Social media was a big hit two years ago but nowadays it seems that people have lost their enthusiasm. Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest still attract new users, but definitely the climax of social media was overtaken.
On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that neglecting social media is a good choice…by far, it’s a huge mistake. The social networks are inestimable for the huge brands because they help them stay connected with people. Being active on various social networks isn’t mandatory only for huge brands, but a good social presence is recommended for local businesses, bloggers or entrepreneurs also. In fact, websites without various social media buttons are very rare. Obviously, the content is the one that determines people to distribute it on social networks but an important role is played by the design. As a result, many designers spend much time searching for the best plugins and methods to improve the social media presence.
Luckily for you, we have collected 20 impressive WordPress plugins that will help you improve your social media presence. The selection was very time-consuming because many talented WordPress developers create brilliant plugins.
Social Counter plugin lets the viewers make a brief opinion about the number of friends/followers/subscribers. The buttons are retina ready, based on Bootstrap. The plugin contains 21 buttons and four skins (Light, Dark, Colored, and Transparent) that may be customized for everybody’s needs and preferences.
The huge majority of the WordPress plugins are very customizable, but very few ones benefit from a very clear explanation about how to do it. The developers of Social Sidebar noticed this fact and have created a wonderful and very clear preview. I think that it is better to visit it yourself and play around with the various customization options.
If a good image is worth 100 or 1000 words, how many words is good video worth? Definitely, a lot! In conclusion, it’s highly recommendable to pay attention at the manner in which one can display videos and maintain a YouTube account. This plugin will help in handling the YouTube videos, so if you are in need YouTube Grid Video Gallery is a good solution.
The previous plugin was responsible for creating a video gallery; this one does the same, but it handles Facebook albums. Of course, it provides the same quality and easiness to install and use it.
The social networks are very dynamic and are famous for the high level of interactivity. Facebook contests are very much appreciated and they may produce a lot of buzz around the contest holder. This plugin will help in creating Facebook contests directly from the WordPress website and it may bring a considerable traffic increase.
The monetization of written content is a long and unresolved story. It’s improbable that people will pay for articles as long as the same ideas will appear few minutes later. Still, there is a solution to satisfy the readers and reward the writers/bloggers. A “Like”, “Tweet” or any other form of social media compensation may be the perfect reward for these people. Easy Social Locker is a plugin that once installed will lock the website and it will became accessible only by giving a social media reward.
Twitter is a social network that can’t be neglected. This plugin is a great tool for displaying the Twitter feed; it allows displaying the feed in vertical or horizontal position.
This plugin is another one that helps people manage their Twitter presence better. I think that it is more powerful than the precedent one so don’t ignore it!
SelectNShare is a great and very original plugin. I think that this plugin is very useful for blogs because once you install it the user will have the possibility to select a phrase/part of a text and share it via social networks. It is not a very used plugin, but it surely is a very interesting one. Don’t you think?
Sometimes, the social networks buttons are obtrusive and annoying. Altogether, it’s a huge mistake not to insert some of them. This plugin is a very good middle way solution- it hides the latest tweets into a slider. It’s very discrete and anyone that is interested in checking the Twitter activity is just a single click away.
Tweetdis is another WordPress plugin that helps the owner to improve his / her Twitter presence. It’s simple and useful- it allows the editor to select a phrase and make it “tweetable”. Actually it creates a “tweet” call to action: this means that the user will just have to click the button and voila, here is a new tweet in Twitterverse.
WP Smart like is a plugin that consists in displaying the Facebook “likes” into very discrete but visually appealing buttons. At the same time it has inserted a “likes” counter and it’s very customizable, so you have all the reasons to consider adding it into your blog.
I guess that a very small percentage of the overall number of websites don’t have photos inserted into the layouts. Displaying photos is a very challenging web design issue: these must be high quality, but their size must be very small not to negatively affect the loading time and of course, the images should be well rendered no matter the device used to navigate. Fortunately, this plugin is inestimable in managing the Instagram images.
This plugin makes a great job- it offers a counter for all the major social networks. My Social Counter plugin offers various schemes of displaying social network buttons in order to fit them better to the website design. Every button looks great, which means that the visitors will be delighted with them!
If the previous plugin offered a bird view over the social media numerical situation, this one is useful in having a complete overview of the social media stream. More exactly, the plugin adds the website a discrete slider that presents the latest actions on the major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Vimeo, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram).
WordPress Social Stream is a very original plugin. It takes various social media streams and incorporates them all into a single WordPress powered website. The plugin is extremely customizable and it allows selecting any type of feeds from multiple networks into a layout that may be modified according to the user’s needs.
Usually, the bloggers and the website owners are very busy people and they are not able to handle their social presence well, since it is well known that maintaining a coherent social media stream is a time consuming activity. This plugin saves the time and automatically tweets any new post published. It is simple, but effective, isn’t it?
Ring Share isn’t a very used plugin, but it must be treated seriously by the WordPress users. It gives the user the possibility to create a ring of social media icons on various areas on the layout while the visitors may share the page/image/text paragraph via various social networks.
This plugin doesn’t enhance the user experience, but it shouldn’t be missing from the arsenal of a serious WordPress user. It offers a very detailed situation of the social media hits and the dates are showcased using beautifully designed graphics.
It was impossible not to mention a plugin that will allow you to better handle the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) options. It’s simple to use and it allows customizing the RSS buttons in order to attract more and more visitors.
The social networks are very important and either if you are willing or not, these will be very appreciated in the next years. These plugins are very efficient and any owner of a WordPress powered website must consider installing some of them. If you appreciate this post, don’t forget to share it with your friends!
