Integrating social media with plugins and widgets in WordPress
March 21. 2023
With millions of users logging in daily to different platforms, it’s safe to say that social media has become a critical aspect of modern-day communication. Businesses have leveraged social media to build their brand, engage with customers, and drive sales. However, with all the competition out there and the fact that managing social media usually entails simultaneously managing accounts on multiple platforms, it can be challenging and overwhelming. But don’t worry because WordPress made things easier. We’ve conducted experienced experts from WP Full Care and here’s everything you need to know about integrating social media with plugins and widgets in WordPress.
Everything you need to know about integrating social media with plugins and widgets in WordPress
Integrating social media with plugins and widgets in WordPress comes with plenty of benefits.
- It helps increase your website’s traffic and engagement. By adding social media sharing buttons to your website, visitors can easily share your content with their followers. This way, they’ll help drive more traffic to your website.
- Also, it helps you build your brand’s online presence. By sharing your content on social media, you can reach a wider audience, increase your brand’s visibility, and gain new followers.
- Integrating social media with plugins and widgets in WordPress can help you improve your website’s SEO. Social media signals such as likes, shares, and comments can boost your website’s search engine ranking.
- On top of that, integrating social media with WordPress can also help you understand your audience better. By analyzing your social media analytics, you can get insights into your audience’s interests, behaviors, and preferences. This can help you create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns, and improve your overall business strategy.
- Moreover, social media integration can also enhance your customer service efforts. By responding to customer queries and complaints on social media promptly and effectively, you can improve your customer satisfaction rates and build stronger relationships with your audience.
Overall, integrating social media with WordPress is a win-win strategy for businesses of all sizes. It can help you achieve your marketing and business goals in a cost-effective and efficient way.
Types of social media plugins available for WordPress
There are several types of social media plugins available for WordPress. Experts that provide custom WordPress maintenance services advise that the following are the most popular ones:
- Social Sharing Plugins: These plugins allow visitors to share your content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Examples of popular social sharing plugins include AddThis, ShareThis, and Social Snap.
- Social Follow Plugins: These allow you to display your social media profiles on your website, making it easy for visitors to follow you on social media. Examples of popular social follow plugins include Simple Social Icons, Social Media Icons Widget, and Ultimate Social Media Icons.
- Social Auto-Posting Plugins: These plugins allow you to automatically share your website’s content on your social media profiles. Examples of popular social auto-posting plugins include Jetpack, Revive Old Posts, and NextScripts: Social Networks Auto-Poster.
- Social Feeds Plugins: These allow you to display your social media feeds on your website, making it easy for visitors to view your latest social media posts. Examples of popular social feeds plugins include Feed Them Social, Flow-Flow Social Stream, and Instagram Feed.
Now let’s find out what are the best social media plugins for WordPress you should try in 2023.
Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Plugin
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed is a popular WordPress plugin that enables you to showcase your latest Instagram photos on your website. This plugin offers multiple customizable layouts, including hashtag feeds, shoppable feeds, Instagram stories, and more. It also comes with an in-built moderation system that allows you to display user-generated content on your website selectively. No wonder over 1 million websites around the world use this plugin.
On top of that, Smash Balloon offers advanced features. For example, highlighting specific Instagram posts, displaying items you’re tagged in, and combining content from multiple Instagram accounts in one feed. The best part is that all the images are cached. This way, you can be certain your website will continue to load quickly. You can embed the feed anywhere on your website. For example, blog posts, pages, sidebars, and product pages. The best part is that there’s a free version of this plugin that you can use to get started.
All In One SEO (AIOSEO)
AIOSEO is a popular WordPress plugin used by millions of websites for optimizing their site’s SEO and social media presence. In fact, compared to other plugins on the market such as Yoast, AIOSEO is a clear winner. This plugin also provides a full social preview for each post and page within the WordPress block editor. This way, you’ll remain in full control over how your content appears on social media platforms.
Additionally, AIOSEO allows you to enter social profiles and author information. This way, you’ll boost your SEO rankings and enable knowledge panels on Google. Finally, the plugin allows you to add social media ownership verification codes to claim ownership of your page and unlock additional analytics on platforms like Facebook and Pinterest. You can always test out the free version and decide if you like it.
Shared Counts
Shared Counts is a user-friendly social media plugin for WordPress that enables you to add social share buttons to your website. It supports popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Stumbleupon, Pinterest, Yummly, and LinkedIn. You can choose from several button styles and decide where to display the button, whether before or after the content or manually. Shared Counts attempts to fetch the social share count for each network. Therefore, you can choose to show the total number of shares on all networks. On top of that, you can also enable it for custom post types.
Uncanny Automator
Uncanny Automator is a powerful automation plugin for WordPress that allows you to connect your website with other apps to automate routine tasks and save time. You can set up workflows that automatically share your new blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The best part is that you don’t need any coding skills to set up this automation; it’s a point-and-click setup.
If you run an online store, you can use intelligent automation like asking users to share a testimonial after they make a purchase. Or, for online courses, you can request users to share their certificate photos on Instagram to get additional rewards. This plugin also allows you to connect your WordPress site with dozens of other popular apps. Google Sheets, Slack, MailChimp, Zoom, and are just some of them. That’s why we consider it a must-have WordPress plugin for all websites. Also,
Wrapping up
As you can see, integrating social media with plugins and widgets in WordPress is quite easy. This is true even if you are a WordPress beginner. Plus, on top of the plugins we’ve listed, there are plenty more you can try to take advantage of for your website that you might find easier to use. But if you want to make things really simple for yourself, reach out to WordPress pros. They will make sure your online presence is spotless while you can focus on other aspects of your business.