Social sharing allows website visitors to easily share your content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. By adding social share buttons to your website, you make it simple for visitors to promote your content for you. But social share buttons will be more effective if you also use social share URLs.
What is a social share URL?
A social share URL is a unique URL that you can attach to any piece of content you want users to share. When someone clicks on your social share URL, it will automatically open up a sharing window with your content already loaded and ready to post.
For example, if you have a blog post, you would create a special URL just for sharing that post. When someone clicks on it, it would open up a sharing window on whatever social network they’re using, with a pre-populated message and a link back to your post.
The key benefit is that it simplifies the sharing process. Users don’t have to copy and paste a link or write their own sharing message – all they have to do is click the social share URL and they’re ready to share.
Why should you use social share URLs?
Here are some of the top reasons to use social share URLs:
- Increase sharing engagement – Social share URLs remove friction from the sharing process, making it more likely visitors will share your content.
- Pre-populate messages – You can craft catchy, optimized messages alongside each URL to encourage more clicks.
- Track shares – When using social share URLs, you can easily track how many clicks and shares you’re getting on each piece of content.
- Targeted sharing – Create different URLs for sharing on each social platform, allowing you to tailor messaging.
- Simplify sharing – For site visitors, it’s a quick one-click to share your content rather than copying and pasting links.
Essentially, social share URLs make it as easy as possible for visitors to share your content to their networks. The more seamless the sharing process, the greater the sharing engagement you’ll see.
How to create social share URLs
There are a couple ways to go about creating social share URLs:
1. Using social share buttons
Many social media share button plugins will actually generate social share URLs for you when installed.
For example, if you use AddThis share buttons, each one will come with a unique URL to share just that piece of content on a specific social network. Whenever someone clicks on an AddThis share button, it utilizes that social share URL behind the scenes.
So a good first step is to install a social share plugin like AddThis and utilize the share URLs they create. Just keep in mind you may not get much customization or analytics this route.
2. Creating your own URLs
The other option is to manually create your own social share URLs to completely customize them. It does require a bit more work, but provides the most tracking and customization.
Here are a few tips on how to create your own social share URLs:
- Use a URL shortener like bit.ly to shorten links to a readable length.
- Attach UTM tracking parameters to the end of URLs so you can track clicks in analytics.
- To pre-populate text, add the ?text= parameter with your message coded into the URL.
- Direct URLs to share on specific social platforms using parameters like ?share=twitter.
- Use Meta tags in your content to pull rich link previews.
Here is an example social share URL with UTM tracking and pre-populated text:
“`
https://bit.ly/3afk2WQ?text=Check%20out%20this%20awesome%20content!&utm_source=social&utm_medium=instagram&utm_campaign=summer2022
“`
When clicked, this would open up Instagram and pre-fill the message “Check out this awesome content!” along with tracking parameters.
The benefit of creating your own social share URLs is being able to precisely track engagement and customize messaging across channels. Just be sure to test them thoroughly across platforms. Some social networks may disable pre-populated messages for security reasons.
Best practices for social share URLs
To maximize the impact of your social share URLs, keep these best practices in mind:
Use compelling, optimized messages
– Research shows including “Share this post” in the URL message boosts clicks by 158%.
– Craft catchy messages tailored to each platform your sharing on.
– Use messaging that creates urgency or social proof.
Shorten links
– Always use link shorteners like bit.ly to keep URLs compact.
– Short links are crucial for sharing on platforms like Twitter.
Add UTM tracking parameters
– This allows you to track clicks and shares in Google Analytics.
– You can see the number of clicks on social share URLs and traffic referred.
Test thoroughly
– Be sure to test your social share URLs across all platforms.
– Some sites block pre-populated text for security reasons.
– Check that links and messages are working as expected.
Promote your social share URLs
– Add share URL buttons after blog posts and on landing pages.
– Promote your share URLs across your social channels.
– Encourage users to share links in email newsletters or popups.
Examples of social share URLs
To give you ideas for crafting your own social share URLs, here are a few examples across different platforms:
“`
https://bit.ly/3afk2WQ?text=Check%20out%20this%20cool%20article&utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook
“`
“`
https://bit.ly/3afk2WQ?text=Reading%20this%20fascinating%20article&via=john&utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter
“`
“`
https://bit.ly/3afk2WQ?text=Interesting%20article%20I%20read&utm_source=social&utm_medium=linkedin
“`
“`
https://bit.ly/3afk2WQ?utm_source=social&utm_medium=pinterest&description=Awesome%20article%20worth%20reading
“`
“`
mailto:?subject=Check this article out!&body=I thought you might like this article:%20https://bit.ly/3afk2WQ
“`
As you can see, the URL structure remains essentially the same. You just switch up the message and UTM parameters based on the social network.
The benefit is being able to track exactly how many shares are coming from each platform.
Tools to create social share URLs
Creating social share URLs manually can be time-consuming. Here are some tools that can help generate them automatically:
- Shareaholic – Offers a full suite of share buttons and tools. Easy to create share URLs.
- AddThis – Popular social sharing plugin. Share buttons have built-in URLs.
- Bitly – URL shortener that allows you to customize links.
- Google Tag Manager – Provides macros to generate social share URLs.
- Social Warfare – Social media plugin with custom sharing options.
These tools help simplify the technical part of creating social share URLs in bulk. You still need to customize the messages, but they make it easier to manage the links at scale.
Conclusion
Implementing social share URLs is one of the best ways to increase engagement and drive more traffic from social media. They provide a frictionless sharing experience for visitors and allow you to track exactly which networks are driving the most shares.
Be sure to create custom-tailored messages for each platform and promote your social share URLs across your site and social profiles. With this easy sharing shortcut, you can convert more visitors into brand evangelists sharing your content.