Why the Social Toolbar Plugin is a Must Have
Social Toolbar is a WordPress plugin for adding a customizable toolbar that includes social network icons, tweets, and share buttons. Why do you need it? We tried it out and think it’s a ‘must have’ for any WordPress site or blog. Here’s a rundown on all of the great features included and why we think you’ll love this plugin.
Note: Links to plugin within this article are not affiliate links.
- Social Toolbar adds social power to your WordPress site or blog. It will list your social networking profiles and share your posts and tweets right on your website so that all of your social networking moves are displayed in one location, reaching more viewers and driving more traffic to your social networking pages.
- It’s highly customizable. It look great right out of the box, but if you want a more custom look specific to your brand there are tons of options for icon colors, backgrounds, borders, fonts, and links to make it your own.
- It includes tons of social network icons. You’ll find networking site icons from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin, to name a few, but what’s really awesome is that if they don’t have an icon for your social networking site, you can upload a custom one (available in all three Pro versions).
- You can allow visitors of your site to share your posts or pages. You get to control how your content is shared on Facebook, Google, Twitter, Addthis, Linkedin, Stumbleupon, and Pinterest.
- Get more ‘likes’ on your fan page. Social Toolbar gives you the option to switch the ‘like’ button to connect to your Facebook Fan Page, increasing traffic to your page and getting more ‘likes’.
- Display your recent Tweet. Social Toolbar will display your most recent Tweet right on your site, and allows you to customize your icon color, background color, font, link color, and timestamp.
- Control over display settings. You get complete control over how your content is displayed—throughout your site, homepage only, category pages, even specify which posts/pages are displayed. And, with the Pro versions, you get to choose whether the toolbar is displayed at the top or bottom of your WordPress site or blog.
- Easy admin interface. Not only is the toolbar highly customizable, it really is easy to use. The settings are clearly labeled and separated into options panels, and it’s simple to set up your social networking profiles.
- Pro versions are available. If all this weren’t enough, there are three Pro versions available with even more features and control options.
Why You Should Go Pro
While there is a free version of Social Toolbar on the plugin repository, we think it’s worth the charge to upgrade to one of the three Pro versions. In addition to all of the above, the Pro versions have a number of added features that we think make upgrading worthwhile.
- Share buttons for Google+1, Addthis, Linkedin, StumbleUpon, and Pin It (Free version includes Facebook and Twitter only)
- Option for share buttons to share any URL
- 70+ social network profile icons
- Recent Tweet timestamp
- 10 color options for icons
- Email support
- Custom Icon upload—if your social favorite social network icon isn’t included, you can upload a custom one!
- Placement options for the toolbar on your site
There is also a language translation tool in the works that will be available only to Pro package users. With all of these added features for such a low price, why wouldn’t you go Pro?
The Pro Versions
There are three separate Pro product licenses available to fit your individual needs. Which one is for you? Here’s the lowdown on all three:
- Personal Single Use ($25)— This is for the user who has a single website accessed by one user. This package provides a standard license for use on one website.
- Personal Multi Use ($100)— This package is for the individual or business who will be using Social Toolbar on multiple sites by a single user. You can use this package on an unlimited number of sites, as long as the sites all belong to the user.
- Developer Package ($200)— This package includes all of the multi-site features of the Personal Multi Use package, but takes it a step further by allowing for use on sites belonging to AND developed by you. This is a great option for site developers who want not only to enhance their own sites, but their clients’ websites as well.
Now that you know how Social Toolbar can enhance your site, what are you waiting for? Try it out now.
