Most Important Social Widgets as Easy to Use WordPress Plug-In

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Some minutes ago I’ve released my first WordPress plug-in: it displays the most important social widgets of Facebook, Twitter and Google+ below your posts.

Now the question is:
Why yet another social widgets plug-in as there are already a lot of them?

The answer is that I’ve searched for a simple and easy to user plug-in and all plug-ins I’ve found were way to complicated: I did not want to have countless of social networks supported with hundreds of options – just a simple plug-in covering the most important social widgets without needing to configure anything!

And that’s my new plug-in:
Install it, activate it and the social widgets are displayed below your posts immediately – without doing any configuration.

What social widgets plug-in do you use?

This post is also available in Deutsch.

105 thoughts on “Most Important Social Widgets as Easy to Use WordPress Plug-In”

  1. hey Andreas, big thanks for the plugin, but mine is not showing up after activating it…
    I’m using the Lightword Theme by Andrei Luca.
    Could it be a issue with the theme, or something?
    thx

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Ed,

      first thanks for your message!

      I’ll have a look on this in the next days and let you know the result.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Ed,

      I’ve tested that now in a small test blog with this Lightword theme and it works correctly. So at least not this theme is the problem.

      Therefore please let me know which other plug-ins you are using.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

      • I was using the default ones: Akismet, Wickett Twitter Widget, GTranslate.

        I just thought you should know. I’ve already found a plugin that like yours put facebook and twitter buttons on posts. don’t know why this one worked.

        thx

        Reply ↓

        • Hello Ed,

          I’ve installed all 3 plug-ins now on my test system and my plug-in still works correctly – strange.

          Anyway, thanks for this info. If someone else should come across the same problem, please let me know.

          Best regards
          Andreas

          Reply ↓

    • Hello Ed,

      really strange, I’ve also tested again and did not find the problem:
      if someone else should have the same issue, please let me know. Hopefully I can solve it then.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Virgilio,

      thanks for your comment!

      Unfortunately that’s not possible, because the Twitter as well as the Google+ widget do not allow to specify a custom URL for voting. It uses always the current URL visited by the user. Therefore, if the widgets would be added to the homepage, the user would always vote for the homepage, but not for the individual post. This would not make much sense and therefore there is no option to show the social widgets also on the homepage.

      Best regards and thanks again
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  4. Hi Ed… thanks for the nice plugin!

    Since I opt to have the plugin to show before the post.. is there any way that I can have one or two line spaces before the article starts.. cuz right now, it shows the your plugin and then right after ..the next line, the article starts..

    Is there anywhere that I can put in it to give some line spaces?

    Thanks!
    Mark

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Ed,

      yes, just as shown on the option page as example, you can add a CSS style like “margin-bottom:20px” to the widget box to add space before the article starts.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  6. Hey Andres..

    I can’t believe that I missed it ..lol
    Man.. you thought of everything for this cool plugin :)

    Thanks for your help!
    Mark

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Kelly,

      great to hear that you like the plug-in, thanks!

      It does not include a sidebar widget yet, but this sounds like a good idea: I’ve added it to my todo list and try the best to get this done in a future version.

      Just check this site for updates or subscribe to the newsletter.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Nick,

      yes, just as shown on the option page as example (and in a comment above), you can add a CSS style like “margin-bottom:20px” to the widget box to add a space before and/or after the widget box.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  11. Hi there,

    Great easy plugin.. just wondering, when someone likes the post, it doesn’t pull the correct photo onto facebook.. it always grabs the same one (the belt)… any chance to make it grab the actual post photo?

    Thanks and looking forward to your response please!

    Reply ↓

    • Hello guy,

      sorry, but I don’t know which images Facebook uses. I just use the official Facebook widget and if you have questions regarding this widget itself, please ask the Facebook support.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello,

      first thanks for your suggestion!

      I don’t have plans to addd more social widgets to this plug-in as I want to keep it as simple as possible. Anyway, I will think about it.

      Best regards and thanks again
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  13. Hi Andreas,

    I just found your plugin and it’s great – I couldn’t believe quite how simple it was to set up!

    Is there a way for me to choose exactly where on a page to have the buttons appear, as I don’t always want them to appear at the end of the Post text? I’m quite comfortable with fiddling around in PHP if that’s what it takes :) Thanks.

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Phil,

      if you don’t mind using PHP, you can easily use the integrated function “the_social_widgets()” (as described on the plug-in page) to output the plug-in HTML code at any place of your blog page you want.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

      • I missed that page entirely! Thanks for that. But I can’t work out how to stop the widgets appearing in the position where the plugin wants them to automatically appear. In the settings I have to select at least one type of page for them to appear on… but even when I select ‘Categories’ then the widgets appear above or below my Posts.

        Reply ↓

        • Hello Phil,

          yes, you’re right:
          currently you have to select at least one location for the widgets to appear.

          I’ve added this to my todo list:
          I’ll add an option to not show the widgets by default allowing a developer to just show them at a custom location by using the provided PHP functions.

          Best regards
          Andreas

          Reply ↓

  14. Hi,
    great easy plugin! This is my first time using social plugins. I don’t see a place where I can input the social account login info or URL. So when someone likes it, I see that it counts +1 but where does that get recorded? It doesn’t show up on my facebook news feed or facebook page. Please help me understand what this does..

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Hannah,

      when you’re currently not logged in and click on a social widget, you will be asked to login automatically. No worries about that.

      If you have more detailed questions about the social widgets themselves, please ask on the social platform (like Facebook) itself, because I’m just using these widgets in my WordPress plug-in and have no influence on them myself.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  15. Hello there nice plugin,it it posible to add this to my header,any short code that can be placed in header? soo it show facebook-twitter and soo on,just like it shows in post/pages?

    regards ken

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Ken,

      yes, that no problem:
      if you don’t mind using PHP, you can easily use the integrated function “the_social_widgets()” (as described on the plug-in page) to output the plug-in HTML code at any place of your blog page you want.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  16. Hmm well could you maybe post how the full code should look like,you know the one i should add to header,im not a coder,thats why i use others plugin :)

    Reply ↓

  17. Thanks alot Andreas,good work on this,many of the social plugins out there have to many fetures and lag your webpage,your plugin was what i was looking for.

    Regards ken

    Reply ↓

  18. Hi and thank you very much for this nice plugin.
    I just have a little problem. If i just put one the Homepage button in the options the like-buttons appear on every side. Why is it like that? What shall i change??
    Thank you for your answer.
    regards Lukas

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Lukas,

      you’re right, sorry for that:
      I found the bug already. An update fixing this issue will be released tomorrow.

      Best regards and thanks for letting me know about that
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Lukas,

      version 1.3.3 of the plug-in fixing this issue has been released few minutes ago.

      Best regards and thanks again for your message
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Mauro,

      sorry, I don’t know this theme. I would give it a try, but as far as I can see this is a commercial theme. Therefore you will understand that I cannot buy it just for testing.

      So if you want me to test the problem, you would need to give me admin access to your WordPress installation. Please contact me via e-mail if you would like to do that.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  20. Hello,

    I just upgraded to the latest version and it does not appear anywhere in the plugins list (active or inactive). I FTP’d to the plugins directory and I see the Social Widgets folder in there, but it does not appear in my WP Admin Control Panel for some reason. I deleted the folder and uploaded fresh files and it still does not appear. I use WP with BuddyPress as well as other plugins.

    Thank you,
    Rolando

    Reply ↓

  21. I installed your plugin and just as I was about to activate it, I saw an update. I updated to the latest version and tried to activate it the wordpress threw me an error about a bad header.

    Now your plugin won’t appear in my plugins page but if I search for your plugin under the “Add New” section, it appears as installed.

    Help?

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Shawn,

      I’m very sorry for this issue:
      there was a problem with the ZIP file of the last update.

      Please do the following steps:
      - manually delete the folder “/wp-content/plugins/facebook-twitter-google-social-widgets/” with a FTP program.
      - reinstall new version 1.3.4 of the plug-in from WordPress.

      After that all your settings will be restored automatically and it will work again as normal.

      Best regards and sorry for that again
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Stephen,

      I’m very sorry for this issue:
      there was a problem with the ZIP file of the last update.

      Please do the following steps:
      - manually delete the folder “/wp-content/plugins/facebook-twitter-google-social-widgets/” with a FTP program.
      - reinstall new version 1.3.4 of the plug-in from WordPress.

      After that all your settings will be restored automatically and it will work again as normal.

      Best regards and sorry for that again
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Ken,

      I’m very sorry for this issue:
      there was a problem with the ZIP file of the last update.

      Please do the following steps:
      - manually delete the folder “/wp-content/plugins/facebook-twitter-google-social-widgets/” with a FTP program.
      - reinstall new version 1.3.4 of the plug-in from WordPress.

      After that all your settings will be restored automatically and it will work again as normal.

      Best regards and sorry for that again
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  24. Hello, I got some problems with the +1 google counter. Ends up with a red !.

    I’m using the newest version of wordpress / Suffusion theme.

    Any idea how to fix this?

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Torstein,

      I don’t see the problem: at least on your linked blog page the Google widget is displayed correctly. Therefore I guess it’s a caching issue.

      Anyway, I have no influence on the widgets themselves – if you have problems with the widgets (not the plug-in itself), please contact the support of the corresponding social network (in your case Google).

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  26. Hello and thanks for this great plugin.
    I’d like to ask, are you planning to support showing buttons on custom post types in the future?

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Skylos,

      first I’m sorry for my late reply.

      Currently this is not planned for the near future, but I’ll add it to my feature wish list.

      Best regards and thanks for your message
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Massam,

      I don’t see this problem on your blog:
      please post an URL where I can see this issue.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

        • Hello Massam,

          yes, I see the issue:
          this problem seems to be related to the very special theme (“storebox”?) you’re using.

          As this is a commercial theme I’ve no way to test it. Therefore I cannot help, sorry.

          But if you don’t mind using PHP, you can inject the social widgets at any location on your site as you want with the function “the_social_widgets()”. Just have a look on the plug-in info page of this website.

          Or play around with the CSS settings of the widgets. Maybe you can change the orientation this way already.

          Best regards
          Andreas

          Reply ↓

          • I have exactly the same problem:
            the buttons are showing vertically like
            facebook
            tweeter
            google+
            but i want to show it in a row .

            I am using the free Yoko theme.. and I am sure the problem is in its CSS but I am not so expert to understand where to correct it..
            Can you pls take a look and give me some hints?
            Thanks a lot
            Regards

            Reply ↓

  28. I just installed your plugin today and it looks like it will work well. The only problem I have is appearance … the spacing between three boxes is not the same and I don’t like the way it looks. I want them to be closer together, spaced evenly apart. Is there any way to do this?

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Karah,

      unfortunately that’s not easily possible especially as the Facebook widget uses an iframe and therefore it is not possible to get the exact width this widget really uses inside its iframe. Even worse the used width of this widget changes if there are more “likes”.

      But you can play around it with changed the CSS styles in the Social Widgets options.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  29. Hello and thanks for the plugin!

    I have a little problem with the display of code-characters on category pages: see here: http://www.fussball-bundesliga-im-kalender.de/category/nachrichten/

    (it shows code like this: Twittern(function() { var po = document.createElement(‘script’); po.type = ‘text/javascript’; po.async = true; po.src = ‘https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();Die )

    Any ideas?

    thanks!

    Reply ↓

    • Hello,

      it’s not possible to show the social widgets on the homepage if only excerpts of your posts are displayed there.

      This way you have two options to fix this issue:
      either display full posts on your homepage or disable the Social Widgets on your homepage in the options. Then they are only display on the posts themselves.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello David,

      this depends on your theme, but you should be able to accomplish that by using CSS styles applied to whole widget box (on the options page of the plug-in). Maybe something like “float: right” works, but as I wrote, it depends on your theme what CSS style you have to use here that it looks good at the end.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  31. Hi, dev!

    I reaaaally like your plug-in appearance.

    But,
    I’m having some issues here.
    I want to set up a FB like, Twitter, and G+1; both Twitter and G+ works just fine. However, the Like isn’t working, it keeps refreshing and not showing the counter.
    Could you tell me what’s wrong?

    Oh yeah, I’m using Web Directory theme from themepix and also WP Mobile Detector plug-in from websitez.com

    Reply ↓

  32. Cool Plugin I love the simplicity.

    However I when the facebook like button is clicked it counts the clicks but I get nothing on my facebook likes.

    Any help would be good.

    Thanks

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Mark,

      the like count of the current page URL increases, but this has nothing to do with the like count of your Facebook page itself.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

      • Hello again Thanks for the speedy reply.

        I didn’t make myself clear.

        After I click the like button thats on my website I go check my facebook page. Shouldn’t it show that I liked my page?

        Thanks

        Reply ↓

  33. Hey there! Thank you for your nice plugin.

    Is there any way to center the widget instead having it on the left side? I tried to use “margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” in the widget options, but it doesn’t work.

    Thank you for your help!

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Chickow,

      normally is should work this way, but depending on the theme you’re using you might need to add some more CSS styles to center the social widgets.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  34. Hi Andreas,

    I’ve been using your plugin and it works fine with Twitter and G+, but seems to run into problems with Facebook. When I click on FB like button, it opens up the pop-up asking me to log in (even when I am logged into FB) and when I put in my log in details, it still doesn’t work. Can you tell me what might be the problem here so I can look into that? Just want to be sure that it’s not a problem on the plugin side before I look into other possibilities. Here is a sample post on our site where you can check it:
    http://tsr.net.co/2012/04/india-and-bharat-have-to-study-together/3682

    Thanks much in advance.
    Kanti

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Kanti,

      sorry, but I can’t help with problems of the Facebook widget itself as I’m only using this widget as provided by Facebook inside my WordPress plug-in.

      Therefore if you have problems with the Facebook widget itself, please contact Facebook directly.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  35. Hiya! Thanks for the plug-in!

    Question: Is there a way to add custom text e.g. my Twitter handle to the tweet that the plug-in creates?

    So that it produce a tweet like this for example:
    “Check this out! [post title] | [link to the post] via @twitter”

    Thanks again!

    Reply ↓

  37. I’m using Infinite Scroll (jQuery) and after loading the second page of posts, the twitter icons and g + are not being loaded in the pagination. Do you have any suggestions?
    ps. sorry for my bad english

    Reply ↓

        • Hello Reinaldo,

          I see, probably the JavaScript of the Twitter/G+ buttons just does not work when the posts are added via jQuery. As this JavaScript code is not from me, but provided by Twitter/G+ themselves, I can’t do anything about it, sorry.

          Only the Facebook button is working correctly as it uses an IFrame instead of JavaScript to show the button.

          Best regards
          Andreas

          Reply ↓

  38. And I noticed also that after enabling the pluginhe creates a problem with my CSS styles. The theme of wordpress is made with mediaquery and the active plugin does not work perfectly. If I disable the plugin, mediaquey works correctly.

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Reinaldo,

      I’m afraid your theme is a little bit too specific and therefore I would suggest to add the social widget buttons to your own theme code directly instead of using a default plug-in for that. This may lead to better results as you can customize the code as much as needed.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  40. Great, easy to use plug. Thanks for this!

    Are there going to be additional sharing options added? Like Stumblupon, Linkedin or Pinterest? These are popular sharing options as well.

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Sean,

      no, there are currently no plans for that as I want to keep this plug-in as simple as possible.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

  41. Hi there and thanks for this plugin,would it be posible for you to post the php full code fot this social plugin,soo i can manuel add this to some of my pages.

    kindly regards martin

    Reply ↓

    • Hello Jed,

      not as far as I know, but my plug-in does not count anything.

      So you should ask the social platforms like Facebook if there is a way to reset their counters.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

    • Hello Hans,

      that’s correct as the user likes your blog post and not your Facebook page with this plug-in.

      Best regards
      Andreas

      Reply ↓

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