Hundreds of people get viral due to social media sharing. This is the time to get Viral and increase your reach to a vast majority. Most of the individuals are connected through social media, chat, share, and engage with friends. And sharing is an integral part of our social life as well, which helps you to gain trust and loyalty among your friends. Isn’t it!!.
You might be thinking that what is the relation between social media and sharing. Let me clear your doubt, Social Media has become a major medium through which you can share or add valuable content to your friends and bring traffic to your website. It creates a long chain that expands your audience reach. For example, whenever you find any interesting article you just share it with your friends directly with the help of WordPress Social media plugins which you can easily find below most of the articles.
With these WordPress Social media plugins, you can easily share news, articles, or any valuable information among your friends with a single click. Isn’t it a very good feature right!!
Now the main problem comes, to choose the right WordPress Social Media Plugin. Yeah it’s quite tricky and confusing at the same time, But you do not need to worry, you will be Guided through this article on how to choose the right WordPress Social media plugin for your WordPress Website. For your convenience, a list of Super 8 WordPress Social Media Plugins has been discussed, From which you can choose as per your requirements.
Things You should keep in mind while choosing the right WordPress Social media plugin
Wait Wait Wait!!! Half knowledge is highly dangerous. So, don’t straightly jump onto the plugin section. Before choosing any plugin you must go through the guidelines for what to look for in the plugin. Most people commit this mistake and end up in frustration.
We always come up with such kind of guidelines to aware our audience. So that you won’t face any problem afterward. So, in this section, we’ll discuss the things that you should look for in a WordPress social media plugin. Let’s bang on to the discussion!!
- One of the most common issues that almost everyone faces is that most of the social media plugins affect your site’s loading time negatively. [We have recommended some WordPress cache plugins to improve site speed here. ]So, it spoils the performance of your website to an extent. The main reason behind this is that these plugins come with so many additional in-built templates, themes, stylesheets, scripts, and design, which makes your website so very slow. So, always keep this factor in mind and choose the plugin which does not affect the performance of your website.
- Different plugins support different social media platforms. So, you must decide your preferences first. Which social media platform you want to include in your website? First, find the answer to this question and then go for the plugin that offers you support for all the platforms you have included in your preference list.
- The next most important thing is the location of the social icons. Various plugins provide you with the option to add social icons at different locations. You can add the icons at the top, or bottom, or even at the sidebars of your page. So, as per your choice, you can select the plugin which provides you the option to add the icons at your desired location.
Some additional pin points while choosing WordPress social media plugins to consider are –
- Authenticity: This has to be your main concern while choosing a WordPress plugin whether it is for social media or E-commerce. It is because WordPress is an open-source platform, and developers are free to create plugins and upload them. Some plugins can even harm your site. Be cautious about it and check reviews online from multiple sources before installing them.
- Abandoned plugins: Some WordPress social media plugins have been abandoned by their developers and updates have been stopped. In this case, there is an increase in security threats and Bugs.
- Flexibility to locate and customize: This is one of the main things which I consider that every WordPress social media plugin should have, i.e Flexibility to position or customize your plugin as per your and user convenience. Some plugins provide either at the beginning of the post or the End of the article. But in my case, which I prefer, the plugins should be fixed at the side of the panel. And a user can easily share content at any point in time while scrolling.
- Accessibility and speed: This is again one of the first and utmost priority features one should consider before installing a plugin that is responsive, easily accessible, and fast. That cannot disrupt the overall site loading speed and experience. Hence, site speed is a crucial part of SEO, and users tend to leave slow sites immediately. Even Google penalizes Slow performing sites.
- Ratings and Reviews: The more number of users, the more trustful and better app. Hence, always look at the total number of trusted downloads and User ratings of plugins. But I would like to also mention that do not blindly trust user ratings. Because sometimes developers try to trick you by using fake or paid reviews. Always look into the positive as well as negative reviews. Analyze and research about them, if anything you find suspicious about it. It is recommended that you choose plugins that have average user ratings.
So, these all were very the most important things that you must keep in mind before choosing any WordPress social media plugin for your website. Now, let’s discover some of the most amazing WordPress social media plugins that you can choose for your website. As there is a famous quote, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’ That’s why we always advise you to try all the plugins at least once. I know its sounds quite impossible to try all the plugins. That’s why we always come up with the top-most WordPress social media plugins to make the selection process easy for you.
Types of WordPress Social Media Plugins as per users need
The need for Plugins and their features and functionalities differ from user to user. Some users use it for personal blogs or some use it is for corporate websites. Hence, some WordPress social media plugins have evolved with keeping in mind user need and experience. Hence, you cannot simply define a whole set of the list on a single post, but I tried to mention some of the most common functionalities which will help you to understand before installing them.
- Plugins with dedicated comment feature: Although WordPress provides you with a comment feature on your article/post, it has no social value. And it will not add visitor engagement because it won’t be showing on social media platforms where it attracts others to comment and engage. For example, you can see Facebook comments on Facebook as well as on your blog.
- Automated plugins: Automated WordPress Social media plugins have been trending nowadays. Users are moving towards more into automation rather than manual processes. For example, whenever you post a new article on your blog, it will automatically be shared on your social media accounts and even you can schedule it as well. And the user will refrain from all the social media posting or sharing processes.
- Social media Feeds: With this Feed feature, all your social media feeds such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter Feeds can be directly shown on your website too. This helps in increasing user experience and encourages viewer engagement.
- Feed Twitter Quotes and Facts: One of the most famous social media networks i.e Twitter, why not!!. It provides an ultimate platform for a user to share thoughts, quotes, etc. And with the help of click to tweet plugins, it becomes a lot easier to share content with your readers.
- Dedicated social sharing buttons: These types of plugins help to increase more traffic and more links to your content. Whenever a reader finds something interesting on your blog. He/she would love to share it on their social media accounts. And with the help of dedicated social sharing buttons that are placed on either top of the article, below or even the side of the webpage, it becomes easy for them to share.
- Login with social accounts: Plugins that provide login with social accounts tend to be more secure and safe. It is spamming and fraudulent activities by Bots. It is easier and fast since users need not create a separate username or password for it.
- Restricted sharing: This plugin is used to generate leads and followers. With the help of this plugin, blogs and Corporations Lock or restrict their content, and allow access only if they share or follow them on social media accounts.
From the collection that you will see right now, you will find free or paid plugins to share your WordPress notes on social networks and plugins to share your WordPress posts that have a premium version. The reality is that in the vast majority of cases, the features included in the free version are more than enough to achieve your mission.
Super 19 WordPress Social media plugins
Let’s take a deep dive into the best 10 WordPress social media plugins you can go for. We have discussed all the plugins by covering all the concerned aspects. We have reviewed and tested hundreds of plugins and then excreated these 10 best WordPress social media plugins. Let’s discuss about these WordPress social media plugins one by one.
3. Swifty Bar
Swifty Bar is quite a different WordPress social media plugin. It offers you with quite unique features which are quite impressive. It displays a bar containing post title, author, category along with the estimated time to read at the bottom of the page.
It will display the social media sharing buttons on the right side of the bar. You can also see a line at the top of the page that displays the progress that the visitor has made on the page which makes it easy for the readers to have an eye on how much they’ve read.
Swifty Bar is also a very mobile-friendly plugin. If you are looking for a lightweight plugin that provides a good range of options to your audience, I will recommend you go with the Swifty Bar plugin.
Features of Swifty Bar Plugin
So, let’s talk about the features you will get with Swifty Bar plugin.
- Shows current post category, post title, and authors first and last name
- Shows estimated time that is needed for visitors to read the article
- Share buttons to most popular social networks
- Previous/ next post links with a nice preview on hover
- Super light, clean code that will not slow down your site
- Admin panel to customize each module
- Multiple colors and two types of icons
Being a free WordPress social media plugin, Swifty Bar is quite a feature-rich plugin that offers a wide range of features.
Plans & Pricing of Swifty Bar Plugin
Swifty Bar plugin is a completely FREE WordPress social media plugin. This plugin does not come up with any premium plans. But it offers all the features that one must look for in the best WordPress caching plugins. You can install this plugin 100% free from the WordPress directory. In order to install this plugin, stay connected with us!!! Our next section is purely devoted to the installation and setup of the Swifty Bar plugin.
How Does Installation and Setup Looks like
The installation of this WordPress social media plugin was quite simple. You need to go to the ‘Plugins’ section in your admin panel. Search for the ‘Swifty Bar’ plugin and click on the ‘Install Now’ button. This way, the plugin will be successfully installed on your WordPress; after installing, press the ‘Activate’ button beside the plugin.
After you are done with the installation and activation part, you’ll not find the plugin in the sidebar of your Dashboard just like other plugins. You can find it on the Dashboard sidebar under ‘Settings’.
Swifty Bar Updates And Reviews
We checked with Swifty Bar‘s customer reviews in the WordPress directory and the kind of updates their developer have been pushing and found the following results for its version – 1.0.24
- It has 1000+ active installations right now.
- For us, it shows that it was updated last 11 months ago. [ Regularly updated ]
- It has been currently tested up to 1.2.9. [Latest version]
- According to the WordPress Directory, its average rating is Average Rating 5/5. 46 users out of 47, gave it 5 stars.
Swifty Bar Review – WPOven Opinion
This plugin actually deserves 5 stars as it is a very simple and elegant plugin to use. Oh my god!! Another free plugin with unbelievable services, these kinds of plugins have broken my myth completely. The set up was quick and easy. Just a blink and it’s ready to work. I’m also happy with the customer support I received from this plugin. They replied to me within a few hours, which was quite impressive.
It is simply the best!! WordPress social media plugin you can go for. If in the future, it will be having any premium plan then I will go for that blind folded. You should also go for this amazing feature-rich plugin.
4. Kiwi Social Sharing
Kiwi Social Sharing is another social media solution on our list. You can easily display the sharing buttons wherever you want, whether above or below the content or as floating bars on the left-hand side, right-hand side, or even at the bottom of the page. This plugin supports social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and Flint.
It provides you with the option of different shapes of buttons. However, it lags behind some competitors in terms of design. You will get Google Analytics support and features custom meta boxes, click to tweet, tweet selected text, and a shortcode manager.
Features of Kiwi Social Sharing Plugin
So, lets have a quick discussion on the features of Kiwi Social Sharing Plugin.
- All sorts of social networks are available as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many more
- Possibility of re-arranging icon position on the share bar
- Great UI with intuitive & simple option
- Contains four different skins
- The more futuristic approach, shift style
- Contains a friendly approach, pill style
- The eye-catching approach, leaf style ( like a leaf in the wind)
- Displays social icons before content, after content both
Kiwi Social Share is a feature-packed plugin which offers you a handful of features
Plans & Pricing of Kiwi Social Sharing Plugin
Kiwi Social Share plugin is a completely FREE WordPress social media plugin. This plugin does not come up with any premium plans. But it offers all the features that one must look for in the best WordPress caching plugins. You can install this plugin 100% free from the WordPress directory. In order to install this plugin, stay connected with us!!! Our next section is purely devoted to the installation and setup of the Kiwi Social Share plugin.
How Does Installation and Setup Looks like
The installation of this WordPress social media plugin was quite simple. You need to go to the ‘Plugins’ section in your admin panel. Search for the ‘Kiwi Social Sharing’ plugin and click on the ‘Install Now’ button. This way, the plugin will be successfully installed on your WordPress; after installing, press the ‘Activate’ button beside the plugin.
After you are done with the installation and activation part, you’ll find the plugin in the sidebar of your Dashboard.
Kiwi Social Sharing Updates And Reviews
We checked with Kiwi Social Sharing‘s customer reviews in the WordPress directory and the kind of updates their developer have been pushing and found the following results for its version – 1.0.24
- It has 10,000+ active installations right now.
- For us, it shows that it was updated last 1 month ago. [ Regularly updated ]
- It has been currently tested up to 2.0.16. [Latest version]
- According to the WordPress Directory, its average rating is Average Rating 4.1/5. 12 users out of 17, gave it 5 stars.
Kiwi Social Sharing Plugin Review – WPOven Opinion
I will give 4 stars to this plugin. It is quite responsive and easy to use plugin. If you are not a tech-savvy person then also you will not face any challenges while the installation and setup. The share buttons look so nice. The support has also quite quick and the reply was also very satisfactory.
I will highly recommend you go for the premium version, although the free one is also very good but somewhere restricts in providing some social media sharing options such as email, RSS, etc. So, you must go for the premium if you are looking for a wide range of social media sharing options. Before that, I would suggest you try the free version. If it suits your requirements, then you should go for the premium.
Some Other Best WordPress Social Media Plugins
8. Disqus
With more than 100,000+ Active Installations, it becomes one of the most popular WordPress Social media Comment plugin. It is sold as a system to allow you to comment on your posts using social networks, it will also allow you to share your blog entries on social networks by helping to directly engage with your audience to generate loyalty, retain readers and foster thriving communities.
The fact of allowing comments in your notes will greatly oil the feedback of your readers, without having to register with WordPress to comment, since most have their social networks open in their browser (SSO with Facebook, Twitter, and Google).
Disqus installs in one click and replaces the default WordPress commenting system. Best of all, if you had existing comments in your notes, Disqus imports them automatically upon installation.
9. Jetpack
With more than 5 million active installations, the jetpack is seriously giving tough competition among other WordPress social media plugins. It is not just used for social media sharing but it also provides, for backup, anti-spam, malware scan, CDN, AMP, social, search, contact form, and integrations with Woo, Facebook, Instagram, Google. Integrated with multiple features, jetpack becomes a super plugin, with functionality and a user-friendly interface.
Not to forget Jetpack has one of the most basic and free WordPress social media plugins available. It comes free with WordPress installation. With so basic functionality you can position your social share buttons either at the top of the blog or end of the article. Customization of buttons is another plus point adding to it. No doubt there are many WordPress plugins out there loaded with premium features and more customization options. But I do believe in simple and simplicity. which is not complex and hardly affects your website performance.
Apart from the most basic functionality, it also has an automatic scheduling feature, which added a spark to it. Find Jetpack
10. Monarch
One of the most beautiful WordPress social media plugins available with lots of customization options available. Although it is a paid plugin, features and a lot of customization options make it worth paying for.
With a simple UI and design loaded with a lot of possibilities, Developers from elegant themes bring you all the available options and complete solutions in a single package.
Like most of the basic WordPress social media plugins, it also has simple features like adding social media buttons at top of the blog, below the post, or side of it.
What makes it unique is its additional features like pop-up windows which can pop at the middle or side of the page. This feature encourages visitors to share on their social media accounts.
If you look at the number of options for social media buttons, it provides the most common and popular ones which will be sufficient for you. (20 social media buttons more or less subjected to updates)
With a lot of customization options for buttons i.e colors, animation, size, etc. You can decorate and customize it as per your website color or themes.
Apart from all the features and functions, there is also a less positive aspect of it as well. In some blogs, it is also mentioned that this plugin little slows down the web pages.
12. SumoMe
One of the best and most popular Free WordPress Social media plugin ever created. It gained a lot of popularity due to its large number of options it provides which is completely Free. It marked a great position in E-commerce as well as blogging. The major use of Sumo is for Email marketing. Through this, you can easily generate leads and build up your email list.
The unique features which make it stand out above the rest are:
- Free and Premium options
- Easy and Responsive design
- With Regular Updates and Support
- It provides insights to analyze
- Fully control the CSS in the advanced section.
- Loaded with the most popular Social media buttons and connections
- Helps in to grow Email lists
- Tracking of forms available
- Provide instant integration with MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, MyEmma, Mad Mimi, Infusionsoft, Feedblitz, HubSpot, etc.
13. Social Sharing Plugin – Kiwi
Another lightest WordPress Social Media plugin is available. Popular due to its simple UI and Functionality. Although, it doesn’t provide More fancy customization options like other WordPress social media plugins but completes the basic social media job done.
When installing and activating it in a simple and quick process, you will be landed on a clean and smooth UI. From there you can have drag and drop functionality with a simple share option.
Due to its simple UI design, this plugin is quite light and smooth to operate. It comes with various social media buttons and easy and basic button customization options such as adding floating bars and article bars. Due to its clean and easy functionality, sharing articles from your WordPress website will be hassle-free.
If you consider various alterations in button design or customizations, it provides you an option to change the shapes and sizes of buttons and even you can choose whether to show the number of sharing.
Something that we liked is that it allows you to preview the changes while you edit so that you do not have to save and test later by opening a new browser window or tab.
These are all the features unlocked in the free version. If you choose to buy the plugin in its paid version, you will get more benefits such as customizing the color of the sharing bars or sharing your entries on WhatsApp or Telegram but check if this is not a limitation for you.
14. WordPress Social Login
Sometimes you want readers or visitors to register themselves on your website. And for this, they have to choose a unique username and password for it. Creating a different username and password and remembering them for each and every website is quite hectic and difficult.
But this problem can be solved easily when you ask visitors to register themselves on your website with their social media credentials. In this way, they do not need to create a unique username or enter a password to access your website.
With the help of this plugin, you can also impost contact details of users from Facebook, Gmail, or any other social media platform.
- Easy to Installation, Integration, and Customization- It provides an easy and flexible option to customize due to its simple and easy functions. If you are interested and Pro at coding and designing, this will be an easy game for you.
- Large Variety of social media channels- It covers almost all the most popular social media depending upon the type of audience you are targeting. Whether it is youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… etc.
- Free installation and use- Since WordPress is open source and completely free, it provides an opportunity for developers to help and contribute. Since its source code is available on Github
15. Nelio Content
If you are Looking for Automation in Social media posting or sharing, this WordPress social media plugin is the right candidate for you. Thanks to its Automation feature, you can plan or schedule Social messages. With the help of this, you will become more organized and efficient. When you are done with your content, scheduled to be posted on your website, they lined up in a queue and published automatically when their right time has come.
- Multi-user- It is a Multi-user plugin and you can work on it with your team members too. Each user can be assigned a different task based on their WordPress rule.
- Analyses the content- Nelio can also Analyse your content and pick out the most relevant phrases to create creative promotional messages.
- Advance functionalities- loaded with new unique and advanced features in addition to basic, it makes a complete package.
Some Other Best WordPress Social Media Plugins
Still didn’t found your perfect match? No need to worry! At WP Oven you will never be left with any confusion. Apart from the top 7 WordPress social media plugins, we have discussed above we have some more in our bucket. So, if you didn’t get satisfied with any of the above-mentioned plugins, then this section is complete of your interest.
We’ve listed some other best WordPress social media plugins which are no less than those which we have discussed above. Kindly go through these and I’m sure today you will not go empty-handed from here. So, let’s jump down the screen!!!
S. No. | Plugin Names | Pricing | Installation |
17. | Novashare | $ 29.95 – $ 149.95 | Official Website |
18. | Social Pug | $ 34 | WordPress Directory |
19. | Simple Social Icons | Free | WordPress Directory |
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What is a social media plugin?
Social media plugin is one of the most efficient way to make your blog go viral with the use of social media buttons. These icons or buttons let you connect your blog to a variety of social media platform in order to increase the reach and traffic of your blog. Using a WordPress social media plugins, you can promote your blogs and websites on the social media and grab more number of followers from there.
2. What are the benefits of using social media plugins on your website?
Yes, this one of the most important questions that the majority of people ask us. So, we’ve listed the magical benefits of WordPress social media plugins:
- Social media offers you with social buttons which makes it easy for your audience to share your content.
- It helps you in analyzing that which content impresses your audience more. It means you can judge that which content will be loved more by your audience.
- Social buttons make your website look more attractive.
- The most amazing benefit of these plugins is that it increases the reach of your blog to a large extent.
So, these were the benefits offered by the WordPress social media plugins. Now, I don’t think that after discussing this much, you will be able to say no to these plugins. So, go for it!!
3. Which social media plugin is best for a beginner?
It is a common question among beginners. So, in my opinion, Sassy Social Share is the best beginner-friendly WordPress social media plugins. As this plugin don not require that much time in set up and also it one of the most simplest plugin to use. The best part is that it is a 100% free plugin which has a wide range of features. So, for a beginner, Sassy Social Share will be the perfect option.
Wrapping It Up
So, I hope that we have successfully cleared all your confusion about the WordPress social media plugins and made your selection process simpler. I know it becomes hard to select the best among the best. That’s why I personally suggest everyone to make their own preference and requirement list before going through a list of plugins.
Check Best WordPress Plugins in Detail
Just like a coin, everything in this world has 2 faces; nothing is perfect. So, don’t let other opinions influence your decision. Always choose as per your needs and requirements. Hope this article helped you to make a decision. We’ve included different plugins with unique features so that you can get the perfect one for yourself!!
If you want my own personal opinion about the best one, then AddToAny Share Buttons is my personal favorite free WordPress social media plugins. If I talk about the premium, then Social Media Share Buttons and Shared Counts both are equally favorite to me. But also try out the other WordPress social media plugins.
Still, if you have any confusion, then mention it in the comments!! We never leave our audience in any confusion. Also, let us know your favorite WordPress social media plugin.