Last updated on April 9th, 2019 at 05:15 pm
I see so many people asking which social sharing plugin should I use? Should I use a free plugin or should I go with a paid plugin? If you’re at a cross roads and continue asking yourself “is Social Warfare the right plugin?” then stay tuned. I’m going to take you inside and show you this amazing plugin.
Okay so before I can tell you about the Social Warfare plugin, I first have to tell you why I decided to pay for it.
When I first started this blog, I was using the Monarch plugin. Everything seemed to be working fine, however, when I added the Thrive Content Builder to my site something crashed.
For some reason, I couldn’t get those 2 plugins to work together. Sure I probably could’ve found a free plugin to replace the Monarch plugin.
However, I’m not really keen on using free plugins. I’ve learned from past experiences that free isn’t always good. The plugins can get outdated and can cause havoc when you update WordPress. I’d much rather pay for premium support knowing that I won’t have to deal with any of these types of issues.
Plus the great thing is that this plugin kept all my social media counts when I made the switch from http to https. I am not sure if I would’ve been able to keep my share counts with any other social plugin?
Related posts on the Social Warfare Plugin:
- Steal My Pinterest Image Creation System for Social Warfare
- Why I Use Social Warfare and How I Customized It to Match My Brand Colors
- Let Me Show You How to Customize The Click To Tweet On Social Warfare
- All About Setting Up The Free Social Warfare Plugin
Yes, I know that social counts don’t mean a lot. However, I’ve worked hard to get those social shares and I am very glad that I didn’t lose them.
I’ve also learned how to change the color of the social icons to match my blog, you can read my post on how I customized the Social Warfare icon buttons.
Are You Making It Easy For Others To Share Your Content?
Be honest with yourself. Is your content actually getting shared on a regular basis? I know that social shares aren’t everything. However, the more shares your blog gets the more eyeballs on your content.
In a hurry? Want to Save This Tutorial?</strong
[postgopher name=”socialwarfareright” pid=”1921″]Click To Download This Post as a PDF [/postgopher]
More shares mean your content is getting in front of more potential buyers, clients, people who’ll click on your affiliates and more subscribers and etc… It helps you accomplish your blogging goals, whatever that may be.
If you’re trying to monetize your blog, you need to get your content in front of potential buyers.
If people aren’t sharing your content, then no one is reading your awesome blog. Setting up WordPress is one thing, but growing a WordPress blog is another thing.
You need the help of others who are willing to share your content. This will help you get the word out about your blog.
Social Warfare Makes It Easy For People To Share Your Content
If you’re like most bloggers, it takes you hours to sit down and write content. It’s up to you to make it easy for people to share it.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
I’m sure that 99.9% of bloggers feel the same way.
How The Plugin Makes It Easy For Others To Share Your Content
Okay so now you’re probably thinking, how does Social Warfare make it easy for others to share my content? Well for one, you get full control of where you want to place your buttons. Don’t forget to read my tutorial on how I create my images for using the Social Warfare plugin, I now have a system that only takes me 5 minutes.
I’m going to log into my WordPress dashboard and show you all the different options you have when it comes to placing your social share buttons on your blog.
Log into your blog and go to your Social Warfare tab.
Next, you will want to go to the display tab. This is where you will be set up how you want your social icons placed on your blog.
You’ll have so many different options. This is the global setup area. This means that these are the overall settings that your entire blog will use.
Don’t worry, you can override these settings if you want different settings on different posts and pages. I’ll show you how to do that in a bit.
You’ll have the option to display the social icons in the following areas:
- Above the Content
- Below the Content
- Both above and Below the Content
- None/Manual Placement
How to Setup Settings For Individual Blog Posts
If you would rather have more control, you can set up the settings for individual posts and pages. When you’re done writing your blog post you’ll need to create the images you want to be shared. (that’s for another post)
You’ll want to scroll down the very bottom of your blog post.
Let’s run through these options
Social Media Image: you’ll have to create the specific image you want people sharing. (it’ll even tell you the specific image sizes you need to create)
Social Media Title: Add a title that will be shared. If you don’t add anything here, the plugin will use the post title.
Social Media Description: In this section, you’ll write what you want people to share. (talk about control)
Pinterest Image: Create a specific image you want to be shared on Pinterest. If you’re not using Pinterest, you may want to. It’s quickly becoming one of my biggest traffic sources.
Pinterest Description: Enter the description that will be tied to your pin. No one will take the time to write a description for your pin, so make sure you enter one.
As you can see, you can control everything that gets shared. No more having to deal with Pinterest data attributes.
Custom Tweet: Yes you can even set up a custom tweet on your blog posts without having to use a separate plugin. This is how mine looks like on my blog.
Before this plugin, I wasn’t using custom tweets. I didn’t want to add another plugin to my blog.
Comes With A Built-In Pin It Hover Button
For all you Pinterest users, yes this plugin adds a pin it button to your images. Pinterest is all about sharing images and if your images don’t have a pin it button, most likely people won’t share your images.
Don’t worry, the Social Warfare plugin has you covered on this. It adds a pin it hover button on your images.
If you’re not using the ultimate social plugin, you may want to consider checking out this free plugin. Personally, I’ve never used it. But I’ve heard so many good things about it.
Which Placement Gets The Me Most Shares?
While I really haven’t done that much testing on my blog to see which placement gets the most shares. I’m not really one to test stuff like this out. (I know shame on me, I should be testing everything out.)
I can show you my most shared post and walk you through my settings for that specific post.
As you can see, this blog post has been shared over 280 times. You can check out the post here to take a look at how I have my social buttons setup.
You’ll notice that I have my social media buttons sitting on top of the content. As the reader scrolls down the social icon buttons are sticky and will stay at the top of the post.
This makes it easy for someone to share my content, even if they don’t read the whole thing. We all know that most people won’t take the time to read your entire article.
So if you’re just placing your buttons at the bottom, they may never find them.
I prefer to have my social icons at the top and then make them sticky. I’ve found that this has definitely helped increase my social shares.
What Will Get You More Shares?
While I can’t guarantee that this plugin will get you a ton of shares. It depends on the quality of your content. People aren’t going to share your content if they don’t find it helpful.
I don’t care if your social icon buttons are screaming “SHARE ME.” If your content sucks, well it just won’t get shared.
This is one of the reasons that so many bloggers preach quantity over quality. So if you’re not getting shares, maybe it’s time to take an honest look at the content on your blog.
So Is This The Right Plugin for You?
If you’re happy with your current social shares plugin, then chances are you’ve found the right plugin. If you’re wanting more control over what people are sharing, then I would highly recommend it.
This plugin is updated and supported by developers who actually use the plugin themselves. So you won’t have to worry about it being incompatible whenever you update WordPress.
Yes, it is a paid plugin, they do have a free version. I’ve never used that version, so I don’t know how it differs from the paid version.
Final Take Away
You can have more control over what people are sharing your blog. The social Warfare plugin makes it easy for you to do that.
This plugin gives you back the control on your blog. You can determine what people are sharing on the social networks. As a blogger, I personally think it’s important that we control what people share about us.
And this WP share plugin makes it so easy to do that.
While we may not be able to control everything, this plugin definitely makes it easier to control the shares on your own blog. If you’re new to using plugins, read my complete WordPress plugin tutorial guide.
Hand Picked Articles For You
- Social Warfare Plugin Why I Use It, Set Up And Customization Tips
- Steal My Pinterest Image Creation System
- Write Your First Blog Post – Text Editor Explained
Are you using a social sharing plugin? If so which one are you using? Are you happy with it? Please let us know, it will definitely help others decide which one is the right one for their blog.
I’ve been thinking about getting this plugin, but I did know if it was really worth it. I think I’ll check it out now! Thanks ๐
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment. If you’re looking for a social sharing plugin, then I highly recommend the Social Warfare. I use it and I love it.
Don’t Forget to check out my post on how I set it up in case you have any issues, here it is: https://susanvelez.com/social-warfare-plugin/
I know you’ll love it if you do decide to get it. If you have any questions, please ask. I’ll do my best to help you out.
Have a great day!
Susan
Hi Susan,
Loving this review. Excellent.
I also vibe with the message of paying money to get a plugin with support, a premium offering that won’t lead to headaches when you go with upgrades and the like. Super add to the post because going free with everything on your blog almost never leads to a successful blogging career. Drop some clams to get the best version along with support to help you on your journey.
Thanks for sharing ๐
Signing off from Thailand.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
I know you don’t mind paying for premium support and plugins. Bloggers who take their blog seriously understand the importance of paying for support so they can focus on other things in their business. Instead of always trying to find free things.
Love it “drop some clams”…
Have a great one and enjoy your day ๐
Susan
Hi Susan,
Fabulous tutorial about one of my favorite products! I adore Social Warfare! I love the fact I can customize my share buttons, especially the way I like to change up my blog themes. The integrated Pinterest and Click-to-Tweet features are a major bonus. Now, include all the stats you can check right in your dashboard? Oh yes, definitely worth the investment!
Thanks for sharing this!
B
Hey Bren,
Glad you liked my tutorial. I actually, had never heard about it when I started my blog. I only picked it up because I was having issues with a previous plugin I was using.
Instead of sitting there trying to troubleshoot things, I figured out I would just buy the Social Warfare plugin. After all, I had read nothing but good things about it.
Now that I’ve been using it for about 4 months, I have to say that I love it.
Glad to hear that you like it too, and yes it definitely is worth the investment.
Have a great day ๐
Susan
Susan, I have been thinking about this plugin but really didn’t know a lot about it. I am going to look this over and consider getting it. Thank you for the information.
Hi Cathy,
Let me know if you do decide to pick it up. I’ve got a lot of great tutorials that will help you find your way around the plugin.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment, have a great day ๐
Susan
Great piece of actionable info which can be put into practice. Pls tell more about the right plugin for social platforms
Hi Darleen,
I am not sure if there is a right social plugin. I can only share the one that I currently use and have experience with.
I have no doubt that you would like the Social Warfare Plugin, but keep trying different plugins till you find the one you like.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day ๐
Susan