Would you Comment on this Article?
- by Timothy Caron

In a recent article by Brad Stone that was published: September 26, 2009 on the New York Times website, he talks about encouraging users to share his articles on many of the social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

An excerpt of the article is listed below:

The blog WebDesignBooth.com is emblematic of Web sites these days in one respect: it seems to desperately want readers to share its insights with their friends.

At the top of each article on this online resource for Web developers are prominent links inviting visitors to post the story to Facebook and the bookmark-sharing sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. Just in case readers don’t get the message, at the bottom of each article is a handful of other icons, leading to Twitter, Digg, Reddit and several other social sites, along with a little inducement in a bright red font that reads “Sharing Is Sexy.”

Because the blog is new and has few readers, “I need these buttons to encourage referrers to share my articles with their friends,” said its creator, Dicky Lim, who is based in Malaysia.

Many sites are now adorned with an abundance of ways for readers to post content to their favorite social networks.

Many website are now following suite, even here on my website for example, offers links to post articles to Twitter and several other services, including LinkedIn and Yahoo Buzz by simply using the different social icons or using the Share Button below each article.
Sharing links is now big business.

But aside from it being a business to gain traffic (which we all need) by sharing content and exchanging links and ideas, it goes a little deeper than that when it comes to building link popularity.

“If a link is coming from a friend, you are probably going to trust it more than if it comes from Google, saying, ‘This is what you should visit,’ ” said Jay Meattle, founder of Shareaholic, a year-old start-up offering free sharing software that plugs into the Firefox browser.

So, in conclusion, what are you doing to gain traffic and to encourage your readers to share your articles on other social networks. Or are you encouraging them at all to participate in your blog or website?

Until next time, have a wonderful day!
PS (Hint, help me by posting your thoughts below.)