Social media has become a part of our daily internet lives and it is essential for your websites to include these social media plugins if you are serious about attracting visitors. For most websites, social media is their second largest source of traffic after search engines provided your SEO is good. For others, social media is their number one traffic creator. And for the latter, you will generally find that they had taken full advantage of social media features such as social sharing options and Facebook like. So why not do the same with your websites?
After all, I’m sure you are aware that majority of internet users these days are exposed to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and so forth. It is in our nature to want to share great articles or images so why not make it easier for your readers to share your contents.
In this article, I am sharing 9 top-rated must-have and best WordPress plugins for gaining social media exposure in 2012. They are easy to install, simple to use and brings in more traffic than you ever had before (this of course is assuming that you do consistently publish quality posts). Each of them has slightly different features so I’m sure you will find one that fits your requirements.
Here are free social media plugins covering 3 social functions ie sharing, commenting and integrating Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
You can change almost everything about it from the display order to adding/deleting buttons to editing their codes to even changing how your Sharebar looks.
Sociable is another favorite social media plugin with more than 1.5 million downloads so far. It is flexible and allows you plenty of room for customization and control. This plugin places social bookmarking buttons on every single post, page and RSS feed so that your readers can easily share, vote and share your posts on social networking sites.
Having said that, you also have the option to choose where you wish to place the sharing buttons eg on the home page or archive or single blog posts. It is constantly updated and currently incorporates dozens of social media sites. Customization options includes rewriting the tagline, checking only the media you want to include, as well as changing the icon size and style.
As attractive as its name, this plugin by Shareaholic is immensely popular as it provides an added flair to the social media icons. It is claimed that this is the reason for getting your articles shared. SexyBookmarks supports over 80 social networking sites from the popular Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg and Google+1 to more recent ones like Pinterest.
Highly customizable where the user is in control over how the buttons look like and where they appear on the website as well as including a personalized text. It is light and to the point, thus enabling fast loading. Part of the icons is hidden and would be revealed when hover over. Counters too are available and can be turned on or off. This plugin is sexy!
Disqus in a comment tool that makes discussions easier and more interactive than WordPress’ default comment system. It supports threaded comments and replies through the use of indentions.
At the same time, you are also plugged into a community network of millions of other Disqus users. It also allows readers’ comments and links to these comments to be shared in social media networks.
Besides that, Twitter Tools also creates daily or weekly digest post of your tweets as well as archiving your tweets.
Since it produces xHTML valid code, the plugin allows full-screen video viewing, supports video thumbnails and widgets. It is able to embed YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Metacafe videos both in normal and HD. Viewing on iPhone, iPad and iPod are supported!
This innovative social media sharing plugin is one of the best tools around to enable your readers to share your contents, whether through email or over 50 social networks that includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Yahoo!.
What I love most about this plugin is that you have loads of display options to choose from. You can select to display only a single ShareThis button or a list of social media buttons or a series of social reach buttons (with counts). And on top of that, you are also able to access tracking reports so that you are able to analyze which and how your articles were shared. The best part is that this plugin is computer, mobile and tablet devices friendly, and able to adapt to any screen size!
Having a social media plugin will definitely give you an edge over other websites or blogs. Such a plugin will help you and your readers get connected through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Along the way, you gain the extra exposure to bring your WordPress-powered website to the next level.
A word of advice here. Do look for plugins that will enhance your website. If your website is simple and clean, try to look for a plugin that is also nice and straight-forward. With that in mind, go ahead and give these social media plugins a try today!
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