The advent of social media has changed how information is shared around the world. Initially, it was only for talking to friends and loved ones, but businesses started utilizing it to reach their target audience and also communicate with them. Are you running a website or blog on WordPress? As a beginner, you may be confused about what social media plugins to use because there are so many of them available. But, you can’t get them all. The problem with social media plugins on WordPress is that they take additional web pages and scripts. So, they affect your website performance. You need plugins with good features that will also leave your site performing wonderfully. Here, we’ve selected the 10 best social media plugins for WordPress. Let’s get into it.
1. Monarch
In just a few years since it was created, Monarch has become one of the most popular social media plugins on WordPress. This user-friendly plugin supports over 20 social media networks including LinkedIn, Buffer, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. Also, you can display your social media sharing buttons wherever you want- before or after your post, as a floating sidebar, as a slide-in box on your page, embedded in pictures, or as a pop-up. You get access to Monarch when you sign up for Elegant Themes membership, which has an annual fee of $87. When you sign up, you don’t only have access to this plugin. You also get 87 premium WordPress themes, a standard page builder, Divi, and an email opt-in plugin, Bloom.
2. MashShare
Have you ever visited Mashable? If you have, you would notice the unique appearance and style of their social media share buttons. Want the same style on your WordPress site? MashShare will help you achieve this. This plugin has a free and paid version. In the free version, you can place your share buttons above or below your posts. While in the paid version, there are sticky and floating sidebar options available. MashShare has been used by over 60,000 websites and supports various social media networks including Pinterest, Google+, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Whatsapp.
3. Jetpack
Everyone knows Jetpack by Automattic. This free plugin is one of the most widely used by businesses with over 5 million installations. If you have it installed, you should see it on the top-left corner on your dashboard. It supports a lot of social media networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumbler, Whatsapp, Twitter, and Skype. Also, you can either choose to display icons with text, text only, or icons only when setting up this plugin. Also, for those that are scared of their website performance after adding a social media plugin, Jetpack does not add extra weight to your pages when you use text only on the buttons.
4. Social Warfare
Social Warfare is also one of the most popular social media plugins in WordPress. On your WordPress.org site, there’s a free version you can install, but it has limited options. Social Warfare’s premium version gives you a lot of features you may not find in other social media plugins, such as Pinterest-specific images. Social Warfare supports a lot of social media networks. When you get the premium version, you access to 9 more social media websites apart from the 6 that comes with the free version (Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Mix). In the premium version, you also get a widget that lets you display popular posts by share count.
5. Easy Social Share Buttons
In 2013, Easy Social Share Buttons was released. Since then, we’ve been getting updates with extra features added. As a result, this plugin still holds the title as one of the best-selling social media plugins. Easy Social Share Buttons gives you access to over 50 social media networks. So, you can put your content everywhere you want. Also, you can display these buttons on various areas on your site – on your posts, as floating bars, pop-ups, and fly-ins. Guess what? It is very affordable. You can get it for only $20.
6. Ultimate Social Media
Ultimate Social Media is a widely used social media plugin that gives you a range of button styles to choose from. Although most of its reviews are gotten because it doesn’t resist in asking users for reviews, its 4.9-star rating is well deserved. In the free version, you can put your buttons on top of the page, after posts, via popups, widgets, or via a shortcode. You also get access to the most popular social media networks. Meanwhile, in the paid version, you get more than 100 social media networks to share your content.
7. WordPress to Buffer
The name tells you everything you need to know about Buffer. Buffer is a social media platform that helps you schedule your posts to various social media accounts. So, you don’t have to do any work. WordPress to Buffer is a plugin that connects your blog or website to your buffer account. So, you don’t have to go to your Buffer to make and schedule new posts afresh. The plugin sends your posts to Buffer.
8. Grow by Mediavine
Grow by Mediavine is another good social media plugin for WordPress. It has both free and premium versions. The free version gives you access to only five top social media networks – Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Facebook. When you get the premium version at $34 per year, you are granted access to 11 more social media networks. The pro version also supports Google Analytics and helps you create shareable content with its Click to Tweet feature.
9. Revive Old Posts
Many blog owners only share the most recent posts on their social media networks. So, the old posts just sit there on their sites, under the dust. Revive Old Posts plugin helps you share your old blog posts automatically across multiple social media networks. This way, users who are new to your site can see other interesting content without having to search for them on the website itself.
10. Swifty Bar
Swifty Bar is quite different from the other plugins on this list. The bar at the bottom of your pages gives you more than social media buttons. It displays the post category, title, author, and estimated time for readers to go through the article. The social media sharing buttons such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, are on the right side of the bar. There’s also a blue bar that shows visitors how much progress they’ve made when reading an article. This plugin looks great on both PCs and mobile devices.
