Social Bookmarking Icons for your blog

Do you have social bookmarking icons or chicklets on your blog?
Last year's explosion of social bookmarking sites like Facebook and Twitter have shown that people are influenced by their friends and online contacts when it comes to discovering new stuff online.

After a long search for a website I'm working on, I found two different ways to get these kinds of icons. One is super easy and the other, while still pretty easy, offers a ton of design choices.

The super easy method (for Blogger blogs) is to go to Sociofluid.com.
Check off the sites you want to include in your widget, decide on a size and how you want it to act when your viewers hover their mouse over the icons, then generate the widget. Easy Peasy.

Here's an example of their widget. I set the sizes at 32 and 48 and clicked to have it Grow Up with a mouseover. Here's what it looks like. Pretty cool. I wish it had a Flickr icon, though.

The other option offers lots of different designs. There are actually several sites with these free downloads, but the one with the choices I liked best is this page at wpzoom.com - yes, the WP refers to WordPress.

To use these, you'll have to download the file and install each icon individually, but you download each icon in all sizes so you can fit it into your blog or site perfectly. There are some really neat designs here.

As for me, I'll use the super easy method on one site, a hand-drawn design on another site, and bookmark both for when I want more.
Enjoy!


PS: Other sites I like that offer free social networking icons are:
http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2007/11/recent-posts-widget-plugin_25.html
and
http://www.wavemindedstudios.com/site/news/social-networking-icons








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Reactions to the 11,000 Twitter followers post

On Monday, I republished parts of a 28-page Etsy forum post about how CatherinetteRings got 11,000 Twitter followers and how it has helped their sales.

Today, I'd like to share some forum comments from other Etsyians:

I've already more than doubled my twitter followers in just a day thanks to the great advice! :)

Wow. Took some of the advice on this thread and I have so many new followers. Definitely see that it gets me more views.

I've gotten at least 2 sales from twitter and I have less than 2000 followers.

Actually, a single tweet that reaches a potential market of 11,000 people is a very good investment in time. I've found many a great item for sale on Twitter..

I too thought Twitter was the most ridiculous thing until I started seeing how many Twitter followers were actually visiting my sites using Google Analytics...really took me by surprise.

It's a great marketing tool, as long as you remember to not just Twitter about your business, or at least make your biz tweets fun and engaging.

Do your twitter research and see the BIG NAMES using it because it works. It doesn't matter whether you "get it" or not, it works. If it translates into even just one sale a month, it works. I get so amazed at the folks who simply don't use something because they don't like it or get it or whatever the reason. If Twitter is good enough for the Fortune 500 companies, then its definitely good enough for me.

I only have just over 100 followers, but according to Google Analytics, I get quite a few hits coming from Twitter. I don't know how many purchases that has translated into, though.

it sounds like another marketing tool that is going to stick around the way it has caught on. if barbara walters can tweet, so can i! :D

I tried an experiment: I listed two similar items on Etsy. I tweeted about one and didn't tweet about the other. The tweeted item got a phenomenally higher number of views!

I have a very different approach to twitter than the original poster, but to those asking it DEFINITELY can result in sales! I've had numerous sales and private custom orders as a direct result of twitter. I love it when someone says "I found you on twitter and I'd like to buy this..."

Next to blogging, twitter has been the best thing I've done for my little business.

I have at LEAST 15 sales because of Twitter in the last month, I ask people who buy from me where they heard about me and a lot of them said twitter. Oh and 2 of those sales came back and purchased items again

And my favorite comment:

marking this for when i get smart enough to twitter

You can learn more facts about Twitter in the second post on this page.

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Sharing my Twitter Strategy : 11000 followers

I just read through an entire Etsy forum post (26 pages and still growing) about how Etsy's CatherinetteRings has used Twitter to increase her sales. Her info is a fantastic example of how Twitter can help increase your sales, as well as a step by step tutorial on how she made it work.

The entire forum post is here, entitled "Sharing my Twitter Strategy : 11000 followers" and his tutorial is listed in the original post. Please check it out.

A summary of the next 26 27 28 pages includes a more in-depth explanation by CatherinetteRings:
(The quoted text that follows is used with permission.)

How has it increased Catherinette Rings's traffic?
"Whenever i post a link to an item , i get from 30 to 70 hits within minutes . You don't get that many hits by renewing items these days . "

Google Analytics stats:
"1. (direct) / (none) 4,139
2. adn.entrecard.com / referral 1,661
3. twitter.com / referral 1,652
4. google / organic 1,287
5. entrecard.com / referral 798
6. steampunkrings.blogspot.com / referral 551
7. craftcult.com / referral 436
8. facebook.com / referral 251
9. deviantart.com / referral 152
10. catherinetterings.deviantart.com / referral 135
And these figures are growing . 1652 referral would cost me 250$ of google add"

"Everything that brings more traffic , eventually brings sales . twitter is in 3rd position and represent 11 % of the traffic i get . I have received many Direct message after a purchase or note to seller saying they found me with twitter . "

Does this work?
"I get lots of sale from Twitter . Many buyers told me they found me on twitter . "

What does CatherinetteRings tweet about?
"Personal vs. Business :You can use twitter for personal but i recommend that you use a separate twitter account for your business . Personal stuff is not relevant to business , you need to build an image that reflects the nature of your business on twitter , for ex saying that you are going to take a walk because its sunny outside might not interest those who follow you for your craft . This way you can keep tweeting about something relevant to your business . Work in progress , new design , tips ...etc "

"You have to filter what you think will be interesting for those who follow your business on twitter , When you say your working on something , some of your followers sometimes replies to that , that's when you get in and interact with them and engage in a discussion . I dont tweet all day and say everything i do . That would be boring . "

"Also you can comment and reply to others tweet , when you find something interesting . You can RT : retweet content from someone you follow so that your followers can also read that tweet . "

Ok, so how much time do you spend managing this?
"Building a followers list to 11000 takes times but once you have them , you can post tweets that takes just a few second to write and get 100 hundreds of views from just a line less that 140 character long , hard to beat and less time consuming that blogging . Now , i can just sit and wait an still my followers list grows by it self , the more followers you have the more popular you become . "

"One advantage i have is that im a full-time artisan . My priority is custom orders , post office first and adding new rings to my shop . Then when im less busy i put all my effort on promoting . Then i get a rush and i have no time for promoting and i just do customs until it slows down . I alocate time to promoting depending on the flow ."

"The majority of twitter users are already using it to promote their store and I only have about 400 updates , i don't spam twitter . Twitter users have the choice to follow or not to follow so if you don't like the way someone use twitter you simply don't follow them . 56% of twitter users are using it for their business, so there is no reason to be afraid to promote your business with twitter . You can choose the way you want to use it . I use it the way i have learned to use it after reading a lot of business oriented tips from various sources on the web . "

Pam's note: There were a lot of questions in the forum, and several people mentioned their dislike for someone with so many followers, which is fine. Obvoiusly, 11,000 people don't have a problem with this and like CatherinetteRings said in the original post, it took some time to build the list. Other Etsyians voiced their concern over spam tweets, which CatherinetteRings addressed when discussing what he/they tweet about. While I didn't post a chronological repeat of the entire forum here, I did organize the info into an interview style for my summary of the post.

Thanks again, CatherinetteRings, for permission to republish!

On Wednesday, I'll post some of the follow up comments from this forum. Meanwhile, you can learn more facts about Twitter in the second post on this page.

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