Poynter associate editor Mallary Jean Tenore lists tips for online journalists to build an engaged audience online in her post “5 small steps journalists can take to build a bigger, more engaged audience.”

The post provides great pieces of advice on getting the word out on your article like letting your news sources and people who may have a stake in your article know about the piece through the social networks. To be effective, Tenore suggests that you include their Twitter and Facebook names in the update so that they can be notified.

She also suggests linking to the work of other news sites and informing them about it.

Tenore also suggests engaging with others covering your beat and tweeting follow-ups “that help advance the discussion about your story.”

The article also advises journalists to use social media optimization to build an audience. The Huffington Post’s Mandy Jenkins adds an important tip: “Make sure your work is easily shared. Does your website have easily-found buttons for sharing your story via social media and email? If not, fix that first.”

While it’s easy to just copy the URL and then share it in your social networks when using a laptop or PC, it’s such a hassle to do it on a phone on a tablet. A share button would simplify that. Several times while reading on a tablet. I changed my mind from sharing an article because of the lack of a button to easily do that.

Apart from the sharing buttons, websites should also add the Facebook like button. The like button has been credited with increasing traffic to sites by up to 200%.