Social Media Subscribe/Connect/Follow Buttons in Your Sidebar

Want to add your social network connection buttons to your website? Short on coding skills? The  no coding required,  Subscribe/ Connect/ Follow Widget plugin, it the simple way to set up buttons in the sidebar of your site for visitors to easily subscribe to email updates and to connect to Linked In, Facebook, Google + and Twitter. Honestly, this should have been a Rick’s Tip it is so fast and easy to do.

Giving your visitors a way to connect to your content is important to growing your social media network. The advantages of social media connections continues to grow as Google with Google + and personalized search and Bing search now being incorporated directly into Facebook. Being connected has become another fact in Search Engine Rankings. Stay on top of this trend by adding an attractive display of social connection buttons to your site.

Installing the Plugin

• In your dashboard open Plugins located in the left sidebar.
• Click on Add New. Type in Subscribe/Connect/Follow Widget and click Search Plugins.
• Select Install Now. – OK
• Activate the plugin.

Setting the Options

• Title: Type a title with a descriptive message
• Display format: Choose how your listings are displayed.
• Alignment for images: Default works great with the basic theme.
• Open links in: Choose to open links in the same window or a new window.
• Services: Choose a service and follow the example in the illustration to provide your necessary info.
• Note there are two feed option categories: Feedburner Feed and RSS Feed options.
  • To get the email envelope icon, I choose Feedburner Email Subscriptions and just entered my feed’s name.
  • To get the standard orange feed icon, I chose RSS Feed for Posts and entered my feed’s full Feedburner address (URL). If you installed the FD Feedburner Plugin you can copy your feed address from the Feedburner Configuration page located under Plugins in the sidebar.
• Rick will be posting a Rick’s Tip on how to locate your LinkedIn and Facebook public profile address (URL). In the meanwhile, the instructions are included near the end of this video.

Click Save – your connections/subscriptions are ready to go! Admire and test them in your home page sidebar.