So you have invested thousands of dollars on what you hoped to be a killer website and/or blog. Yet something is still missing. You are still lacking social engagement.
You may be creating the right content but you are making it too
difficult for people to share it with their friends and community.
Visitors to your site may want to engage with you on other social
networks and become part of your community. The problem is they can’t do
such if they are not invited.
You can’t be too shy in inviting them to join your other platforms.
You don’t have to tweet noise at them all day asking them to join you on
Facebook. Instead, create compelling content and kindly include social
plugins that make it easy for them to join you on other social networks,
share your content if they so choose to do such.
We get many calls
from small to enterprise corporate organizations asking us “please help
make our site and online presence more social and get more customers.”
There is no easy answer to do such overnight, and no plug-in is going
to solve your online marketing problems. However, there are few ways
you can increase engagement in the short term as you work on building a
real online conversion funnel and integrated strategy that will deliver
results. One of the first ways it to ensure your website or blog
is social friendly. Make it easy for people to share, engage and
contact you if they are interested to learn more about your products or services.
Below are 10 of my favorite WordPress plugins to increase engagement.
While there are many more that could be included on this list, these
are my favorite and what have helped my blog thrive the past few years.
Please feel free to add any I missed that you know and love in the comment section below.
10 WordPress Plugins to Increase Social Engagement and Build Community
1. Gravity Forms
One
of the most important features any website or blog must have is the
ability to contact the owner. Gravity forms make this easy. You can
easily setup forms and use them on as many pages as you want with just a
copy / paste of the short code via the WordPress toolbar when editing a
page or post. Requires no programming or super technical skills to get
started. You can set it up to send an automatic reply to user submitting
the form and also notify administrators as appropriate. It integrates
easily with iContact and aWeber email marketing programs in addition to numerous other platforms and technologies.
One
of the most important features any website or blog must have is the
ability to contact the owner. Gravity forms make this easy. You can
easily setup forms and use them on as many pages as you want with just a
copy / paste of the short code via the WordPress toolbar when editing a
page or post. Requires no programming or super technical skills to get
started. You can set it up to send an automatic reply to user submitting
the form and also notify administrators as appropriate. It integrates
easily with iContact and aWeber email marketing programs in addition to numerous other platforms and technologies.
2. Digg DiggEnabling your visitors to easily share your content with their network is a key requirement for any successful blogger. Digg Digg is a social share bar that was acquired by BufferApp in 2011. I recommend including at minimum the Twitter, Facebook like and share, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Buffer buttons. Buffer enables users to set a schedule for auto posting content to their social networks over a period of time versus all at once. Take time to learn how the plug-in works and how to modify it to your specific website design. There are options for the bar to float on the side of the page or have a single row of buttons below or above the content.
3. Social Stickers
It
is important to make it easy for people to get to your social network
profiles. An easy way to do such is to include these simple buttons in a
widget on your sidebar or footer.
It
is important to make it easy for people to get to your social network
profiles. An easy way to do such is to include these simple buttons in a
widget on your sidebar or footer.
At minimum I recommend you include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your
RSS feed and Google plus if you’re using it. Additional options are of
course Pinterest, Slideshare, and more. Choose the buttons based upon
your goals, objectives and audience.
4. Facebook Like Box
You
can easily use the code provided by Facebook to include a like box
anywhere you want on your blog or website. You can opt to include the
conversation stream. At minimum I suggest you include the faces of the
people who like your page. By default it will include friends of the
person viewing the page if there are any.
You
can easily use the code provided by Facebook to include a like box
anywhere you want on your blog or website. You can opt to include the
conversation stream. At minimum I suggest you include the faces of the
people who like your page. By default it will include friends of the
person viewing the page if there are any.
5. Follow on Twitter button.
This
is a one click button to follow a Twitter account on Twitter. Within
one click any visitor to your website or blog can follow you on Twitter.
Pretty simple.
This
is a one click button to follow a Twitter account on Twitter. Within
one click any visitor to your website or blog can follow you on Twitter.
Pretty simple.
6. All in One SEO or Yoast for SEO Optimization.
One
of the first things you also need is the ability for people to find
your blog when searching for content. The model “just build it and they
will come” is a myth. It no longer works that way, sorry. Truth is it
never did.
One
of the first things you also need is the ability for people to find
your blog when searching for content. The model “just build it and they
will come” is a myth. It no longer works that way, sorry. Truth is it
never did.
Both of these plug-ins add much efficiency to properly optimizing
your blog or website for the search engines. We use All in One SEO and
have had great results for ourselves and client sites. However, we are
also testing Yoast on a couple of sites right now. Both are good.
7. Facebook recommendationsProvide personal recommendations to visitors and encourage them to visit additional pages, share content with their Facebook community.
Check out Facebook recommendations
8. Facebook subscribe plug-in.Makes it easy for people to subscribe to your personal Facebook profile status updates.
Check out the Facebook subscribe plug-in
9. nRelate Related Content
This awesome plug-in will include related posts at the bottom of
every article. It will help drive readers to other similar and relevant
content. It can help increase time on site and page click-thrus. I love
how this plug-in lets you set the default view for thumbnails. You can
choose to have the blog post title below or overlaying the image as I
show below.
*Note: This plug-in was updated from the original LinkWithin that originally appeared here.
*Note: This plug-in was updated from the original LinkWithin that originally appeared here.
10. Disqus Comment System
We have tested several different wordpress commenting sys
tems and always come back to Disqus. Why you ask? Because it simply works. I am also a big fan of LiveFyre
but had some conflict issues between Infusionsoft and LiveFyre. I got
tired of dealing with the issues and them pointing fingers at each
other. I wound up leaving them both thru the process. Disqus doesn’t
have these problems.
tems and always come back to Disqus. Why you ask? Because it simply works. I am also a big fan of LiveFyre
but had some conflict issues between Infusionsoft and LiveFyre. I got
tired of dealing with the issues and them pointing fingers at each
other. I wound up leaving them both thru the process. Disqus doesn’t
have these problems.
I also find the comment engagement with Disqus to be of higher
quality than that of some of the other comment systems that are
primarily attracting people who’s main goal is to get a link back to
their site. I’d rather have less comments but higher quality and from
people who want to have a real conversation.
*Denotes affiliate link. I may earn an affiliate referral commission from the Gravity forms link above.
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