People are increasingly relying on social media platforms for news and latest updates on their favorite topics. As such, social media is becoming an extremely important tool for publicizing your blog as well as keeping your users engaged and returning to your site. If your blog does not have an online presence on the popular social media platforms, it might as well not exist for many users. However, managing so many online accounts and making regular updates on them can be quite a task. We bring you a list of must have social media plugins, which make this daunting task seem surprisingly simple.
Floating Social Bar
This free plugin provides a floating horizontal social media bar for your blog. For many years, users had to choose between speeding up their site and integrating social media functionality into it. The Floating Social Bar plugin changes that and resolves the problem to a large extent by providing a floating social media bar that allows the load time of the site not to be majorly impacted.
Digg Digg
Digg Digg is a versatile plugin that supports all the popular social media platforms and then some. It comes with a lot of customization options, such as a floating social media bar with scrolling options. It also allows your site to have sharing buttons on either the top or the bottom of the screen. Its Facebook button has both Like and Share options, and its “lazy loading” feature ensures minimal interference with the site’s load time.
Hoot Suite
Hoot Suite provides a dashboard to allow you to integrate your social media activity for all social media platforms and manage it from one location. It supports Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ Pages, FourSquare, Mixi, Facebook, and WordPress. This plugin also has the functionality of adding team members and assigning tasks to them. Once given an assignment, the team members can make updates to that profile without even needing the password. Hoot Suite also provides analytics and has an option to schedule tweets as well.
Buffer
Buffer works on the beautiful concept of storing your ideas for later use. Its convenient browser extension lets you add photos, articles, videos, etc., which the plugin then automatically shares by tweeting them throughout the rest of the day. It also comes with analytics and the option to add team members.
Bit.ly
Bit.ly has to be the best and the most popular link shortener anywhere on the web. Not only is it convenient in the way it stores your links, but it allows you to create custom keywords as well. It also provides the functionality of having your own custom branded short urls. Finally, the analytics that bit.ly offers for each shortened url completes the package.
It is required that you maintain a constant online presence on social media to reinforce your message and brand your blog. Otherwise, it is really easy to let your voice get lost in the din of the crowd. These plugins make that task much easier with their convenient features and analytics, and allow you to have more time to work on the main thing, which is the content.