[VIDEO] Why your websites loves when people push its buttons!

“Share” this. “Like” that. The Internet is atwitter with ways to endorse your favourite businesses, posts, products and services. Half of the world’s top 10,000 websites link to Facebook or Twitter on their homepage. Does yours?

Read this post. Buy this product. Shop here. Trust this company. Why let people push your buttons? Because it’s word-of-mouth marketing on an Internet-wide scale. Instead of reaching out in one-on-one conversations, they’re dispatching their recommendations in a one-click, real-time post to everyone in their social media network, without even leaving your website or blog.

Let’s put that into perspective. Facebook has 845 million active users. The average user is connected to 130 friends and 80 pages, groups and events. Users share 3.5 billion pieces of content per week. That’s a lot of word-of-mouth. All the research shows that these engaged and button-pushing visitors view more pages, stay longer and return more frequently. Referral traffic goes up. So does revenue.

How can you get “buttoned up”?

Easy: social plugins. These free, easy-to-use nuggets of coding can perform a variety of functions, from adding users and sharing links or posts, to importing your blog feed, posting comments and embedding slideshows and YouTube videos. Generate the code using a straightforward fill-in-the-blanks creation app. It’s a quick, economical task for your webmaster or a do-it-yourself job for the tech-savvy.

Social-media-savvy surfers like pushing buttons.

To get them pushing yours, keep these tips in mind.

• Know your target audience. Facebook and Twitter are social media frontrunners, with Google+ gaining fast, but your fans may congregate at YouTube, LinkedIn or another platform.
• Keep it simple. Three buttons or less is optimal.
• Locate your buttons prominently at the top of the page. If posts are long, use a “floating” button bar, or add a button to both top and bottom.

Who’s got the button?

Facebook wins the popularity contests with its ubiquitous “Like” buttons. Twitter’s all about the rapid share, broadcasting a quick “check this out!” New to the scene, the popularity of Google+’s +1 button allows an easy thumbs up and displays your +1 ranking in search results.