7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress
If you use WordPress for your website or blog, there are lots of ways you can connect it to social media, and connect social media to your site via those nifty plugins. The right plugins can make social content management easier and reduce friction when it comes to reader sharing. Whether you’re looking to easily share your content on social networks, make it easier for others to share your content, or simply make your own site more engaging, here are 7 great plugins that will make your WordPress site more social.
Reader comments can be the lifeblood of some blogs, and in many cases they foster an ecosystem of links that can generate a mini social network around a particular topic or community. With the CommentLuv plugin, you can encourage more comments on your posts by giving a bit of link power back to your readers. The plugin will pull in a link to the latest post from the commenter’s own blog, based on the URL he or she submitted when commenting. It’s a simple and clutter-free way for comment traffic to flow, and provides dynamic, up-to-date links that your readers can automatically share with the rest of your audience.
The classic Add To Any menu incorporates over 100 social networks and bookmarking sites in a compact, drop-down list. You can customize the opening menu to display the most common or preferred sites. There’s even an option for users to easily bookmark your post in their own browser. Depending on your theme, it may not be the most elegant solution, but it’s a great catch-all that will enable users to spread your links around any corner of the social web. For a similar social bookmarking solution, also check out Bookmarkify.
3. GD Star Rating
As we’ve noted before, user reviews are a great way for visitors to engage with your posts or products. The GD Star Rating plugin for WordPress can integrate a 10-star rating system into your site for posts and comments, and is highly customizable for advanced users. With some smart tweaking, this plugin might be a great social element for an e-commerce site, or even a blog that reviews products itself to determine which posts are most helpful to readers. For a great looking 5-star rating system, check out PollDaddy’s WordPress plugin.
Sociable is a nice way to add social sharing options for your readers. With 99 different social networks and bookmarking services to choose from, you can easily integrate your readers’ favorites and provide them with one-click sharing. Styling options also ensure that your new sharing bar is aesthetically agreeable with your theme. In addition to WordPress, Sociable also comes in Blogger) and standard HTML flavors that you can grab here.
The WP Wall plugin harkens back to the days of ye olde guestbook, where visitors could leave public messages on a site or blog that didn’t pertain to specific posts. In the age of the Facebook wall, this widget adds a fun way for readers to leave general feedback and shout outs for all to see in the sidebar.
If Twitter () is your social network of choice, or the place where most of your blog traffic comes from, you may want to consider an integrated Twitter publishing tool. The Tweetable Twitter plugin is a versatile backend tool that connects WordPress publishing to your Twitter account with a multitude of features. You can set administrator privileges, use a variety of URL shorteners for links, incorporate a Tweetmeme) button on posts, utilize auto-tweet functions (if desired), and integrate analytics campaigns. For another feature-rich Twitter publishing option, check out the Twitter Publisher plugin.
If you’re looking to tame the newest network on the block, Google Buzz), there are already a handful of great tools for WordPress integration. One of the best looking and most straightforward is the “Buzz This” button that we use here at Mashable ). This simple Buzz implementation will send your links straight to a visitor’s Google Reader) shared items, and thus his or her Buzz profile if connected.
