TypePad versus WordPress: Social Bookmarking

When I first signed up for WordPress after having been on TypePad I was disappointed to learn that WordPress did not have an integrated social bookmarking widget, such as ShareThis. ShareThis works very well with TypePad and WordPress has many built-in widgets, but I did not find a widget like that in my widget list. Is it not possible to have social bookmarks on WordPress? It is, but it takes a little bit of effort. Let me show you how.

Promote your blog with social bookmarks

You can see the social bookmarks at the bottom of this post. With these, it’s so easy for your readers to share your post within their social communities, and that is is one of the best ways to have your blog promoted. So how do you make these?

Handcoding HTML

Initially, I thought I would have to insert these images and link them one by one, and even if I did write up the HTML code and save it, I would have to insert it by hand and search and replace the post name and post URL for every time I wanted to insert an array of social bookmarking links. I’ve seen sites where this has been done, as explained by archgfx. Too much work, really.

GetSocial

Then I discovered GetSocial, written by Hillel Stoler. This is a downloadable program where you simply insert the URL of your post, the post title, then choose between 4 design for you array of bookmarks, and voila, with a couple of clicks you have the HTML code needed, which can be pasted into your post (in HTML view) in one click. A little bit of work, but much much less than above.

GetSocial Tutorial

Now, I could make my own tutorial here, since so many of my readers have asked for how I made these bookmarks, but I prefer to acknowledge Hillel Stoler as the author and refer to TeckLine’s excellent tutorial on how to use GetSocial on your wordpress.com blog.

Does it work?

The answer is yes. Looking at my stats, people do click on social bookmarks and I do get referrals from other people’s shared posts. So yes, social bookmarking is indeed a very good way to increase your reach and traffic.

Conclusion

TypePad may integrate well with ShareThis (which has more options than Get Social), but GetSocial is not far behind. Making your blog in known in social networks as just as easy in WordPress as in TypePad.

TypePad versus WordPress: TypePad – 2, WordPress – 1.

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