How to like and be liked on your blog

We all like to be liked. It’s in our human psyche to feel wanted and accepted.

And this has no exception when it comes to blogging. We all thrive on appreciation; whether what we have written has been read and whether any of these readers approve, agree, understand or have been satisfied by the message we have shared.

Sometimes it’s not easy to literally show your approval, or you haven’t enough time, or you can’t think of the right words to say. This is particularly true for bad or sad news. Or even if something has made you smile, but doesn’t really require a full blown response.

Commenting takes time, especially if it is done properly. But the reader may feel a need to make contact, to prove the post has been read, and leaving a like is the most suitable answer.

Facebook have been allowing people to like for eons. Other social media platforms have created their own versions, with the +1 in Google+ and hearts in Pinterest. In Twitter I show my appreciation through the favorite icon, even if it’s not meant to be used like that.

And it’s just as easy to like a post on a blog, as long as it has been set up. You know I only focus on WordPress, and their free WordPress.com blogs have this feature installed as standard. (I had a quick look in Blogger, but couldn’t find an equivalent system.) This is what it would look like underneath the post:

As you can see, it can become fun to see how many likes your latest post can accrue.

So where is this located so you can regulate it? Go to Settings > Sharing and pan down to the bottom of the page:

And you’ll see you have the option to have likes on all your posts, or to choose when to show that button. If the second option is checked:

  

The Likes and Shares menu, which is found at the bottom of the Post > Edit page below where you write your post content, will have the like option automatically unchecked.

Now every time someone likes you posts, you have the option of being informed of this amazing occurrence via email.

To regulate this, go to Settings > Discussion and you’ll see where the this occurs:

And it’s good to know where this is, just in case your blog becomes incredibly popular and your email in-box gets totally jammed with these like-notifications (lucky you!). Just uncheck this option to turn this feature off.

A new feature for WordPress.com is their like feature on comments. I didn’t know this existed until someone liked one of my comments on another blog. Of course to me this is a great feature, especially as this should encourage more people to comment on blogs in order to get likes!

I don’t mind confessing this gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling that someone had read and appreciated one of my comments. And there’s the added bonus of finding out who that extremely nice person was!

To find out where to regulate this, go to Settings > Sharing, right at the bottom of the page:

And here is the option to show the like feature on each comment.

And what if you have a WordPress.org blog? Here you are at a disadvantage, because you will need to install a plugin to get these features. I’ve had a quick look, and they tend to offer a thumbs up or down feature, which isn’t quite the same as a simple like button. There is the JetPack plugin that provides many of the features found in WordPress.com, but I found the like button wasn’t compatible with my theme, so didn’t show up properly. This is a shame, as I do like this feature.

So how do you go about getting likes on your blog?

Well, it’s actually quite simple. Go and give out some likes of your own on other blogs. Just the same as you do when browsing the newsfeed in Facebook or trawling down the streams in Twitter, you see something you like, and you go ahead and like it. That’s all it is, a simple click.

The more you like other people’s posts and comments, the more likely they will come back to your blog and do the same. Give in order to receive. Show some love, and it will be reciprocated. Altruism will always rule in the end.