Have you ever noticed that a brand new out of the box DotNetNuke website is just a bit too plain? It's not very friendly, it's not very welcoming, and worst of all its just not social?
Who hasn't heard of social networks like Twitter, Digg, Delicious, and of course the new big entrant to the game, Google Buzz. It's practically mandatory for a website to use the social bookmarking buttons and widgets from these sites.
After all, with that much traffic on offer, who wouldn't want a piece of the action? So what can you do to make a newly installed DNN site more social? Here's 7 ways to get started:
1. Add a twitter button
Twitter is the #1 site for social interaction right now, so make it easy for visitors to your site to tweet about your site. All you need to do is to get the tweetmeme button, copy the javascript, add a new text/html module to your page, and then paste the javascript into the new module. You can find the button here: http://help.tweetmeme.com/2009/04/06/tweetmeme-button/
2. Add a Google Buzz button
The controversial new entrant to social networking, Google Buzz has such a huge number of users that it can't be ignored.
It's a bit harder to find a good Google Buzz button, this one seems to be a good start: http://www.buzzcounter.net/. Again just copy and paste the javascript.
3. Add a digg.com button
One of the originals, and still a heavy weight social networking site. You can get this button straight from the source: http://about.digg.com/button
4. Add a reddit.com button
Like digg, but a bit less popular. It's still a large enough force to be worth having. Find this button at http://www.reddit.com/buttons/
5. Add a delicious.com button
A different approach of social networking, this site is also one of the originals. It's a lot less popular than it used to be, but it's still going strong. Get it right here: http://delicious.com/help/savebuttons
6. Add a linkedin button
LinkedIn is the #1 social networking site for professionals, so it's well worth having on your site. From: http://developer.linkedin.com/docs/DOC-1075
7. Get the #1 Social Bookmarks Module for DotNetNuke
You might have noticed by now that it takes a bit of work to add all these social bookmarking buttons and widgets by yourself. Its tricky to get right and if you haven't done anything like this before, you may find it to be very difficult.
Instead of doing everything by hand, try the Social Bookmarks module for DotNetNuke which will make it all easy. There are 59 social bookmark buttons including twitter, digg, reddit, delicious, linkedin, google buzz and many more.
It's easy to use and you can be up and running with a more social website in less than five minutes. You can find this module on snowcovered.com