March 18, 2024

10 Best WordPress Sharing Plugins of 2012 To Get More Social Traffic

What does it take to get your posts shared on Social Networks? With over 250 million Tweets being posted every day and close to 4 billion items being posted on Facebook, there is definitely not a lack in volume of Social Media updates.

To make a larger junk of those being posted about your articles, one of the most important parts to focus on is the placing and options to share on your blogposts.

BrightEdge research recently published a piece a about exactly this. They looked into how sharing of your website can increase through prominently displaying sharing buttons.

What I found most spectacular was that sites with improved sharing options, can have 7 times more mentions on Social Media than sites who neglect it.

So I looked into some of the most powerful sharing plugins for WordPress out there and here are my top 10 finds for you:

1. Digg Digg – Your all in one Social Sharing bar

The first one is a very well known plugin called DiggDigg. After installing, you will have the option, to either put a beautiful floating sharing bar on the lefthand side of your posts or use a set of sharing buttons on the top or bottom of articles.

The plugin is one of the most updated ones in the directory and is constantly adding new features. It features some of the latest new sharing options such as Social Networking newcomer Pinterest and Buffer button.

2. Get Social – Easy to customize floating bar

Another great plugin that allows you to make it very easy for your readers to share your articles is Get Social. Whilst it doesnít allow for buttons before or after your content, it gives you a great floating bar on the lefthand side.

What I greatly enjoy about this plugin is how easy it is to add any other Social Sharing buttons, just by adding a code snippet to it. It is also looks great that you get the option to fade out the background and only have the buttons floating down.

3. ShareThis – Great sharing options and analytics

Of course, one of the most well known sharing plugin is the option from ShareThis. You have a great pool of options to choose for your display including a single icon, a series of icons or buttons, or a series of widgets with the number of shares or retweets displayed.

What also comes in very handy are the great reporting tools from ShareThis to help you understand better how your articles have been shared. If you are an analytics geek, this is definitely something to look into.

4. Socialize – Place sharing buttons wherever you want

Another great solution, if you are not quite after a floating bar is Socialize. The plugin is very versatile and allows you to place sharing buttons wherever it is most suitable for you in your articles.

The plugin also offers a great variety of the latest sharing options such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and other services.

5. Twitter Follow Button and FB Subscribe Button– Read only the most relevant news

Although strictly speaking of course not a wordpress plugin, I believe the two button options from Twitter and Facebook are nowhere near used as much as they could be.

A lot of times, when people arenít comfortable to make the step to sharing your articles just yet, a follow or click on the subscribe button might just be most appropriate. By collecting more subscribers, the chances of getting them to share future articles of yours will evidently also increase.

6. Slick Social Share Buttons – Super minimal sharing bar

A great Social Sharing option, if you are interested in the minimal taking up of space on your blog is this one called ìSlick Social Sharing Buttonsî. It has a very slick floating effect and gives your articles a very stylish look.

What is also great is that you can add the option to only have the buttons drop down after the big ìshareî button has been clicked. It certainly makes a great impression to have this plugin floating on your left.

7. AddThis – Sharing buttons paired with publisher analytics

Another amazing solution for making your blog more shareable is the plugin from AddThis. Similar to ShareThis, but slightly less focused on design, it gives you a great solution have trackable buttons on your page.

A big plus for AddThis is that it also includes automatic translation in over 70 languages. So if you have a great number of different people from different countries visiting your site, this might be of help.

8. Sexy Bookmarks – Complimentary sharing button for your blog

Another all star, that has to be mentioned for this list is a plugin called SexyBookmarks. I would say this plugin is more a complimentary tool to a floating bar like Digg Digg at the bottom of your articles.

It allows you to place a set of Social Sharing buttons at the bottom of each post, that can be extended to lots and lots of different options. Developed by Shareaholic, you will also have access to some fantastic analytics features by installing the plugin.

9. Sharebar – Easy to install sharing bar

Another popular sharing bar to add to your site is a plugin called ShareBar. Whilst it hasnít been updated for a while, it is still a solid option to create an easy to use sharing bar for your readers.

What is also very useful is that as you minimize the browser window, the buttons automatically change to be displayed at the top of posts instead of as a floating bar. Whilst the button options arenít immense the design is fantastic.

10. Social Media Widget – Make yourself easy to follow

As the last plugin, I want to highlight Social Media Widget. It allows you to easily add any Social Media profile in your sidebar and allow users to connect with you, wherever you are most present.

Whilst I prefer the original Twitter and Facebook buttons, this plugin is a fantastic solution, if you are in need for other Social Media sites, you want your readers to be able to connect with you.

Those are my top 10 solution to making your blog more shareable for your readers. Have you tried any of them yet? Do you have any other solutions I have missed with this post?

Over to you now. Do you think some of these could be useful for you too?

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Leo Widrich is Co-Founder Buffer, a smarter way to share your Social Media updates. Hit him up on Twitter @leowid anytime, he is a very nice guy.

74 Comments

    1. Leo Widrich Reply

      Hi Abdelhadi,

      Awesome, glad it was helpful. Yep, great choice, hope Digg Digg is useful, let me know if you ever have any questions about it, happy to help! 🙂

    1. Leo Widrich Reply

      Hi Jomar,

      Awesome, yes, those are some great options in Digg Digg for sure, it’s the same function I am using it with on my blog. Glad the post was useful! 🙂

    1. Leo Widrich Reply

      Yes, exactly! I think it is really hard to hard code buttons in if you don’t have much experience. Exactly like you say, I just tried to make life a lot easier with the list of these plugins! 🙂

    1. Leo Widrich Reply

      Hi Matt, great to hear from you and no worries at all, so glad the list is useful! Yep, there are a few plugins that offer the vertical option! If you have any questions, just let me know! 🙂

  1. Josh Reply

    Thank you for this list. I was needing to research this today. I have SexyBookmarks already but I was looking for a floating bar… DiggDigg seems to be the winner. Cheers!

    1. Leo Widrich Reply

      Hi Josh,

      Great to hear from you and no worries at all, glad the post was useful. Yes, SexyBookmarks and Digg Digg are a fantastic combo I believe. Let me know if you have any questions about the plugins, happy to help out! 🙂

  2. Tyler Reply

    Interesting list, Leo. Social media plugins for WordPress are one of the main reasons I laugh whenever anyone tells me blogging is dead.

  3. bang kaus Reply

    Thank you for sharing. I just readout interesting website’s your awesome interesting and informative topic about 10 Best WordPress Sharing Plugins. I really appreciate your thought about it. It’s really so useful for all.

  4. Denyse Reply

    Hey Leo,
    Already thanked you for the list and installed the sexy Digg Digg floating share bar, which looks awesome. Only problem is that when I check out my blog on my iPhone, it is off the screen! Is this a settings issue or a Digg Digg one, do you know?
    Thanks,
    Denyse

    1. Jennifer Reply

      Denyse, I’d take a look at the Floating Bar config in the Digg Digg menu–in the second box (called Display Configuration) there’s a setting that says “Hide buttons if browser’s width less than ___ px “, and the default is 790px. That could be what’s doing it–changing it to 0px (or 1px if it demands more than 0) should essentially turn that off. I hope that helps!

      1. Jeanne Reply

        I have the same problem as Denyse. However, I have the latest version of Digg Digg, and the option you mentioned doesn’t exist in my version 🙁

  5. Alex Reply

    Hello Leo,

    Many thanks for the great list! Before i found your post I was endlessly browsing WordPress.org for plug-ins that would fit my site.
    Very helpful! Well done and keep up the great blog!

    Many thanks,

    Alex

  6. Sam Reply

    Great collection of sharing plugins. I would like to confirm which one is better to use and yield better results between floating sharing plugin left bar and plugins which are statically placed at top and bottom.

  7. James Vicente Reply

    WP-This.com is the new kid on the block. They boast faster loading times, image and style customizations and tied to your google analytics. I’ve been using this for a month now, it had some bugs, but the support got it fixed for me on the same day. Since then no issues (at least for me).

  8. Siya Reply

    Thanx, Leo. I couldnt get that overated “sharebar” thing to work, so I was on the lookout for an alternative. Thanx, ill try out DiggDigg first.

  9. Kristy Reply

    I must say, I finally got what I was looking for. Initially, I tried various plugins for the purpose. But Digg Digg, works well for my Blog. Thanks Leo

  10. Billy Butler Reply

    What are your thoughts about having a couple of different social plugins on the same site? A bar style like Digg Digg and one to put inside content or posts – maybe socialize? Thanks!

  11. Richard Cummings Reply

    Leo,

    I am investigating the best social bookmarking plugins for WordPress right now and you have given a comprehensive review of the most popular here. I think I will first give Digg Digg a try.

    Many thx,
    Richard

  12. Charles Reply

    which plug-in are you using at the top of your post. I really like the way it’s styled and how it seamlessly integrates with your content. Quick thoughts?

  13. rizay Reply

    I’m looking for a wordpress plugin that allows me to publish a post to social media in one step from the wordpress admin, rather than creating a post in wordpress, copying the link, and using something like seesmic or hootesuite. Any recommendations?

  14. Alex Reply

    Very cool post you’ve got here Leo. I’m going to link this to a video I just cut for my team on “How To Install Widgets and Plugins for WordPress.”
    Thanks for the great info.
    Alex

  15. Al Romano Reply

    Great plugin list! I’m a fan of Sharebar myself and use it on my WordPress website. I find that social plugins that provide anayltics however (AddThis, HubSpot, ShareThis) almost double the responce time for page loads.

    Know of one which is lightweight with analytics but also not to heavy on the load times?

  16. Deniel Reply

    All plugins are very good. But this list is too big, if all installed , the website may not afford the heavy load. you are not supposed to install ALL of them. Many offer duplicate functionality anyway. The point is to use this list to find the best plugins suitable to your site.

  17. James Reply

    Hi Leo – nice work, thanks for this. Any idea how to add some basic share buttons at the top of a homepage (see the ones at the top of this page – http://www.theskintfoodie.com)… for people who just want to share your page in general (rather than a specific blog post.

    Thanks for your help
    James

  18. Deena Reply

    I must say that I try plugin after plugin and they are all un-useful or ugly in one way or another. Which plugin are people actually using that they actually enjoy?

    1. Ron L Reply

      Deena,

      In general, you can always get a rough idea of how good a plugin is by looking at the reviews at WordPress.org. One thing you should always be aware of is plugin compatibility. Look for this at the bottom right of every plugin page. If users have marked it “broken,” don’t use it, or it will look ugly or mess up your site.

      I’ve looked through this list. I think Digg Digg is an okay plugin for sharing (3.5/5). What I like about it is that it’s visible and it’s simple. Also, it won’t position itself in a ugly way and it will disappear if the screen space is not big enough to fit it. So, it’s kind of smart. I only say “kind of” because the bar got stuck on one page. Also, I am making a responsive site (a site that will flex to the screen width) and there is no option for it – the bar just disappears.

      In terms of looking good, I think Slick Social Share Buttons is the best (4.4/5). Instead of a big bar, you can have a tab that you click/hover to expand. This is much more clean than a big, floating block. You can have a floating bar too though. Finally, there’s a little option in the admin that you can use to track sharing statistics on your site (takes a looong time to load though).

      -RON

  19. Jake Reply

    Great set of plugins you have here, by far my favorite is Socialize, it was the one that I had 0 problems with. It was also the plugin that had the most customization for your blog. Anyone else who is reading this should definitely use Socialize for their blog or website.. Thanks for the great post.

  20. Internet Marketing Mentor Reply

    Thanks for the great list. I have used a handful of these on my sites, but I love slick social share buttons. It works the best on my site and when combined with W3 Total Cache it is quick to load.

    Keep up the great articles 🙂

  21. Kent Reply

    Good List. I’ve had troubles with Sharebar not working at all on my site. Get Social did finally work, unfortunately it doesn’t float.

  22. Adem Smith Reply

    Hi,
    For me my personal favourite is Blog2Social. It is user friendly and has no server side installation to be done.So far i have faced no issues. Not only you have a single dashboard which will help you post across platforms but also it requires no cron job done. You just have to simply install and activate it.

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