The 11+ Best free social media plugins – WordPress
List of best free wordpress social media plugins to enable sharing options for users
Now a days Social media plays a key role for the marketing of a blog post.There are quite a few social networking website out there which can be used for blog promotion, when ever someone likes the post you have written then they should have an option to share it. Sharing on social media is so much powerful that now a days it has a great impact on SEO of a website, more people sharing on social media means that your post is worth reading. This is what search engines look for, this is one of the factors that search engines algorithm calculates while ranking your post.
Its tough to separately embed the social media, to solve this easily you can use a social media plugin that can give an option of sharing on the major social networking websites.
List of Best free social media plugins for WordPress
1 – Share button by AddToAny
Share Buttons by Add To Any is one of the most popular plugin out there more than 3 million downloads on its count can prove that. This plugin has a more than a 100 social networking websites on its list with. This plugin also comes with floating bar which is responsive, customizable and can be placed vertical or horizontal.
This plugin has a email functionality along with sharing which helps you to email the post to your friends or to send it to your own inbox. Universal emailing system makes it easier to email to all the major email providers like Gmail, Outlook(hotmail), Yahoo mail, Aol mail, native apps etc.
Highlights & Features
- Floating social bar.
- 100 Social networking websites on list.
- Email with universal emailing system.
- customizable icons.
- Responsive share bar.
- Automatic Google Analytics integration.
2 -Share button by AddThis
Share button by AddThis is one of the popular one with its huge list of 330 social networking and bookmarking websites, This is by far the only plugin which has such a great list of social media sharing option available. This plugin comes with small sized icons which are fast loading, these small icons are recognized all over the web.
With this plugin you can also signup for a free account on addthis.com to see how your users are sharing your content. This is like their personal analytics, you can know which posts are shared the most and which platform is the most used for sharing.
Highlights & Features
- Social media base of 330
- Bookmarking available.
- Fast loading.
- Free addthis account.
- Know popular post and service.
3 – Digg Digg
Digg Digg is one from free social media plugins that is causing a big change in how sharing can be done, This comes with the floating share bar which will crawl across your post. The plugin has all the popular sharing options on its ground, number of shares of individual type is shown above the social media option.
This plugin has lazy load feature to increase the performance of your website, you can place the floating bar on left or right according your WordPress theme. This plugin also have a support for email and print service to email the article or to have a print of the page.
Highlights & Features
- Floating share bar.
- Lazy load for website performance.
- All popular social media platforms.
- Placement on left or right.
- Email and print option.
4 – Share This
Share this is plugin with 120 social media channels to choose from, you also have an option to choose small or large icons. If you like you can display the counter along with the social media icons, this will help your users to know how popular your post is. You can create a social media analytics account to get the insights of the sharing done by users.
You can place the sharing bar on left or right and it will float across the post with the user.
Highlights & Features
- 120 Social media Channels.
- Choose Small or large icons.
- Counter functionality.
- Social media analytics.
- Floating bar on left or right option.
5 – Shareaholic
Shareaholic is a combination of three powerful apps, this is a complete tool to discover new articles and to share them on the social media networks. Shareaholic serves the related posts with ample of options to share the post on social media, With this plugin you can have a floating bar functionality with all the social media tabs floating with the post.
You can also have share buttons with images of your blog, this plugin also has language support for multiple languages.
Highlights & Features
- Related content.
- Floating share bar.
- Share option for images.
- Language support.
- Social Analytics.
6 – Flare
Flare is on of the plugins which will give your WordPress blog post to get shared on the popular social media platforms. You have the option of changing the order of social media icons, you will also get the social media score on the share bar. You can place the flare share bar on the top, bottom, left or right any where of your blog post.
The flare share bar when placed on left or right floats with the post and conveniently hide when not needed, this gives your blog design a professional look.
Highlights & Features
- Can place on top, bottom, left or right.
- Left or Right placement of bar is floating.
- Option to choose the post type to display flare.
- Order the social icons.
- Customizable icons for appearance.
7 – Social Media Feather
Social Media Feather is a free social media plugin which is very light weight, it allows you to easily add social media functionality to your WordPress blog. This plugin is designed to have minimal load on your server if you don’t use javascripts. You can disable the automatic rendering of social media icons on a specific post by setting custom fields.
This plugin has full support for retina and other high resolution displays, this means that this plugin will work flawlessly on your ipad or any other high definition device.
Highlights & Features
- Light weight.
- Have all major sharing options.
- Can disable social media on certain pages.
- Support for Retina display.
- Customization of social icons.
8 – Floating Social Bar
Floating Social Bar is one of the fastest social media plugin for sharing, this plugin was created to get all the necessary social media functionality while keeping the plugin slim yet fast. This plugin has major social media networks on their list, they have not stuffed it to keep the plugin as light as possible to keep the speed of blog.
Floating bar only loads the script when necessary, means this plugin won’t load the social media counter till the user get the cursor over it. You have drag n drop facility to add or order the social media icons that you like to display on the floating bar.
Highlights & Features
- Fastest social media plugin.
- Supports major social media networks.
- Loads only when necessary.
- Drag n drop facility.
9 – Share Button By E-Mailit
Share Buttons By EMailit is one of those free social media plugins for WordPress that gives you freedom of placement, yes with this plugin you can have sharing option on anywhere on your blog. This plugin comes with a searchable menu for every applicable service, you also have an option to show, hide or completely disable the plugin from certain posts or pages.
You can place the sharing options on both ends top as well as on the bottom of the post, you will also get the social stats even without registration.
Highlights & Features
- Freedom of placement.
- Can have sharing options anywhere.
- Searchable menu.
- Hide, show or disable sharing from certain posts.
- Sharing option on top and bottom.
- Social stats.
10 – Simple Share Button Adder
Simple Share Button Adder is as simple as its name, what it does is adds buttons for sharing on different platforms. There is no tracking or any type of code to slow down the website, this is very light coded plugin to only do the work that it is supposed to do.
This is a plugin with will be beneficial for just social media integration with no insights or analytics making it slow.
Highlights & Features
- Simple share buttons functionality.
- only does the work it is supposed to..
- Light weight plugin.
- Keeps the speed up.
11 – Mashshare
Mashshare is a sharing plugin which is built by keeping the look of the popular website Mashable sharing structure in mind. This plugin is gives you an option to embed same kind of sharing looks with the number of shares counter on your blog post. The only downside of this plugin is that it has only two sharing options available, Facebook and Twitter.
Highlights & Features
- Mashable style layout.
- Share counter.
- Privacy protection for users.
- Theme compatibility.
- Short code option for placement.
Conclusion
This is the list of best free social media plugins for WordPress, different people need different functionality while choosing social media plugin. I like to use Digg Digg, floating share bar for site speed, Share buttons for added functionality, so it all depends on what you’re looking for.
There are few plugins like jetpack and sociable that i missed in this post, jet-pack comes with WordPress while there are other plugins on the list which have functionality of sociable.
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