Best ways to promote social sharing on artist websites?

[GNews]

Developing a project.

Need some ideas.

What are the best things to implement into a design to promote social sharing?

IN specific... To make a contest go viral. How could this be best approached? Please give visual ideas if you have them.

Thanks!

 

[Jared]

Three tips . . .

• Keep your list of sites users can share to limited to only those sites which are significant for your niche. For example, everything but Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit is basically irrelevant for politics, so I've limited my share button options to those three sites.

• Make sharing as easy as possible. Make your share buttons large and visible. Don't force your visitors to go looking for them; make sure they're right there in front of their faces whenever the urge to share arises.

• Encourage sharing. Don't shove it down their throats, but if you can gently persuade them to share by reminding them of the benefits (i.e., showing off who they are, what they believe in, giving their friends/family something to enjoy, etc.), you should be able to increase your share rate.

Take a look at Upworthy and Mashable -- notice they both use the same style: large buttons, which are always on the screen via a fixed bar at the top of the screen, and limited to only their most effective networks.

If you want a great social sharing plugin, and you're using WordPress, Easy Social Sharing Buttons is about as good as it gets. The customization and features are second to none.

I've used it to replicate something very close to Mashable, with the added benefit of an opt-in form popping up after the initial share, so I'm not only growing shares, but growing an email list at the same time (you can change the post-share pop up to pretty much anything you want or need).