Did you know WordPress powers 28% of all the websites online today? Considering there are more than a billion websites online and more are launched every day, that’s a lot. And I’m willing to bet, yours runs on it too. Us marketers are busy people – there’s always something to be done. SO that’s why I’m sharing a list of useful plugins with you today. Many of these will help you save time on your social media marketing, and if they don’t have direct time savings, they’ll at least help boost your traffic, and maybe even your following, too.
Overview
1. Inline Tweet Sharer
Inline Tweet Sharer allows you to quickly and easily create links to share your content on Twitter. You can control what is shared, since it automatically shares the anchor text. This makes it a great plugin to use with quotes, stats, or any other tweetable tidbits. You can either set the links to be highlighted as Twitter links, or making them look the same as regular links. This plugin is free.
2. TweetShare – Click to Tweet
TweetShare – Click to Tweet is similar to Inline Tweet Sharer. It lets you create, customize and insert inline tweets and tweetable quotes. Both use different short codes to make it easy to include them where you need them in the posts. You can add via @username to the tweets for branding, and choose whether or not to enable URL shortening. There are multiple pre-designed themes to choose from, and you can see how each of your tweets perform without any separate analytics.
3. Social Warfare
Social Warfare is a completely responsive social sharing plugin, allowing you to customize your social sharing buttons, and create in-post tweetable quotes. You can also upload Pinterest-specific images and descriptions. It includes a widget to help you showcase your most popular content based on the number of social shares. You’ll also get a comprehensive analysis for the social data, since it automatically adds UTM tracking to each link you share. Choose where you want the buttons to display, and whether or not you want to show share counts for social proof.
The free version of the plugin comes with limited features. To get the full experience, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium license, which starts at $29/year. You can try the premium version for 45 days with a money-back guarantee.
4. Social Login
Want to make it easier for users to login to your site without needing to remember information for a new account? Social Login does exactly what the name suggests – lets your users create an account on your website just by logging in with a social media profile. This is also a great plugin to use if you require users to login to your site before they can leave a comment.
You have a choice of more than 30 networks to make available for users to choose from, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, Amazon, and more.
5. Facebook Conversion Pixel
If the technical side of things isn’t your favorite, then the Facebook Conversion Pixel plugin may be of great use to you. It simplifies the process of installing the Facebook conversion pixel on your website so you can track your Facebook ads. All you have to do is copy and paste the pixel code directly into the designated box in the plugin on the pages where you want to use it. This plugin is completely free.
6. Disqus
If you want something more than the standard WordPress commenting system, then Disqus is a good solution. It allows comments to login and engage with discussions, and get notifications whenever someone responds or tags them in a conversation, so they never miss anything. Plus, it even gives people the ability to respond via email, which is convenient for many of us. This free plugin includes a variety of features such as automatic spam filtering, whitelists, blacklisting for blocked users, and the ability to subscribe to various discussions.
7. WordPress – Social Media Marketing
WordPress Social Media Marketing is a social media marketing and management dashboard that’s fully integrated with WordPress. You can automatically post, schedule, manage, publish, customize, and share your posts across various social networks. Then, you can track how well the posts are doing with the analytics platform. Though pricing information is not available at this time, it is possible to get a 30-day free trial, with no credit card required.
8. Revive Old Post
Revive Old Post helps you keep traffic coming into the old posts on your blog. This plugin automates sharing old posts, allowing you to schedule it and include hashtags directly from within the WordPress dashboard. Use it to share your posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and more. You can add hashtags on your own, or allow the plugin to automatically generate them from categories or tags. Plus, you can include custom text when you share the content. You can share any old post as many times as you want.
The free version of the plugin is limited. To get the ability to create a custom schedule, post with image, post to multiple social accounts, and include custom share messages, you’ll have to upgrade to the pro version, with plans starting at $75/year.
9. Easy Social Share Buttons
Easy Social Share Buttons is an all-in-one social sharing solution. It includes 20 social networks, plus the ability to print and email share. There are social buttons built in, with the ability to change them with skins. You can customize the way they display with 12 built-in templates and a template customizer. You can change where they display using short code. Display social proof with shares counters, and keep track of performance with click log analytics.
Though this is a premium plugin, it is one of the more affordable options on the list since it requires a one-time payment of $19.
10. CardZ Social Stream
If you want to share your social media streams with your website visitors, CardZ Social Stream plugin is the way to do it well. The plugin is fully customizable so you can make it look and feel like the rest of your site. It comes with 15 themes and colors built right in, so it won’t take long to create something that fits your look. You can also customize the appearance of all your social icons. The plugin supports Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, SoundCloud, Pinterest, Vimeo, and other platforms.
The plugin is built with a fully responsive design so it will look great whether someone visits your website from their computer, smartphone, or tablet. It also includes full analytics that are compatible with Google Analytics.
This is a premium plugin, but only requires a one-time payment of $22 instead of an annual license.
11. Custom Twitter Feeds
The Custom Twitter Feeds plugin lets you integrate your Twitter feed onto your website, but puts you in control of how you do it. You can display only your Twitter feed, a feed from a single user, a feed from multiple users, or a feed from a hashtag. This is a great way to show all of the people talking about your brand. At the top of whichever feed you choose to display, you’ll be able to display a clickable call to action that encourages visitors to follow you on Twitter.
This plugin is mobile responsive, and will automatically fit the style of your theme. Plus, search engines can find the feed content. This plugin is free, but there is a pro version available with additional features for $39 or $79, depending on whether you choose a personal or business license. Business licenses support installations on up to five sites.
12. Instagram Feed
The Instagram Feed plugin lets you display images from Instagram on your website, so you can grow your Instagram following. Your feed should be set to display photos from non-private Instagram accounts so you can show photos from your own account, as well as photos from other accounts that you’re tagged in. This is great for user-generated content. You can use it to display a single feed, or multiple feeds.
This mobile-responsive plugin is free, but there is a pro version available with additional features for $39 or $799, depending on whether you choose a personal or business license. Business licenses support installations on up to five sites. You’ll need the pro version of the plugin if you want to display Instagram feeds by hashtag.
13. Custom Facebook Feed
The Custom Facebook Feed plugin lets you integrate your Facebook feed onto your website, but puts you in control of how you do it. You can display only your Facebook feed, or a feed from multiple pages or groups. You can choose to show or hide posts, show posts only from the page owner, or from everyone who posts on the page. You can even show events from Facebook, too. At the top of whichever feed you choose to display, you’ll be able to display a clickable call to action that encourages visitors to like you on Facebook.
This plugin is mobile responsive, and will automatically fit the style of your theme. Plus, search engines can find the feed content. This plugin is free, but there is a pro version available with additional features for $49 or $99, depending on whether you choose a personal or business license. Business licenses support installations on up to five sites.
14. Exit Through Social Share
Exit Through Social Share is a plugin that’s useful to help you promote your content. When someone clicks on any out of the outbound links on your website, a popup box will suggest users like your website on Facebook, or share it on Twitter or LinkedIn. The delay period and pop up box parameters are all fully customizable.
This premium plugin is available for a one-time fee of $15.
15. JetPack Social Sharing
JetPack is already included in the standard WordPress installation. It has themes and image tools to help you design your website, as well as tools to help you promote your content and grow your readership. You’ll get stats about your content, and it’s easy to recommend related content for each one of your blog posts. Social sharing buttons are included so it’s easy for your readers to share your content on their favorite social media networks.
There is a free forever version of this plugin that includes the site stats, design, and traffic tools, as well as themes and some basic security. If you want more, such as daily backups, one-click restores, spam filtering, and a 30-day archive, you’ll have to pay $3.50/month or $39/year. Business plans also include the ability to display ads on your site, automatically share old content to your social media channels, and host videos directly on your site. Business plans start at $9/month or $99/year. The top tier plan includes all of that with SEO tools, and will cost you $29/month or $299/year.
16. Events Calendar
The Events Calendar plugin is particularly useful if you have events to promote. You can display events right on your site and schedule events from within your WordPress dashboard, including details like location, where it syncs with Google Maps. It’s also possible to upgrade to pro version of the plugin to offer ticket sales, or recurring events. Pro licenses start at $89/year for a single site.
Plugins Galore!
Because using too many WordPress plugins can slow down your site and hamper the user experience, it’s suggested that you limit it only to the ones you need. While you may find many on this list useful, it’s possible adding only one or two will make all the difference in your social marketing and traffic.
Which WordPress plugins do you use for social media and why? Tell me in the comments below.
Want a great boost in your reach. Look for good hashtags in Hashatory.
Good luck! Let me know how it goes.
Hello Eric,
I am very much impressed by this blog. I could gather lots of information from your site. All those plugins you have listed will surely help to increase the social engagements. But I have doubt that, How come Events calender would help me in that process?
Great Thanks for sharing…