Best social media plugin for WordPress
Social media has become a very important and vital element for all kinds of online marketing strategies.
Brands, small businesses and even bloggers now recognize the need for social engagement over search engine optimization.
It is therefore only logical to find social media share buttons on almost all online platforms; apps, mobile games, blogs, eCommerce sites and almost every other platform you can think of.
As a WordPress user you can easily utilize these social buttons to your website by simply selecting one out of the several social media plugins available on WordPress.
One would think the task of selecting a social plugin for a WordPress site would be an easy task but for some reason there is no perfect social plugin out there.
Some of us need beautiful buttons that match the design of our site, while for some of us it is all about functionality, it doesn’t end there, some people prefer social plugins that will not slow down the site while some of us want the social plugin to use a URL shortener.
I have selected and explored five popular WordPress social sharing plugins so as to help you select a suitable WordPress social media plugin.
1. Monarch
Monarch is a new solution to social sharing on WordPress. The plugin was created by EleegantThemes an it is already gaining traction, Monarch is easily one of the best WordPress social plugins available and one should expect that as it is a premium WordPress plugin. I have personally tested and reviewed this plugin and it might just be the perfect WordPress social media plugin.
Buttons
Monarch has options to select and display almost all relevant social sharing buttons.
Customization
Monarch is easy to customize, thanks to its user-friendly dashboard, you can select and combine five different placement options, add a social follow widget among other things.
URL Shortener
No
Twitter Mention
Yes (via @username)
Placement options
- Sidebar
- Inline
- Pop Up
- Fly In
- Media
Speed
Monarch is a fast plugin, it is coded to the highest standards and it is surprisingly light on page load.
2. Digg Digg
A versatile WordPress plugin by Buffer that helps you share the content on various social networking sites and bookmarking sites. It can be easily used with Facebook Google+, LinkedIn, buffer, twitter, resist and Pinterest.
Buttons
Digg Digg can display almost all popular social sharing buttons you can think of.
Customization
Digg Digg is easy to customize and it comes with four menu configurations; Global config (General settings), Normal display (enable, select and configure buttons for the Normal display), Floating display (enable, select and configure buttons for the floating sidebar) and Manual placement.
URL Shortener
No
Twitter Mention
Yes (via @username)
Placement options
Floating Bar
Normal Bar with Large Buttons at Top
Normal Bar with Large Buttons at Bottom
Normal Bar with Small Buttons at Top
Speed
Did not have any significant impact on site speed when I enabled Lazy Loading, disabling button count can also reduce impact on page load.
3. Shareaholic
As the name suggests this WordPress plug-in makes sharing easier for you. It helps you to share the content on social media. Shareaholic also provides you with unique features and stylish buttons that makes the users share their content easily. Also, it comes with recommendations & Related Content tool, and Classic Bookmarks.
Buttons
Shareaholic offers buttons for all social networks you need and even those you have never heard off.
Customization
Shareaholic is very interactive and easy to customize. It comes with a visual popup that guides you through every setting you need to get the plugin running. It has two admin bar sub-menu: App Manager and Advanced settings.
App manager offers you customization options to select buttons types (with count/without count) and related post options.
URL Shortener
Yes (Click edit general settings, it is by the right on the app manager screen)
Twitter Mention
Yes (via @username)
(Click edit general settings, it is by the right on the app manager screen)
Placement options
Above Content (Horizontal/vertical)
Below Content Horizontal/vertical)
Floating Bar (Can be enabled on the shareaholic page)
Speed
Had minimal impact on page load speed, page loaded under 1 second.
4. Socialize
Socialize helps you with an easy way to add actionable social sharing buttons on your website. You can post your content in a ‘Call to Action’ box. Socialize has 12 sharing buttons and can also be incorporated with Bit.ly.
Buttons
- Google +1
- Sphinn
- Dzone
- StumbleUpon
- Delicious
- Buffer
Customization
Socialize is very easy to customize. You can select buttons, where you want to display them, you can integrate with bit.ly and add a twitter username.
URL Shortener
Yes (Bitly integration)
Twitter Mention
Yes (via @username)
Placement options
Above Content
Below Content (Call to action bar)
Floating Bar
Speed
Decent load speed
5. Slick social share buttons
This is one of the most popular social plugins for WordPress. It is very easy to install and allows you to install a button panel on your either website that can slide or float on the screen. If you wish to either customize its style or want to set its location or set its animation speed, you can easily do so.
Buttons
- Google +1
- StumbleUpon
- Digg
- Delicious
- Buffer
- Pin It
Customization
Customizing Slick Social share is very easy and straightforward. Simply click on the social buttons tab on the dashboard sidebar and customize the plugin to suit your taste. You can select a floating option or Slide out option, type of buttons, integration, twitter username, facebook app ID, pinterest default image and some other options.
URL Shortener
Yes
Twitter Mention
Yes (via @username)
Placement options
Top Left
Top Right
Bottom Left
Bottom Right
Left
Right
Speed
Didn’t have much any significant impact on page load speed
6. Share buttons by AddToAny
It offers support in 19 languages and made for 100 social sites. It is amongst the most popular plug-ins for WordPress and has over 3 million downloads. The best part about AddToAny share button is it can be easily customized and supports interactive clicks as well as shares.
This includes‘tweet’ button for twitter, Facebook likes, ‘pin in’ bottom for Pinterest and much more.
The email buttons are interested with email services such as Yahoo mail, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and so on. You can also customize the position and the appearance of the AddToAny share bar.
Buttons
Almost all share buttons available
Customization
Easy to customize, has minimal settings. It offers a floating bar and a standard placement option, you can select your buttons from a large list of services and select where you want to integrate them.
URL Shortener
No
Twitter Mention
No
Placement options
Top
Bottom
Top and Bottom
Floating Bar
Speed
No major impact on page load speed.
The definition of best social media plugin varies across various each user. For Don Caprio, the best social plugin must not depend on external resources to work and it should have no JavaScript stored on the server, he couldn’t find one so he wrote and published his plugin – DC Simple Share Buttons.
For me, the best WordPress social plugin, must support integration with a URL Shortener and it must not slow my site down.
