline of your post”  (link to the post) via (your Twitter handle).

If what comes up does not have the title of your post plus your Twitter handle, you need to either adjust your settings or change your sharing tools. Some sharing plugins allow for the title of the post, the name of the blog or website, and the Twitter handle. That would be even better.

Many blogs I have seen in the past few days have sharing, but when I click to share I get these types of messages:

• Reading [link]
• [link]
• Title[link] via [your sharing tool’s Twitter handle]

Without a title or headline, you are giving no reason for your readers to click on the link. Do you click on links with no subject? Probably not. Without a Twitter handle, you are not letting people know where the link is coming from.

So, go check it right now! This is truly a quick fix that will make it easier and better for your readers to share your posts, and therefore, increase your impact.