How To Add Social Media Buttons To Your Wordpress Blog

Best WordPress social media plugins

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Best WordPress social media plugins

Love 'em or hate 'em, you just can't get away from social media, especially if you want to cement an online presence for yourself or your business. So it's really a given that you need to link up your site, created with one of the most popular website builders around - WordPress - to those services, thereby helping your fans and followers to spread your content far and wide.

Thankfully, there are a plethora of plugins that are here to help you do just that, and we've picked five we like the most for this list.

We've also highlighted the best social media management tools

A very versatile plugin with a wealth of features, at an unbeatable price

Reasons to buy

+Free +Highly customizable

It's good to start a list with a totally free product, and this is why Sassy Social Share (SSS) made the cut. But free does not always mean good - what does SSS have that sets it apart? For our money, it's the incredible amount of customisation available, as well as support for around one hundred sharing and bookmarking services, from the well known to the more obscure.

Customisation options include being able to disable the floating bar when viewed on mobile devices, setting said bar at the top or bottom of the page, resizable icons, and access to vector icons, among many others. Having so many options could feel intimidating for newcomers, but the flexibility of the plugin is impressive - especially at that price.

There are a few add-ons available, such as 'Facebook Comment Notifier', 'myCRED Integration', and 'Fancy Comments Pro', and you can add them - for a fee (ranging from $5 to $30 per add-on) - for use on a single site; there are also pricing options for 5 and an unlimited number of sites as well.

You can sign up for Sassy Social Share here

An elegant plugin with simple options

Reasons to buy

+Integrates with Google Analytics +Easy to use

Grow (formerly known as Social Pug) is a sharing tool designed for elegance. For instance, you don't have the huge customisation and connection options that Sassy offers you, as the aim here is to simplify the process. You can link up to the most popular social networks (the Pro version offers you more options on that front), and we really liked that you can create custom sharable content, meaning you can set the content of a tweet yourself, rather than just have the post's title there by default.

The social media buttons can be displayed as a floating sidebar, inline - before or after your post's content - for maximum flexibility, and you can integrate your shares through Google Analytics.

Regretfully, for those looking for a free lunch, nearly all of the features can only be accessed from the Pro version of the plugin. Going pro will set you back $34 for a single site, and there's a sliding scale available the more sites you might wish to use it on - up to $180 for 10.

You can sign up for Grow Social Pro here

Make social media a snap with this useful plugin

Reasons to buy

+Customization options +Numerous useful features

Social Snap is a well known WordPress social media plugin which comes with many useful features. Its customisation options aren't as vast as Sassy, but should be enough to satisfy but the most ardent customisation enthusiast.

You have for instance four options when it comes to choosing your buttons' shape, and three sizes. You can also alter their colour and add animation. Those buttons can be set to be floating, inline, shown as a sticky bar, or placed in a share hub, amongst others. Like Grow, you have options to control how your post looks when it's shared.

Share counters are also available (either overall or individual), and you also have access to integrated statistics and analytics.

As of this writing, there's currently a promotion: adding Social Snap to one site will cost you $27.30 per year (instead of $39). Three sites, that's $69.30 (rather than $99). And fifteen sites will set you back $209.30 (as opposed to the usual $299).

You can sign up for Social Snap here

Manage, place, and customise your social media connections with ease

Reasons to buy

+Powerful customization +Useful sharing features

Social Warfare is a WordPress plugin created by the good folks at Warfare. There's a free version available which lets you connect your content to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin and StumbleUpon. These buttons can be placed above and below your content, or you can opt to manually put them anywhere you wish. It also comes with a 'popular posts' widget (based on how often your articles have been shared), and 'click to tweet' quotes. You will also get 6 different Click to Tweet styles, and an option to create your own style via your theme's CSS.

If you feel the need for more power, you can go Pro - for a price. The Pro licence grants you access to additional social networks, such as Reddit, Tumblr and WhatsApp, amongst others. The ability to pin any image on your post for Pinterest fans is included, as well as more customisation options so you can more easily custom your icon design and placement.

Pro will cost you $29 to add to a site, $89 to place it on up to 5, $139 if you manage up to 10 sites, and $349, for an unlimited number of sites.

You can sign up for Social Warfare here

5. Monarch

An elegant social media plugin from Elegant Themes

Reasons to buy

+Powerful features +Easy to use

We mentioned Elegant Themes when we discussed Divi, their landing page plugin. Elegant Theme's package includes Divi, Bloom, Extra, and Monarch - which is their social media plugin.

Monarch gives you access to over 35 social networks. You can display the icons in a wide variety of ways, like a floating sidebar, inline, and even have buttons on images and videos, but our favourite is the automatic popup and fly-in boxes. There are a few customisation options for them which let you control when they appear, like for instance, when the reader reaches the end of the article, after a set amount of time, or once they've commented.

You have a good amount of customisation of the buttons' shape, colour and hover effect to make sure they blend in perfectly with any chosen theme. And of course, you have access to statistics.

Getting that plugin - and the other 3 mentioned above - will cost you $89 a year. As an bonus, this subscription lets you apply these plugins on a unlimited number of websites, which is actually pretty good value for money. Even better, there's also a lifetime access for $249.

You can sign up for Monarch here

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