This lesson will teach you everything about social network selection and usage on your website. Social sharing is a key component of Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress. Proper network selection and setup will ensure you will get the best experience and increase traffic.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress is highly flexible in the social network configuration. You can choose a global list of networks, specific networks per position, per device, etc.
Let’s get started with the main setup.
The global network usage list is located in Social Sharing -> Networks. The list we will choose will be the main for the entire site. Yes, you can customize for position or device but not all users require advanced settings.
Let’s start with a few simple steps to configure the social share networks. If you do not need any advanced settings the steps below are everything you need.
Select all social networks you will use on your website. That includes desktop and mobile usage.
Step 2. Configure additional advanced options.
The additional advanced networks are located in Social Sharing -> Networks -> Additional Network Options. Those options control the work of a specific button from the list. The advanced options you will see setup not for just active networks – you will see for all that are available and not deactivated (Enable / Disable Social Networks).
Do you need to change anything here? It depends on the buttons you are using. Review the panels with options for just those enabled on Step #1. The most common additional settings done by users (only if the network is used):
- Twitter – configure default hashtags and your username.
- Pinterest – change the way you Pin images. The default mode will show a picker from all images on site. You can disable and provide Pinning of always a custom image and message.
- WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger – enabling alternative commands for work on a desktop.
- Email – customize the default message.
- Subscribe – configure the subscribe action running when the button is clicked.
- More, Share Buttons – configure the button action.
But remember – all those custom options you need to do in case those buttons are from the list of selected. Otherwise do not touch anything.
Step 3. Enable usage of the same networks on the entire site.
This option will ensure that each location on your website will have the same network list. As we will not need a detailed setup to activate the option to simplify configuration.
You can see at the same panel selection of network arrange. Be aware that usage of sort by shares feature requires share counters. The networks will automatically sort by the shares of the current post. Specific here is that if network from the list does not have share it won’t appear. So use this with caution.
Step 4. Select network visibility by device type.
This step is not mandatory. It is required if you choose in the list networks that can work just on mobile (Viber, Skype, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.). If so using those options select the visibility of buttons by devices.
Detailed Network Setup Per Position or Device
In the first part of this lesson, you see how to configure a network list working for the entire site. Now let’s take a look at the advanced options you can use and configure the network list for each position or device.
When you proceed with such type of setup you don’t need to configure each of the used locations. The changes you can do only where you need a personalized setup. Example: you need to change networks only for the Sidebar display.
Configure at Display Position
As we mention above Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress has an option to setup custom network list that will be used on site for a selected position. To do such change you need to visit Where to Display -> Position Settings -> <Position You Wish To Personalize>. To make possible selection of networks you need to activate at first that you wish to have a personalized position settings.
When position settings are set to Yes you can choose a separate network list just below the style setup.
Configure for Mobile Devices
A different list of mobile network options you can set only in the Advanced Custom Mobile Display & Positions mode. To do this go to Where to Display -> Mobile and follow the instructions below.
Setting Social Networks for Post Type & Plugin Integration
The setup of social networks for post type is very rear used but it is available as option inside plugin. The setup is pretty much the same like setting up social networks for position. The only difference is that options you need are located in Advanced Settings -> Settings by Post Type.
The setup of plugin integrations is used to personalize buttons when you are using hooks from Where to Display -> Plugin Integrations. Here options work again like position settings but they are located in Advanced Settings -> Settings by Plugin Integration
