How to Add the LinkedIn Share Button to a Squarespace Blog

When you share blog and news content on social networks, you probably do so by liking on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter. But have you ever thought to share on LinkedIn? LinkedIn recently revealed LinkedIn Today, a new social news website for professionals that makes it a good idea to add a LinkedIn Share button alongside your Tweet and Like buttons on your blog posts. Learn how to add the LinkedIn Share button to your Squarespace blog in today's post.

LinkedIn Today is like Paper.li mixed with Digg and LinkedIn. You'll see a dashboard comprised of the most popular content being shared on LinkedIn by your professional network. Adding the LinkedIn Share button to your blog posts is as easy as adding the Tweet or Like button, and may be a good way to increase traffic and readers to your blog from the professional social network.

Getting the LinkedIn Share Button Code

In order to add the LinkedIn Share button to Squarespace, you must first get the code for the button from the LinkedIn Publishers page. Choose the button style you prefer and then enter %PERMALINK% into the URL to be Shared field (Important: Case sensitive). Copy the resulting code from the text box displayed.

Adding the LinkedIn Share Button to Squarespace

Next, we'll add the LinkedIn Share button to Squarespace. Navigate to your blog main page and switch to the Structure Editing mode.

Click the configure this page link to enter the Journal Page Configuration menu.

Scroll down to the Post Display Configuration section and click on an unused HTML Snippet from the list of Squarespace journal components

Paste the LinkedIn Share button code you copied from the first steps in the process and then choose Hide & Save.

Finally, arrange the HTML Snippet within the blog post layout. Generally, Like, Tweet, and Share buttons should be at the top of blog posts to promote maximum visiblity. 

Now when you look at each blog post, you'll see the LinkedIn Share button alongside any other social sharing buttons you've added via the HTML Snippets.

Share and Nurture Your LinkedIn Network

Your blog is the point at which your website, your brand and all of your social networks intersect. It's important to develop and nurture relationships in as many social networks as makes sense for your brand, whether it's personal or professional. Add the LinkedIn Share button to your Squarespace blog and make it dead simple for your LinkedIn contacts to promote and share your content to their network. I look forward to reading your blog and news content on LinkedIn Today.

The Facebook Effect: 2011 26 Book Challenge #3

Nearly two months ago I announced my plans to read 26 books throughout 2011, along with fellow bloggers Arik Hanson and Patrick Garmoe. I recently wrapped up book number three, The Facebook Effect, by David Kirkpatrick, thanks to the daily commute on I-494 and Audible at 2x speed. Read on to see while you'll probably enjoy The Facebook Effect, as well as a few quotes that I felt best summed up the book.

First of all, Arik suggested I read The Facebook Effect so we could attend the KaneCo Book Club on March 29th and discuss the book with some smart social folks in the Twin Cities. There's plenty of time between now and then in case you haven't read it yet.

Arik finished and reviewed The Facebook Effect a few weeks ago and posted some of what he felt to be the most powerful quotes from the book. For my review, I'll focus on a few key quotes from Arik's review and why I think they're important.

The Psychology of Facebook

"I concluded in that first lunch that the key to Mark is that he is a psychologist."

- Chris Ma, Washington Post Co.

A large part of Facebook's success is due to the amount of attention the company pays to how people interact with social software. Mark Zuckerberg has insisted from the very beginning that the experience of the user is critical. His goal was simply to promote the maximum amount of engagement between Facebook and its users. As a result, new Facebook users sky-rocketed each time they allowed more people to sign up for the service. Create an excellent experience and customers will reward you. Take this as a lesson in the value of understanding your customers and their needs.

Facebook Vs. Google

"Facebook has the opportunity that Google only wishes  it had - the ability to build a credible position for the largest brand advertisers."

- Alan Gould, Nielsen IAG

Some of my favorite parts of The Facebook Effect came from the dynamics between the two Internet giants, Facebook and Google. Personally, I think the two companies appreciate eachother more than anything. Google's motto is Don't be Evil. Facebook's is Don't be Lame. Google's bread and butter is understanding what people do on the Internet. Facebook's forte is understanding what they save about themselves. The two companies are modern contemporaries with surprisingly similar goals and missions.

Plus, Google and Facebook can always point at eachother whenever anti-trust talks fire up. The two tech giants almost seem to rely on eachother and a few other players such as Microsoft and Apple in almost every market as they collectively orchestrate their online oligopoly.

Facebook and Privacy in Social Media

"We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them. WE simply did a bad job with this release and I apologize for it."

- Mark Zuckerberg after a new feature was met with resistance

Within the quote above is a textbook response to a mistake from a company that embraces and understands social media. Zuckerberg straddles the line between simplity in sharing and intruding on our lives, and owns up to making mistakes in which he makes people share too much, too quickly. I admire this type of transparency and accountability.

Before reading The Facebook Effect I was a little leary of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. After reading it, I have to say I have a newfound respect for both the social media phenomenon and the man behind it.

Have you read The Facebook Effect? What did you think? What was the number one thing you learned about Facebook and/or Mark Zuckerberg? Has your opinion of the social media service changed since reading the book? Share your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to register for the book club so we can discuss The Facebook Effect in person on March 29, 2011. (At this point there are only a few slots left. Hurry if you want to join us.)

Building Relationships with Social Interaction Optimization

We've all been taught that being polite is important from an early age. Say please. Say thank you. Say you're welcome. In the process of habitualizing all this polite behavior, it can sometimes tend to become a little too automatic and begin to lose some of its intended effect. Today we explore the concept of social interaction optimization (SIO), a way to better appreciate those around you and thus build stronger relationships.

Optimization is a concept that drives my professional passion. It's amazing how making a few minor, yet positive changes to a website or process can be all that's needed to drive substantially better outcomes in any online endeavor. In fact, that's the basic gist of several online marketing disciplines such as search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion optimization (CO).

Turns out, relationships aren't that different when it comes to optimization. As with websites, there are minor, yet positive changes you can make to your interactions with others that will help build stronger, better relationships. That's the gist of something I like to call social interaction optimization, or SIO (I can't help myself. I'm addicted to acronyms).Maximize politeness by being gracious instead of just formal or civil.

The idea behind SIO is to optimizing social interactions by actively increasing the politeness of your interactions with others. Why be merely be civil (definition: not rude, marked by satisfactory adherence to social usages) when you could be gracious (definition: characterized by charm, good taste and generosity of spirit)?

Two Examples of Social Interaction Optimization

• Thank You - Don't just thank people for the things they do for you. Tell favor doers exactly what you're thankful for to demonstrate that you can fully appreciate their skill. Instead of just saying, "Thanks," why not say, "Thanks a lot for that report you sent to me. I especially appreciate the layout and polish because it will be easy to illustrate important details to upper-management."
• You're Welcome - We often say you're welcome by saying, "No problem." In the process you shrug off credit for a good deed and miss out on a chance at SIO. Instead, say, "It was my pleasure. You're very welcome."

As with any optimization strategy, it's important not to overdo social interaction optimization. You don't want to be insincere. You want to strive to be genuinely gracious, and have that come across in your intactions. The benefits of SIO include building stronger existing relationships and creating new ones faster. 

What do you think about the concept of social interaction optimization, or SIO? Some may say it's common sense (Yep, it is). Others may find it to be a helpful new tool to build relationships and increase effectiveness as they navigate the highly matrixed world of clients, projects and org charts with dotted lines. I'm very curious to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below. I especially appreciate connecting with and learning from people that leave comments, so thank you in advance!

Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places Widgets for Squarespace

A few weeks ago, Squarspace founder and president Anthony Casalena announced some planned enhancements to the web's best publishing and blogging platform. Since then they've quietly rolled out their new Locations social widget, giving you the ability to integrate your Foursquare, Gowalla and/or Facebook Places stream into your Squarespace blog or website. Today we'll take a look the new Squarespace Locations widget and how to install it.

Installing the Foursquare/Gowalla/Facebook Places Squarespace Widget

Installing the new Locations widget on your Squarespace couldn't be easier. As with all Squarespace functionality, there's an intuitive setup process followed by a comprehensive set of configuration options. To add a Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places widget on your site, simply follow these five easy steps:

1. Log in to you Squarespace website and enter the Structure Editing modeAccess the Structure mode from the right side of the control panel ribbon.
2. Select Add widget from a new or existing sidebar sectionAdd a new widget to your sidebar.
3. Navigate to the Social Widgets tab and then select the Location widgetThe Location widget is within the Social Widgets tab of the Add Widget interface.
4. Configure your location service by selecting your app and then signing in through Squarespace's APIClick on the icon to sign in via API to your location service.
5. Use the dead-simple Squarespace controls to configure and customize your location widget. Once done, save and enable your new widget. That's it. You're all done.Explore all the configuration options to suit your liking.

Adding Location Based Services to Your Squarespace Website

Intuitive, versatile and awesome. The new Squarespace Location widget passes the test for all new Squarespace functionality. Take a few minutes to install Foursquare, Gowalla and/or Facebook Places on your blog or website and then come back and tell me what you thought about the process in the comments below. 

The Growing Overlap of Search and Social Media

There's always been a relationship between social media and search engine optimization (SEO). For as long as there have been people gathering to create and share content, there have been search engines organizing and helping us find it all. And new evidence points to a growing overlap between search and social media, signalling the importance of a strategic relationship between the two online marketing channels. Are your search and social media efforts as coordinated as they could be?

Search and Social Media Successes

Success in search often looks different than success in social media. Social media blogging success can mean someone influential re-tweeting or liking links to your content, which creates brief, yet pronounced inflows of new visitors to your blog. Blog posts that succeed in the search engines build a semi-permanent trickle of visitors over time for certain keywords. While these successes can be exciting enough on their own, it's been often wondered if the two were related as well.

Search and Social Media Synergies

It's been much rumored over the last year that Google and Bing are using social signals from places like Twitter to better inform their search engine results. Recently Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land posted the most detailed explanation of how Google and Bing use data from Twitter and Facebook to adjust their search results. And it turns out that being popular in social media can help you in Google too.

Sullivan's interview revealed that search engines are now paying even more attention to how we share content on our social networks. Search engines originally used only links between websites as proxies for what we think is relevant and popular on the web. Now Google and Bing have all the links in our tweets as well, meaning that going viral on Twitter, Facebook and Digg will directly help your SEO efforts. And popularity of links is only one of many potential implications of Facebook and Twitter's influence on search.

Search and Social Media Reviews

Story number two that illustrates the growing overlap between search and social media comes from the fallout of the New York Times story, "A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web." It was reported that an online retailer selling designer eyewear actually improved in search engine rankings when its customers left negative reviews on the customer feedback site, Get Satisfaction. 

Google responded stating that it was actually all the "link juice" from publicity like the New York Times story that was helping the retailer to rank, not the negative reviews. They went on to explain that they'd gone the extra mile and tweaked their algorithm to look at the negative reviews for a vendor and factor them into how that retailer ranks in the search engine rankings moving forward. At this point I believe the retailer in the story is suffering from a serious lack of search engine traffic. The message is clear: there is no long-term business model that supports being a jerk on the web.

Baking in Search and Social Media

How have you been using search and social media together? What benefits have you seen from coordinating your efforts together when it comes to SEO and social media? What new tactics will you be testing as a result of the recent evidence showing the growing overlap of search and social media? I'd love to hear your thoughts on search and social media in the comments below.