Battle of the Share Plugins: Which One Is Best for Your WordPress Site?
If you’re like most online publishers, you want readers to share your content on social networks and social bookmarking sites.
The more often readers share your content, the more traffic you get to your Website. And who wouldn’t like more traffic?
In the last few years, a smorgasbord of content sharing plugins has appeared on the scene, and all of them offer a somewhat different experience for readers. Here’s a look at three of the most popular share plugins and why you may or may not want to use them. All are available via the WordPress plugin repository.
1. SexyBookmarks
You’ve probably seen this plugin in action. SexyBookmarks gives you a row of half-hidden social icons, all of which rise to full view on mouseover.
On the settings screen, you get a list of icons for nearly every social site on the internet and the ability to choose which of them to place on your posts and pages. You can put them above your content, below it, or both.
The plugin also lets you use a Google “+1″ box or Facebook “Like” box alongside the icons, but the end result makes your sharing “area” look jumbled.
If you use this one, it’s probably best to stick with the default icon display. The number of shares per social site will appear as a small number that hovers over each icon.
2. Digg Digg
While this plugin does let readers share in several destinations besides Digg, it doesn’t offer you as many places to share as SexyBookmarks.
Still, Digg Digg manages to hit all the big ones – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and StumbleUpon – and it gives the option to leave a scrolling bar of share icons alongside your content at all times. Many publishers like this because it lets readers share posts while they read instead of making them wait until they finish.
Like SexyBookmarks, Digg Digg also displays the number of times a post was shared on a given network. Unlike SexyBookmarks, however, the number indicating how many times an article gets shared is very very prominent.
In other words, when that long article you wrote about R finance gets tweets from 67 different readers, everyone is going to know it if you use Digg Digg.
3. Sociable
This one comes in two versions: “Free” and “Pro.”
As the titles imply, the latter version gives you more features for a price. Thankfully, most people will do just fine with the free option, which lets you choose from a variety of social icons to place below a post or page.
Each icon “lights up” on mouseover so readers can easily see where to share your content. There’s no share count with Sociable, but it offers a very simple, clean-looking row of icons that doesn’t clutter up the screen.
At the end of the day, any of these plugins will make it easy for readers to share your content. Which one you choose comes down to aesthetics and usability for your audience.
image via Matt Hamm
Category: Plugins
About the Author (Author Profile)
Adam Green is an Atlanta Copywriter who manages to keep up with all this tech “stuff.” You can follow him on Twitter @IAmAdamGreen.Subscribe
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Surprised you didn’t list Sharebar and stack it against this list especially because of it’s features of hovering and sliding with the post content so the share buttons are always in view. Have you tested it?
Justin Germino recently posted..Google Chrome To Hit 2nd Most Popular Browser in 2012
Hey Justin, I haven’t used Sharebar. Digg Digg also offers a floating display that floats (or “slides” or “hovers”) alongside the text as people read. I think a lot of plugins are doing that now.
Yeah, you are right I knew Digg Digg did the same thing. Just wondering if you preferred one or the other for a reason but since you hadn’t tested no biggie.
Justin Germino recently posted..Tips to Reduce Security Risks in Wireless Networks
I usually see the Sexy Bookmarks on blogs on 2010. In fact, I have it on one of my Blogspot blog. Now I think they are being replaced by the sliding social media buttons because it is more noticeable.
I have Digg Digg and I am very happy about it. Of course one day I will try to update it and I will get the better one, butfor now it is OK
Twitter: pkarunkumar
says:
I prefer sharthis plugin which is simple and have all the social networking site options.
Arun recently posted..Hide My IP Coupon Code-What it all about?
Digg is the best plugin for wordpress. Digg is very user friendly and widely used.
Two plugins that I really like, and which help speed up site load time, are WP Minify and WP Super Cache.
For social bookmarking buttons, I’ve been using WP Socializer, which has a very to use interface. However, this plugin seems to throw up some HTML validation errors and warnings (which I just noticed today) so I may take a look at some of the other social plugins mentioned above.
I have been using add to any on my sites for a long time but just recently adjusted the settings to show the popular bookmarking sites right on my pages. Makes it easy to plus one posts, like and tweet. Really good.
Steve recently posted..Be Ready For Retirement & Plan Your Pension Now
Great post dude ! I think SexyBookmarks is the best bookmarking plugin for WordPress blogs , as it provides a lot of options for sharing !
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