Tag Archives: settings

In the past it was always a bit of a hassle to sort out how to connect, or feed (the technical term), your blog to your social media profiles. It required creating a RSS URL and going to external application websites to enter your details of your blog, so that your posts would be published simultaneously in your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn account or whatever.

But not any more! Sharing has become so much easier in the new WordPress.com version, as now they do all the processes for you! And they’ve also improved on their sharing buttons as well, methods of encouraging your readers to share your post on their social media profiles, thus increasing the exposure of your posts to a larger audience.

Let’s start with the ability to share your post on your social media profiles. First, go to your Dashboard (usually through YourBlogURL/wp-login.php and entering your username and password):

Look for ‘Settings’ in the left hand sidebar, and click on ‘Sharing’, to go to the Sharing Settings page below:

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see where you can sort out how to publicise your posts and where to regulate which sharing buttons you need.

Let’s set up publicising your posts on Twitter:

Make sure you are already logged into your Twitter account on your computer, or that your computer remembers your Twitter account by default.

Then click on the ‘Connect to Twitter’ link under the Twitter logo:

Here we go through the process of authorising the connection between your WordPress.com account and your Twitter account:

Here you can read all the things this application will allow you to do – pretty impressive, eh?

Click on ‘Authorize App’:

Right, now you’re connected to Twitter, and whenever you publish a post, it will be automatically posted on your Twitter stream. I told you it was easy! Next time after you’ve published, go check the tweet that has been created for you, and know that your post has a better chance of being read by a lot more people than before.

Do the same thing with the other social networking profile apps that you have accounts with – enjoy!

Now to sort out your sharing buttons that will appear after your posts and at the bottom of your pages. Span further down the Sharing Settings page to find the ‘Share Button’ section:

After you’ve decided which social sharing buttons you would like, drag them down into the space below:

There is also the option of dragging them into the collective share button box, where all the services will be stored behind a multi-purpose sharing button, if you want this facility to be more tidy on your blog.

After you’ve finished selecting and dragging your share buttons, it will look like this:

Decide to keep the like button box ticked if you want your readers to ‘like’ your post; you will be notified via email when somebody does!

The next stage allows you to play with the presentation of your buttons. It might be a good idea to have the buttons opening up in a new or different window when clicked on, so change the settings to ‘New Window’ from the drop down menu.

You can also decide where (which posts, pages or index pages) you want your buttons to be displayed, by selecting from the options available from the final drop down menu.

And don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Now go and have a look at a post you have written to see the effect:

And if you’re not happy, go back to the Share Settings page to change everything to how you want it to be; it’s always easy to rearrange WordPress.com to perfect your blog!