Top Social Media Plugins for WordPress

This is a guest post by Helen Bailey.

Let’s be frank – we all want maximum exposure for our content. It's a great feeling to write an interesting and useful article, and even a better feeling to see it being actively shared on major social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest, StumbleUpon etc. This means you’ve created valuable content that the public believes is worth sharing.

Actually, sharing is a win-win for both the blogger and the reader, because on the one hand it helps readers find interesting content; on the other hand it helps bloggers get more traffic to their blogs.

So if you’re a WordPress blogger and you want your articles to get noticed, take a few minutes and look through a list of social media plugins for WordPress. Each of these plugins is unique, but they share the same purpose, which is to help you increase your social media visibility and get more traffic from social media sites.

We all are different: some of us like floating social bars, while others prefer sticky bars; some bloggers use side bars, while others use horizontal scroll bars; there are also bloggers who choose social media sharing buttons instead of share bars. So, think what sharing tool you would like to put on your WordPress blog and see which of the following plugins meets your requirements.

The best thing is that the social sharing plugins featured below are free to download and use. So you can try them all until you find the one that is perfect for your site.

• Social Media Feather

  The main advantage of Social Media Feather is that it’s a super lightweight plugin, meaning it will not slow down your website loading speed. As any other plugin on the list, it is an easy way to enhance your page with social media sharing buttons. The buttons look quite stylish and users can disable the buttons they don’t need.

• Floating Social Media Icon

  The floating feature ensures maximum sharing of your content as the sharing bar is always in front of the eyes of your site visitors. It also allows you to place the icons in a certain part of the page. In short, with this plugin you can show social media icons linked to your social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Google +, etc. Moreover, you can choose the size and the style of the icons and even display them in any order you wish.

• Hupso Share Buttons

  Hupso Share Buttons support major social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Reddit, Bebo and others. The design is slick and minimalistic. The code for sharing button is very small (only a few KB), so the share buttons will not slow down your website - even on devices with slow network connections. You can also add a counter for Twitter Tweet, Facebook Like, Google +1, Linkedin Share and Pinterest - Pin it buttons.

• Scrolling Social Sharebar

  Here comes another plugin. It’s very minimal and simplistic and it allows users to add up to 7 social icons (Twitter, Facebook, Google +1, etc) to their websites. As you may guess by the name of the plugin, the sharing bar does not stick to a certain part of the page, but moves up and down when the reader scrolls the page. By the way, you can add custom icons to the share bar and disable the icons you don’t need.

• Share Buttons by AddToAny

  This is one of the oldest plugins, but it’s still widely used by millions of WordPress users from all over the world as it allows them to share their content with the widest audience possible. With this reputable plugin you can add up to 100 share buttons to your website, including AddToAny's universal sharing button, the Facebook like button, the Twitter share button, the Google+ button, and many others. The good thing is that you can choose the location of the share bar on your web page. It should be also mentioned that the plugin is easy to work with, meaning you can customize the share buttons.

• Sharexy

  Sharexy is another great social sharing tool that is easy to customize. In short, it allows you to choose the style of the share buttons so that they match the design of your site. By the way, you can either choose the best placement for the share bar or make it float.

• Socialize

  Socialize is mainly aimed at those bloggers who would like to add social sharing buttons to their posts. Of course, users can choose the style of their buttons as well as where to place them.

• Social Toolbar

  Social Toolbar ia a plugin for adding a highly customizable toolbar with color selection, social network icons, recent tweet and share buttons into footer. You can specify all the colors and fonts, and rearrange your list of social network icons to your desire. Display it on the whole site or just the home page or just the blog or even just an individual page.

• WP Socializer

  WP Socializer is a perfect option for both, people who like social media sharing buttons as well as those who prefer social media sharing toolbars. It should be also mentioned that this plugin can be used by those of you who would like to display sharing buttons at the beginning or at the end of the post. However, it’s also possible to make a floating share bar.

• Sociable

  Sociable is quite popular with WordPress users and this list would be incomplete without this plugin. With Sociable you can easily choose the style of your sharing buttons as well as where you want them to be displayed on your site. No doubt, it’s a nice way to get more exposure for your content.

Remember, your content can go unnoticed without sharing. So our advice is: make it easy for your readers to share your content and enjoy more visitors coming to your site

About the author
Helen Bailey is one of those who are passionate about web design, blogging, WordPress and the like. But it should come as no surprise because Helen is a part of TemplateMonster and this company is known for its WordPress themes and other products that bloggers like.