I have been spending some time tweaking my blog the past couple days. One thing is trying out different share bars to assist with social shares. In the PTS program John suggests a WP plugin called ‘sharebar’ during our blog set up. In an update video he describes some of the things in the program that will be updated for 2017. He refers to this plugin as being something that doesn’t work well anymore and that it will be updated. That got me thinking about what other plugins there might be out there to try. So that’s what I did… I tried some!
By just using the search function in the ‘Add New’ section under the ‘Plugins’ tab, I searched for ‘share bar’ specifically, because I like the look of it. I like the bar floating to the left of the post, rather than buttons actually in the post. I found and tried about five different social shares bars, some were ok but not perfect. The one I finally settled with is a plugin from GetSocial.io and I love it! To find it the actual name of the plugin is ‘Share Buttons & tools to grow traffic by GetSocial.io’ Or you can just go to their website to get it, that might be easier.
You will see my social shares bar to the left, at least it better be there lol. Please let me know if it’s not! I like the appearance and design. Something I had a hard time finding when looking for a plugin was one that had the counters, and this bar has a counter for every network, even for emails. There is quite a bit of customization available to change colours and shapes, counters or not, position, and more. And of course you can decide what networks to show, and there are a lot to choose from. The only one that was missing was YouTube, which is odd because it is usually one of the top six choices.
Worth the Upgrade?
GetSocial has an upgrade function for $9 a month which gets you more customization features, as well as access to many other plugins that these guys make. These include analytics, ecommerce, and email integration. I am fine with the free version, but the extras look very appealing. I can tell that these guys know how to make quality plugins, so I would have no problem spending money on them in the future.
Well, that’s what I have been up to lately. I have also been brainstorming what my first product idea is going to be for the PTS program. Maybe I will go with something Social Marketing related. I will tell you all about that thought process tomorrow.
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