Fairy Blog Mother
I’m constantly reading and researching anything about blogging so I can find new stuff I can relate to you, my readers. But it’s not only content I notice, but design as well. WordPress supplies plenty of applications or plug-ins that perform functions to make blogs more usable, practical, SEO efficient and compatible with social media to bring in traffic or increase your online visibility.
Twitter and Facebook plug-ins
refers to WP.org
One thing I noticed was a Facebook share plug-in. (Now before all you WordPress.com users get too excited, I’m afraid plug-ins are only for WordPress.org blogs.) I already had the Tweetmeme plug-in set up on my posts to encourage re-tweets, and I wanted this second icon to complete the pair, so I set about finding it and adding it to my blog.
So I moused over the icon to see what the URL was, and it said ‘facebook.com/sharer.php’ which I put into Google to see what would come up:
You can see I was diverted and led on a wild-goose chase by the first link, but eventually the second link rang true:
I downloaded the plug-in onto my desktop on my Mac. Then I opened up FileZilla for my blog:
Now this is starting to get a bit techie, but if you have a WordPress.org blog you’ll know what I mean from now on.
Open up WP-content:
And select plugins:
Drag the Facebook share plug-in from your computer’s desktop into the plug-in directory and wait for it to upload.
Then go back to your dashboard in your blog:
In the left sidebar, select Plugins > Installed and find your plug-in and activate it. Then click on the new link at the bottom of your sidebar called ‘Facebook Share’:
Here are all the settings for your Facebook share plug-in. Use mine from the picture above, or have a play to find what you want. When finished, click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom, and go and have a look at your blog to see your results:
At first I was disappointed, because it didn’t have the counter box above it, as shown in my first picture at the top of this post. But then I realised it has to be activated with a click to bring the counter up:
Now to keep me happy with my Facebook share plug-in counter always active, don’t forget to share my posts on your Facebook profiles to let all your followers know about my posts so they can become readers of this blog too!
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Holy cow, Alice, but this is a lot for some of us non-techies to go through. And I know it made you happy, because you are smiling so brightly in your picture. But in the end, please tell us exactly what this all got you? Now you can simultaneously share your blog on FaceBook (I guess). Is that something that everyone would want to do?
I blog about business but I keep FaceBook for personal, friend-stuff. Some of my friends are interested in my blog. Most are not, unfortunately.
Seriously, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass here. I really do wonder what this plugin accomplishes? (I admit to being low-tech. Really low tech.)
Warmest aloha,
Kay Lorraine
Honolulu, Hawaii
It depends on what you want your blog for, Kay, but if you are using it to promote your business, and your customers are located there, then yes, you definitely want to use a Facebook button to share your posts on your profile.
Facebook is usually used for social stuff, but I know plenty of people who combine this with their business information, or only talk business, though usually the best place for this is in their fanpages or group pages.
So only put in this plug-in if you want people to share your posts on their Facebook profiles – but this does depend on the kind of friends you have in the first place!
I am very lucky to get this info from you. Your experience hepled me so much, thank you for sharing.
You're welcome Ashley, glad I could help!
You're welcome Ashley, glad I could help!