Lay My Hat

For all of you proficient in all things re social media, please excuse my ignorance here.
I do not use Facebook, although I do have a name registered with them.
However, I am wondering, should I nevertheless have all these "share" buttons on my website? Does it still work even if I don't have a presence on Facebook etc?

Deeply confused by all this! Would really welcome some advice. Thanks Sue

I think it's fair to say I'm no social media expert or personal user. But setting up a business page is fairly painless as is twitter. I've no hard evidence myself that they do any good, but tell myself it can do no harm either. It's simple enough, free & any increased visibility is a bonus isn't it?

Now, I'm no expert (quite the opposite) on social media, but as I understood it having the various share buttons on your website allows someone viewing the website to easily share a link to your site on their social media feeds to their friends etc, thus publicising your website which can only be a good thing. I stand ready to be corrected. Anyway I added the share buttons options on my website and it doesn't seem to have done any harm!.

There are, I think, 3 options of FB buttons you can have.

1. Share which enables FB users to share your website on their page
2. Visit FB - this button takes people to your own FB page
3. Like - if you have a FB page people can click this button to like your page without actually visiting it.

Agree with the previous posts. I've very much come round to the merits of Facebook since following Karen Spencer's FB masterclass in January. http://thebusinessofholidayrental.com/ This helped me to tweak my FB business page to make it more visible and improve links to my website, etc. It also enabled me to dip a toe into FB advertising which is a low-cost option for improving your visibility beyond your friends and followers.

For a start, this is the social media platform where most of my target market hang out. From memory I think I read recently that 73% of women 40-49 are on Facebook. To be successful (and I'm only a beginner) you need to post regularly and be active in commenting on and sharing other people's posts. The trick is to post things to do, restaurant recommendations, what's on, etc rather than be too pushy about your property all the time.

Karen also has a Facebook group for property owners (The Hub) which is worth joining. She regularly has a mixture of free and paid resources on offer, and lots of inspirational tips. https://www.facebook.com/TheBusinessofHolidayRental

Thanks for the info everyone. I wasn't thinking so much about having my own facebook page as I just can't see that I will maintain it properly. I have friends who have grandchildren who keep in touch this way, but it's just not my scene and because of that I know I won't do it well.

It's more a question about whether I just ought to have the "share" buttons (not just facebook but twitter, pinterest, etc). Does anyone know whether they really make a difference / are important please?

Thanks.

Maybe stating the obvious SPJ but if you don't have a presence on the platform, what are you going to 'share'
Are you hoping that FB or Pinterest users are just going to share your website?

COYS wrote:Are you hoping that FB or Pinterest users are just going to share your website?

Yes

SPJ wrote:It's more a question about whether I just ought to have the "share" buttons (not just facebook but twitter, pinterest, etc). Does anyone know whether they really make a difference / are important please.

In a word, why not? I have share buttons at the bottoms of all my website pages and my blog. If someone therefore wants to share it with their friends, they can. Now what I should know, but don't, is whether that happens and how often. Not sure I can give you the answer to that!

My site is wordpress so it's plug in that I have.

Hello Nemo, thanks for posting. I have word press too. What plugin are you using please?

I've got these buttons at the top of my (template) website. I didn't know exactly what they were, and had forgotten they were there tbh, until I read this thread. The FB button says '33 Likes', so that is the number of times people have pressed the button and shared my website. Not many but 33 better than 0!

This one: https://simplesharebuttons.com/

I always thought they were totally useless and couldn't imagine why anyone would use a 'share' link rather than just copying and pasting a URL. But several user research studies I've been involved with show that they do get used - some people do like them. And they don't take up much room. So why not eh.