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One of the best ways to increase your sales and push traffic to your site is social media.  If you’re unfamiliar with the term, social media simply applies to all of those networking, reblogging, and linking sites that people use to share content and stay connected.  Consider this:  In October of 2009, Twitter alone had over 19 million visitors.  Facebook has added 52 million users in just the last 12 months.  If you’re not currently engaging that audience, you’re missing thousands of potential sales.  In a recent survey about last holiday season’s Black Friday sales, 28% of consumers claimed that social media influenced their purchases.

Add Social Media To Your WordPress:

So how do you take advantage of this audience and translate it into sales?  If you’ve ever visited a blog, and since you’re reading this we’re guessing that you have, you’ve probably noticed quite a few featuring a slew of icons or a “Share This!” button.  These buttons allow readers to recommend your posts to sites like Reddit and Digg, or share them directly to their Facebook and Twitter pages.

This is free advertising for you – if someone shares one of your posts on their Facebook, you are gaining visibility to their entire network of friends for absolutely no investment.  The best part?  These buttons are easy to implement.  Use a WordPress plug-in such as “Share This,” “Sociable,” or “Notable” to add these buttons with minimal effort and watch the traffic roll in.

Participate In The Community:

Sharing things to Digg, writing guest posts for other bloggers, and commenting on sites such as Technorati and Reddit are great opportunities to link back to your blog and generate additional traffic. Here’s a rundown on the big guns:

• Digg – Readers recommend posts and vote on them to increase their popularity.
• Facebook – Members share your content with a built-in network of friends.
• Twitter – Users link your posts which can then be re-linked by their followers.
• Technorati – Blog community with real-time searching and popularity index.
• StumbleUpon – Site that uses personal interests to recommend unexplored topics.
• Reddit – Similar to Digg with user-generated links and a popularity index.

It’s also a very good idea to create a company Facebook and Twitter.  As people visit your site and add themselves to your networking pages, your repeat-customer base (think of it as an opt-in mailing list) will grow, at zero cost.

Never underestimate the power of social media in building steady traffic and introducing your site to a broader audience.  If you make it easy for people to share your blog with their friends, you will notice an immediate improvement in your traffic.  The more customers see your company as a part of their lives, the more time and money they will be willing to put into it.