It’s funny… as I was sitting down to write this article, my wife skyped me a preview of a page from one our sites. She had installed a social media plugin that I had written off for anything other than blogs. I guess it has been a few months since I had looked at it and there have been some vast improvements. Either that, or I missed some of the details the first time around. What?….That’s never happened before.

There are so many social plugins to choose from, how does a user know which one is best? Well a few months back, I downloaded a number of them and tried them out. Really it all came down to one major function for me. Can I disable the plugin on certain pages or posts of my choosing?

If you’re not using any kind of social media plugin, you’re missing the boat

Most of our clients are building ecommerce websites, which means there are all kinds of pages you really don’t want a  “Share Me” or “Add This” button. It just looks odd to have an ADDTOANY button on the “Thank-you” or “Error” pages.  Is your site professional, or did you just slap on the first social media plugin you found? Unless you’re producing a blog, where every public post or page, meaning everything that isn’t password protected, is available for general consumption, you need to be able to choose which pages will display the social media function.

There are some great, sleek looking plugs out there. These are 2 of my favorites:

1. SOCIABLE

Before any others I would choose SOCIABLE from Blogplay. This is easily the best social media plugin I’ve come across.  There are a ridiculous number of social sites to choose from to which you can share your content. And if you’re not happy with the smart little icons they use, you can upload your own and use those. These are two of the many functions you’ll find in the options page, but when you’re ready to add content, you have control over every individual page and post. It’s as simple as checking the box to disable Sociable on that page. I LOVE IT!

2. SEXY BOOKMARKS

The other social media plugin I’m seeing a lot more people use is SEXY BOOKMARKS. It really is a good looking social media plugin. It adds a little bit of javascript to animate the icons, which look like they’re hiding on your page. Again there are all kinds of pages you can choose to link to, depending on what your site is about.

You can choose to just display Sexy Bookmarks on your Posts, Post and Home Page, All Posts and Page or any of a few other combinations. If I could pick and choose each individual page or post, I would put it on par with Sociable. But if you just want something that looks slick, this is the one.

If you’re not using any kind of social media plugin, you’re missing the boat, no matter what kind of site your building. Try adding either of these plugins to your website and give your visitors a chance to share it with their social cirles. WordPress makes is incredibly simple to add plugins to your website. If you just want a little help, contact us. We’ll get it done for you within the hour.