Social media plays a pivotal role in driving traffic to your website. This is unlike a few years ago when search engines dominated the realm of web traffic generation. Today, in the era of burgeoning social networks and bookmarking sites, we cannot ignore the place of social media as a fast-growing source of traffic.
We would love to see you get your share of the ever-growing social media pie, so we’ve put together this list of thirty (30) social media plugins to help you boost social engagement on your WordPress site. Enjoy and share your thoughts and favorite social media plugins in the comments at the end.
Without further ado:
jQuery Facebook Wall Plugin
LudicrisMaximus, the author, believes in “changing the internet one website at a time…” and this social media plugin is proof enough he’s committed to this goal.
In a nutshell, jQuery Facebook Wall plugin allows you to add multiple Facebook feeds to any page on your site. You can choose to showcase albums, events, likes and photos among others. This WordPress social media plugin goes for $9 bucks and has an impressive rating of 4.64/5.00.
Twitter Slider & User Card for WordPress
Now that we can add Facebook wall feeds to your site easily, how about getting an equivalent solution for your Twitter feed? Twitter Slider gives you complete control over your tweets with unlimited customization options.
It’s fully responsive and comes with plenty of shortcodes, meaning you can place your Twitter feeds anywhere you fancy. $16 bucks get you the plugin, premium support and a lifetime of updates.
Easy Social Metrics Pro WordPress Plugin
Getting social media shares is not enough – you need to track and measure the impact of your content across various social networks. Easy Social Metrics Pro WordPress Plugin helps you to understand your social activity on up to twelve (12) social networking sites.
The plugin is chock-a-block with features that make your work easy and so much fun. The plugin retails at $28 bucks and it’s worth every dime.
SocialBox – Social Profile Showcase
Showcasing social proof can boost engagement and conversions on your site in ways unimaginable. Jonas Doe Bertin brings you SocialBox, a one of a kind WordPress social media plugin that lets you display the total number of your Facebook fans, YouTube subscribers and Twitter followers among others.
What’s more? You can enter placeholder figures that will be displayed should any channel fail. $16 bucks get you SocialBox and premium support.
Social Sidebar for WordPress
With a million and one styles and easy-to-configure options, Social Sidebar for WordPress is exactly what you need for your modern and trendy website.
The plugin comes with a settings panel that makes modification a breeze. It is built using HTML5 and CSS3 bringing you that crisp and modern look. Get Social Sidebar for $10 only at CodeCanyon.
Social Network Tabs for WordPress
Shoot your content across sixteen (16) social networks and give your readers the chance to spread the love with over sixty-five (65) feed options.
Social Network Tabs for WordPress by designchemical, an Elite author, is the ultimate social media plugin for your WordPress website. Don’t take my word for it, go try it – at least the demo. Social Network Tabs for WordPress costs $14 only.
SocialFans – WP Responsive Social Counter Plugin
Retina ready, fully responsive, translation ready, skins galore and five (5)-star support are some of the phrases you can use to describe SocialFans, a WordPress social media plugin that lets you display your social media fans using beautiful and colorful skins.
SocialFans supports thirty (30) social networks, and Themeinity – the author – will let you have and keep the plugin for $10 bucks only.
Pinterest Automatic Pin WordPress Plugin
Are you (or your business) on Pinterest, and if you aren’t, what the hell are you waiting for? Pinterest drives a lot of web traffic, which you can tap into using the Pinterest Automatic Pin WordPress plugin.
You don’t need to do much, just install the plugin and it will do the pinning for you. Automatically. This plugin goes for $15 bucks at CodeCanyon.
Tweetable Shortcode V.2 – Quick Tweet Sentences
Make your content a Twitter magnet with the Tweetable Shortcode plugin that helps you to make any sentence a tweet at the click of a button.
When you install Tweetable shortcode, it adds a button to your post editor. Just select your sentence and click the Tweetable button and then publish your content. Simple as ABC. Tweetable Shortcodes sell at $10.
WordPress Social Stream
Designchemical will never cease to impress, what with this out-of-this-world social media plugin that “…combine(s) all of your social network [activity] into one single network stream…”.
Alternatively, you can create and display separate single feeds for multiple social media accounts. jQuery powers the plugin, so you can expect the smooth transitions and other sweet animations that come with the technology. The plugin sells like hotcakes at $16 bucks.
VIVO Live Tweets WordPress Plugin
Boost Twitter engagement by embedding tweets in your WordPress site based on #hashtags, location and user tweets. Stay on top of the latest Twitter trends with this easy-to-customize and fully flexible WordPress social media plugin. You don’t have to break a sweat or the bank, VIVO Live Tweets WordPress Plugin goes for $16 bucks only.
Facebook Likebox Slider for WordPress
Arscode, the author, claims that Facebook Likebox Slider is the best social slider plugin for WordPress on the market. Is he talking a good one or does this plugin carry its own weight as a WordPress social media plugin? For starters, Facebook Likebox Slider has been purchased by over 4,500 users.
They couldn’t be all wrong considering the plugin has a splendid rating of 4.53/5.00. On top of that, it’s easy to install and configure, and comes with live preview and mobile device support. At a small price of $17 bucks, you get more shares, more traffic and quick round-the-clock support.
Sossy – Social Profile and Counter for WordPress
Few WordPress social media plugins can match the unparalleled potential of Sossy, which allows you to add beautiful social counters anywhere on your website.
Drag and drop your social media profiles easily and customize the same as you’d like. Display more than ten (10) social networks without breaking a sweat and set fallback values should any API fail. Sossy has a superb rating of 4.80/5.00 and retails at $14 bucks only.
From the get go, you will notice that the SharePlus (+) WordPress social media plugin is indeed beautiful what with five (5) free themes, colorful social icons and plenty of customization options.
This exceptional plugin runs on HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery giving your web visitors an user experience like no other. Not to mention the plugin is easy to get going and use. SharePlus (+) costs $11 bucks only.
Social Locker WordPress Plugin
Sorry to burst your bubble but if you don’t know this already, the world is not a bed of roses and everybody (in it ) is only looking out for themselves. They don’t give a rat’s arse about you, your traffic or your website. Nope, that’s not their problem. As such, no matter what type of social icons you use on your website, many people will consume your awesome content to their hearts’ fill and leave without liking/sharing.
Social Locker “forces” people to pay with a tweet, Google +1 or Facebook like to access your most valuable content, downloads, videos etc. It has more than 4,000 sales, an impressive rating og 4.69/5.00 and costs $24 only. At the time of writing, it’s a trending item on CodeCanyon.net.
Free WordPress Social Media Plugins
Up to this point, we’ve been looking at premium WordPress social media plugins. But what if you don’t have the moolah to splurge on a social media plugin? Does that mean your social media promotion efforts are doomed?
If you’re on a tight budget or bootstrapping, the following section covers fifteen (15) free WordPress social media plugins that will help you to spread your content across social media like wildfire. Brace yourself, we’re going to do this fast :) .
If you’d like to attract copious traffic to your WordPress site from social networks easily, Mashshare is exactly what you need. This WordPress social media plugin is beautiful to say the least and will entice readers to spread your content. It has a rating of 4.7/5.0.
With over two (2) million downloads (meaning the plugin is in use on a couple of cool sites) and a whole lot of sweet features, ShareThis will help you to take your social sharing game to a whole new level.
Choose from over a hundred (100) social networks, customize your social icons as you desire and track the performance of your social activity all with a single plugin.
Flare Free WordPress Plugin
Out of the box, Flare is both beautiful and functional. It ships bundled with numerous social icons, so you ought to be covered in this area.
On top of that, this WordPress social media plugin features an intuitive user interface and a dashboard that gives you complete control over social sharing on your website. You will need to create a free account with Filament.io to enjoy Flare.
Floating Social Media Icon
Floating Social Media Icon is one of the best and most popular WordPress social media plugin out there. This easy to customize and use plugin comes with over twenty (20) icon styles, shortcode support, resizable icons, auto or manual integration, less load and multiple widgets.
You can set your social icons to float about or fix them in one position. Either way, Floating Social Media Icon is a great way of boosting social engagement on your site.
Social Toolbar Free WordPress Plugin
Declutter your site by putting all your social icons in a custom toolbar at the bottom of your page. The Social Toolbar plugin is easy to install, customize and use.
The toolbar looks amazing and since you will have less clutter, your users will thank you for your ingenuity. Use your own choice of colors, add as many social icons as you’d like and have fun. Not a word more.
Social Media Widget
Built by Blink Web Effects, Social Media Widget is simple yet powerful plugin that adds your social icons to the sidebar.
You get a lot of customization power with four (4) icons styles, four (4) animations and four (4) varying sizes: 16 x 16, 24 x 24, 32 x 32 and 64 x 64. You can set the social icons to zoom in/out, fade in/out or bounce.
Social Media Feather
This is a lightweight and effective social media plugin that spots an ultra-modern design. The plugin allows you to easily add major social networks to your WordPress website using widgets and shortcodes.
Social Media Feather supports retina displays, plays well with WordPress social sharing and comes with a lot of options.
This one of a kind baby packs quite a punch as far as WordPress social media plugins are concerned. It’s the all-in-one social sharing solution you need.
Shareaholic comes with social sharing, related posts feature, promoted content, monetization and social analytics, giving you everything you need to up your social promotion game. It has over one (1) million downloads and a great rating of 3.9/5.0.
Social Sharing by Danny
Danny van Kooten built the social sharing plugin to be “…simple, lightweight and flexible.” No external scripts and no unnecessary code meaning this plugin has less load, which is good for your page load speed. On top of that, Social Sharing by Danny is easy to set up, use and customize. Too bad the current version (at the time of writing) supports only three (3) networks: Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
AddThis
AddThis is the combined effort of Srijit V, Sol, _mjk_, addthis_paul and abramsm. It’s a powerful WordPress social media plugin that allows you to share your content on over 330 social networks, showcase related content easily, monetize and track your performance.
Po.st : The Social Sharing Platform the Generates Revenue for Your Website
Did you know you can make some money on the side while promoting your content on social media? Oh yeah you can and Po.st gives you exactly what you need. Now that we’re talking about money, how does it work? After a user shares your content, a 300 x 250 ad unit appears within the sharing box. If they click on the ad, you can earn up to $25!
Other than that, Po.st supports all major social networks and ships with a wide array of icons and custom styles to suit your tastes. Additionally, you get a beautiful analytics dashboard to track your social activity and earnings.
Jetpack Sharing by WordPress.com
If you run/own a WordPress site, you must live under a rock if you’ve never heard of Jetpack. It’s usually bundled with WordPress and ships with a number of awesome features one being social sharing.
Jetpack sharing features beautiful icons and supports major social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn among others. The plugin is easy to configure; activate social sharing with a single click and then just drag and drop the social icons to order items as you’d like.
Social Login
Boost social media engagement on your site using the Social Login plugin that allows your readers to register, login and comment on your site with over twenty-five (25) social sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and even PayPal among others.
Some of the plugin’s best features include widgets, shortcodes, BuddyPress compatibility and ease of use to mention a few. Social Login has an impressive rating of 4.0/5.0.
This is a simple WordPress social media plugin that features an elegant design. With TFG Social Share, you can place your social icons above, below or above and below your posts, to the left side of the posts or anywhere else you fancy using the [tfg_social_share] shortcode. This plugin supports about six (6) social networks, which might be a discouraging factor to some. See the plugin in use below:
Simplified Social Sharing
Built by LoginRadius, this plugin gives your web visitors the chance to share your awesome content via their social media accounts easily. Simplified Social Sharing supports WordPress, bbPress and BuddyPress and comes with a lot of customization options.
Final Thoughts…
Don’t let the huge traffic potential of social media go to waste; boost traffic, engagement and grow your social following with any of the above plugins.
Just remember, people are more willing to share your content if it is awesome. Make your posts snappy and informational – converse with your readers and they will feel inclined to to share your posts giving you the social boost you deserve. Until next time, please share your favorite WordPress social media plugin and your thoughts in the comment section below!
