With all of the social media sites springing up like geysers bursting thru the earth’s surface and people flocking to them in droves to bathe in their socialistic offerings, we the webmasters add yet another icon to our trolling list of the thousands we already have.  It adds color, you note in an effort to convince yourself of why you might need to display this one by itself or add it to the special ones that get their own home, “outside the box.”  Actually these icons have two sometimes three homes on a page or article to ensure you don’t miss it. Nowadays, the only thing I am afraid of missing is the article and a possible conversion as traffic leaves my site as quickly as it came to take care of some facebook business or pleasure that my overly social and not so subtle sharing icons pointed out at every turn yelling “get in, were going to facebook” I watch the diminishing traffic get hauled away to a more popular site. The voices of echoing traffic fleeing the premises while reclaiming “I’ll be back later”

Good news is, at least you will never forget to visit facebook or post a couple tweets on twitter with the built in reminder system.  And if you have time after being reminded of all the things you could be doing on another site, maybe you’ll have time to read the article barely visible behind all of the icons stationed on the page.  Yes, I do believe that is an article.

Despite being once scolded by my mentors of SEO for including an outgoing link on a website and claiming I would never do it again which up until recently never did- I get it.  I understand the value in sharing articles and offering that feature on your page but I haven’t forgotten the downside either.  Since opinions are freely thrown around in the socialistic society we commune in, I think I will give a toss or two at mine.  Being social and taking part in what is a popular means of spreading content is important but let us not forget and ask ourselves this “is it more important than keeping our traffic on our site for as long as possible considering what most webmasters know about time spent on site and conversion rates.  Or, what about engaging them in shared dialogue in the comments section?  An opportunity to talk to your visiting traffic is surely more important than giving them 4 not to be missed opportunities to post an article on facebook . And why, I am compelled to ask do we need to provide sharing features in our comments section.  Will this thread even make sense to others who might read it without an accompanying article or bit of information that struck up the conversation in the first place?  What if the dialogue isn’t favorable but you went along with it in hopes it would take a turn for the better and off they went spreading these comments like a deadly virus, ruining your reputation, company and ego in one quick click or two before you even had a chance to remove them. The viral vehicle of course, provided most conveniently by you.  Have we lost control of more than just our traffic here?

Bottom line is there are things you can do to assist the possibility of your traffic leaving your site via share icons or hyperlinks.  Make sure every link on your site opens up in a new window.  This is easily done with simple coding. Get a service that provides sharing icons where the user must register. Make it easy on your traffic to share your articles by using a common sharing system. Chances are they are already registered with it which makes sharing your article that much easier for them.  Additionally, it ensures they remain seated on your site the entire time.  Webmasters should offer one sharing system and nothing else.  And while I often see these sharing features listed at the top of the article I have to ask, “don’t you want them to read the article first before sharing it?”