Wordpress, or blogging in general, is a perfect entry into social media marketing. The interaction with visitors available just via comments is very Web 2.0, and there are hundreds of plugins that help socialize one’s blog even further.
A few that I use and recommend:
- AutoSocialPoster: Automatically submits new posts you write to social bookmarking directories.
- Popularity Contest: View your blogs most popular posts based on varying factors (number of comments, number of direct hits, etc.)
- Quoter: Allows visitors to quote another commentor in their own comment, This is great for on-site interaction.
- Sociable: Puts vote buttons on blog posts so visitors can share, bookmark, vote for you post on favorite social sharing sites.
- Subscribe to Comments: This is a must-have, people leave comments but oftn don’t check bak for responses. This plugin will notify them via email when a new comment is posted. Users can opt-out, of course, if they don’t wish to receive the notices.
- TwitterTools: Tweets your blog posts,blogs your tweets. Seamless.
- WP-SphinnIt: Add the Sphinn vote button to your posts.
- WP-PlugIM: Adds the PlugIM vote button to your posts.
I prefer “Share This” to sociable, as all those sociable links are ways of losing pagerank from your site, which Share This doesn’t do..
thanks for the heads up on the Quoter plugin though, that’s neat!
and I agree with all the rest of the plugins you list, must have’s imho.
Matt Garrett
February 26, 2008
Andy Beard has long had a nofollow version of Sociable available - it’s called Antisocial. But then Joost de Valk came out with a new version - it’s nofollow (check my page source) and includes some new bookmarking sites that weren’t in the original or Andy’s mod. That’s what I use currently.
I was using ShareThis, but I don’t like that users have to click the button to see all the options. With Sociable, there’s one less step to getting the page marked/voted for somewhere.
Hi Michelle,
thanks, that sounds like it’s worth taking a look at, I agree that the way a visitor needs to click on the link with Share This isn’t ideal, although I do like the email a friend option..
Mattg
[...] MacPhearson created a list of Social Plugins you can use with your WordPress blog to automate some of the promotional tasks or simply get bigger [...]
Michelle (and Matt):
Thanxs for clarifying on the various networking plug-ins, the gem was really in your comments section. As i did NOT know about the nofollow thing with Sociable. New thing i learned today.
I’m pretty sure I have the old dofollow version on my main blog, Groovy Vegetarian. I will remove it at once and use the new and improved “nofollow version” from Joost De Valk.
Now i just have to find it, and hope its the one you’re referring to in your comment. You should have included a link to it.
I would also add that every Wordpress blog should with out question add the “Subscribe to Comments” WP plug-in, as it will make it easy for those who leave you a comment, to remember to come back. Invaluable. (for follow-up)
Missy.
March 8, 2008
If you look at the words “Sociable” in the post, it’s blue and underlined. That’s a link to the plugin page where you can get it.
I “should have” included a link and I did!
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