Friday, 29 January 2021

Best Social Media WordPress Plugins

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Social media plays a crucial role in the success of any brand or business. By integrating your website with social media platforms, it helps expand your reach and drive engagement. 

One of the easiest ways to improve your social media strategy is by using a WordPress plugin. These tools make it easy for website visitors to share your content via social media and ultimately drive more traffic to your website. You can even use these plugins to get more followers on social media. 

But with dozens of social media WordPress plugins to choose from, finding the right one for you and your website can feel like a daunting task.

Whether you’re running a business website, small personal blog, or something in between, I’ve narrowed down and reviewed the best social media WordPress plugins on the market today.

The Top 6 Options For Social Media WordPress Plugins

How to Choose the Best Social Media WordPress Plugin For You

Certain features and functions must be evaluated as you’re shopping around and comparing social media WordPress plugins. This is the methodology that I used to narrow down the top picks listed above. You can use the same methodology and weigh things based on your personal needs. 

Site Performance

In general, performance is the biggest issue with social media plugins for WordPress. These plugins typically come with scripts and stylesheets that can ultimately slow down your website. 

That’s why it’s so important to look for a social media plugin that’s lightweight. Otherwise, load time and other crucial performance metrics will be impacted. Don’t just choose a feature-rich plugin if you don’t need all of its functionality. 

Active Social Profiles

What social media platforms are you currently using to promote your brand? How many of those profiles do you want to integrate with your website?

In terms of social sharing icons in a sidebar, less is typically better than more. Adding ten different social sites to this menu will just clutter your page and probably won’t drive much engagement. 

You should also consider the type of content and how it relates to specific social platforms. For example, it’s usually better to share blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. But images are better suited for Pinterest or Instagram. 

Content Goals

What is the main reason why you’re seeking a social media WordPress plugin? 

There’s a big difference between plugins designed to drive site traffic and plugins made for increasing your social media following. 

For example, social sharing plugins help encourage site visitors to share your content via social media. As a result, a wider audience can see your content and land on your website. Other plugins with a simple “Like Us on Facebook” button don’t have the same impact. These are designed to turn your website visitors into social media followers. 

Shortcodes and Custom Display Options

It’s important to have social media icons on your site that are visible yet non-intrusive. The best plugins help you customize how and where those icons are displayed. 

Do you want them at the top of your post? The bottom of the page? What about a floating sidebar? You might want to have share icons on all of your blog posts but not on your landing pages. Does the plugin allow you to customize these settings by post type?

Consider using a plugin that can match your site’s branding as well. This will allow you to change the shapes, sizing, and even colors of the widget. 

The Different Types of Social Media WordPress Plugins

Social media WordPress plugins come in all different shapes and sizes. Before we dive into the reviews of my top picks, it’s important for you to understand the different types of solutions in this category. 

Social Sharing Plugins

These plugins make it easy for website visitors to share your content with their friends and followers on social media. 

For example, let’s say someone reads one of your blog posts and wants to share that post on their Facebook timeline. Rather than making that person to copy and paste the link, a simple social sharing button directly on the page makes this process much easier. With a single click, website visitors can share your content via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other social sites.

Some social sharing plugins have features to automate the scheduling and posting of your content via social media. Any time you publish a new blog post, that content will automatically get shared on your social profiles without any extra manual steps from your end. 

Social Feed Plugins

With a social feed plugin, your social media content can be displayed directly on your website. 

Let’s say you upload a new photo to Instagram. Rather than having to manually upload that same photo somewhere on your website, a WordPress plugin can just display it in your social feed. So the bottom of your home page or another landing page could include all of your latest social media posts. 

These plugins are perfect for turning website visitors into social media followers. Then you’ll have the opportunity to engage with those people even when they’re not visiting your website.

Login and Comment Plugins

Asking website visitors to create an account on your website is a great way to personalize content and grow your subscriber list. But not everyone wants to register completely new login credentials with every new site that they visit. 

There are WordPress plugins that allow website visitors to create an account and register by logging in via social media. So, someone could use their Facebook credentials to create an account on your website. There are no lengthy form fields to complete or new passwords to remember. 

Many of these plugins also contain features for social comments. By default, the comments system built into WordPress doesn’t have a social aspect. But you can use plugins so users can comment on your posts from their social media profiles. This helps drive engagement and more conversations on blogs.

Content Locking Plugins

Content locking plugins are one of the best ways to get new followers with a social media WordPress plugin. Here’s how it works. 

You can restrict access to specific content on your site until a visitor completes a certain action. For example, you could lock a blog post that will only be available once a visitor follows one of your social media pages. 

Not only will this grow your following, but it promotes engagement. Only highly engaged users will complete these steps. So, any new followers gained from this strategy must be actively interested in your brand. Just be aware that these plugins could potentially hurt the engagement on your website. If people don’t want to follow you on social media, that locked content will go unread. Try experimenting with just a few posts before you start locking all of the content on your website. 

#1 – Social Snap Review — The Most Versatile Social Media WordPress Plugin

Social Snap is arguably the most flexible social media WordPress plugin on the market today. Unlike other plugins that just focus on a single functionality, Social Snap does it all. 

With 230,000+ downloads, its popularity speaks for itself. 

The plugin integrates with 30+ social networks and apps, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google+, and more. Social share icons are fully customizable and can be placed anywhere on your pages.

Other noteworthy features and highlights of Social Snap include:

  • Automatically display social follower counts
  • Automatically publish new posts on social media
  • Bring old posts back to life with auto publishing for existing content
  • Social login for visitors on your site
  • Click to Tweet button
  • Social meta tags

Social Snap even supports advanced analytics. So you can fully grasp how your audience engages with your website content. 

Pricing starts at just $27.30 per year for a single website. Try it risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

#2 – Easy Social Share Buttons Review — The Best For Simple Social Sharing

As the name implies, the Easy Social Share Buttons plugin is designed to encourage social media shares from your website. 

The plugin has 600,000+ installs and powers more than one billion social actions. 

Easy Social Share Buttons is trusted by sites like Kinsta, Asana, Trello, AdEspresso, and more. Its fast setup and simplicity make the plugin a popular choice for WordPress beginners and experts alike. 

Here are some of the top reasons why I recommend this plugin:

  • Works with 50+ social share networks
  • Template builder tool with 50+ templates
  • Click to Tweet button
  • Ability to pin any image on Pinterest
  • 12 different share positions
  • 14 share button displays

The plugin even supports advanced features, like conversion tracking, engagement tracking, custom display methods, and more. 

Easy Social Share Buttons has a lifetime license, and pricing starts at $22 for a single website. All purchases are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

#3 – Revive Old Posts Review — The Best For Social Media Scheduling and Automatic Posting

Revive Old Posts from Revive Social is another WordPress plugin with a self-explanatory name.

This plugin is trusted by 82,000+ WordPress users, and it’s one of my favorite ways to bring your old content back to life.

Getting started is easy. Once installed, you just need to give the plugin permission to access your social profiles. This can be completed in a few simple clicks. Next, customize the types of posts you want shared on social media. You can control parameters like minimum and maximum post age to create the posting schedule.

Other noteworthy highlights of Revive Old Posts include:

  • Ability to share new posts when published
  • Share posts multiple times with a content rotation
  • Ability to share blogs, pages, posts, images, products, and more
  • Automatically add hashtags to posts based on category, tags, or custom fields
  • Integration with Google Analytics Campaign Tracking

The plugin even lets you create different variations of your social posts for more variety. This helps you figure out which types of captions convert better than others. 

Pricing starts at $75 per year for a single website. Lifetime access starts at $225.

#4 – Smash Balloon Review — The Best WordPress Plugin For Displaying Social Media Feeds

If you want your social media content displayed on your website, look no further than Smash Balloon. 

More than 1.3 million people use Smash Balloon to share social feeds from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

It’s worth noting that each social media platform has a separate plugin. So, if you want to display your Twitter feed on one page and your Instagram feed on another, you’ll need to install each plugin separately.

With that said, Smash Balloon recently released a new plugin called Social Wall. This plugin combines the posts on all of your social profiles into a single feed. 

Here are some other reasons why I recommend Smash Balloon:

  • No-code simple setup
  • Customizable feed design
  • Intelligent caching and backup system to maximize the speed and performance
  • SEO friendly design
  • Display multiple feeds
  • Display likes, shares, and comments

Pricing starts at $49 per year. 

#5 – Social Locker Review — The Best For Getting New Social Media Followers and Driving Engagement

Social Locker is a bit unique compared to some of the other plugins on my list. It’s designed for a specific use case, which isn’t for everyone.

The plugin allows you to “lock” certain content on your website. That content will be unlocked when a site visitor completes an action, such as following your brand on social media.

Once the visitor takes the desired action, the locked content can be viewed or downloaded. The idea behind this plugin is to build quality followers on social media. Anyone willing to take this added step to view your content is likely very interested in your brand. 

There are four types of content locks that you can implement with this plugin:

  • Lock downloads
  • Lock promo codes
  • Restricted access for subscribers
  • Sign in to continue reading

It’s a popular solution for bloggers and other content-heavy websites. Download Social Locker and try it free for seven days; no credit card required. 

#6 – WordPress Social Login Review — The Best For User Registration

WordPress Social Login is the easiest way for website visitors to register accounts on your website. 

Instead of forcing them to fill out a new registration form, create a unique user ID, and remember a new password, this plugin allows them to register using their existing social media credentials.

With 60,000+ active installations, this is one of the most popular social media login plugins for WordPress on the market today.

Supported social platforms include:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitch
  • Foursquare
  • Yahoo
  • Windows Live
  • AOL

The list goes on and on. I like this plugin because it’s simple but still fully customizable. You’ll have complete control over the authentication widget. Developers and designers will enjoy the plugin’s advanced customization capabilities as well.

Best of all? WordPress Social Login is open-source and 100% free to download.

Summary

Websites and social media go hand-in-hand. Using one to promote the other is the smart way to drive traffic and engagement. 

The easiest way to encourage social shares and promote your website content via social media is with a WordPress plugin. 

To recap:

With so many social media WordPress plugins on the market today, it can be difficult to find the right ones for your website. Stick to the recommendations reviewed above. From simple social sharing to content locking and social logins, I made sure to include something for everyone on my list.

The post Best Social Media WordPress Plugins appeared first on Neil Patel.



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