How to Add Social Share Buttons in WordPress (Beginner‘s Guide)

Want to increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your WordPress site?

Implementing social media sharing buttons is one of the easiest ways to make that happen.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll show you how to easily add beautiful social share buttons to your WordPress site.

After 15 years as a webmaster, I‘ve learned that well-placed share buttons can truly amplify the reach of your content.

Why Social Sharing Buttons Are Essential in 2024

Let‘s first understand why social sharing buttons should be an essential part of your WordPress site:

• 63% of website traffic comes from social media referrals according to Backlinko. Social shares drive targeted visitors.

• Web pages with share buttons get 2-3 times more clicks per social post according to Buffer. Increased click-through-rate improves overall visits.

• Articles with share buttons get 55% more comments according to Digg. User engagement goes up significantly.

• 89% of customers trust peer recommendations over official brand content as per Nielson. Social proof is more persuasive.

Clearly, the data shows that share buttons play a big role in driving real business results:

In my experience managing WordPress sites, I‘ve seen traffic and engagement shoot up after implementing social buttons.

So if you want to maximize the impact of your content in 2024, adding share buttons is a must.

Next, let‘s see how to actually implement share buttons in WordPress. I‘ll share examples based on my hands-on experience.

How to Easily Add Social Share Buttons in WordPress

When it comes to adding social media buttons in WordPress, you have two good options:

1. Using a Plugin (Recommended)

For most users, a dedicated WordPress plugin is the fastest way to add share buttons. It handles all the technical stuff for you.

Based on testing many options over the years, I highly recommend the Shared Counts plugin.

Here‘s why it stands out from other social sharing plugins:

• Comes with beautiful and customizable buttons that match any theme

• Allows displaying social share counts to show content popularity

• Uses efficient caching and querying to prevent slowdowns

• Offers floating share bar and shortcode options for flexibility

• Actively maintained and updated unlike abandoned plugins

The installation process is simple:

1. In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New

2. Search for "Shared Counts" and click Install Now

3. Activate the plugin once installed

Upon activation, share buttons will automatically appear on your posts.

But you‘ll want to customize the options:

• Go to Settings > SharedCounts

• Select the social platforms to display

• Choose button shape and theme placement

• Enable share counts (more on this later)

• Set up floating share bar if you want one

Here‘s a preview of how the buttons look out of the box:

The plugin makes adding customizable social buttons in WordPress a breeze!

2. Adding Buttons Manually

Alternatively, you can manually add social share buttons by inserting code snippets in theme files.

For example, to add Facebook and Twitter buttons you can use:

<!-- Facebook Share Button -->

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=<?php the_permalink(); ?>" 
  target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  Share on Facebook
</a>

<!-- Twitter Share Button -->

<a  href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=<?php the_title(); ?>&url=<?php the_permalink(); ?>"
  target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  Share on Twitter
</a>

Insert this code in header.php, footer.php, single.php etc based on placement.

The downsides of manually adding buttons are:

• You won‘t get share counts for social proof

• Harder to add or remove platforms in the future

• Need coding skills for customization

That‘s why most users prefer using a purpose-built plugin like Shared Counts for managing share buttons.

Displaying Social Share Counts

Simply adding social buttons is great, but displaying share counts can further boost engagement.

Share counts show how many times your content has been shared on social media.

According to Search Engine Journal, content with share counts can see upto 98% more clicks.

The share data indicates social proof that your content is popular. It encourages more visitors to like, comment, and share as well.

That‘s why displaying counts alongside your buttons is highly recommended.

With the Shared Counts plugin, enabling share counts is easy:

1. Go to Settings > SharedCounts in WordPress

2. Select SharedCount.com as the Count Source

3. Sign up on SharedCounts.com to get a free API key

4. Paste the API key in the field provided

5. Check options to show total counts and hide empty counts

And that‘s it! Your share buttons will now display up-to-date counts from different social platforms.

The plugin uses efficient caching and querying in the background to fetch counts quickly. So it won‘t slow down your site.

Driving more social shares should be a top priority. And displaying counts can help achieve that goal.

Adding a Floating Social Bar

Another effective way to boost sharing is by using a floating social bar.

A floating bar sticks to the browser window as users scroll through your content. This keeps the share buttons visible at all times.

To enable this, the Shared Counts plugin integrates with Sassy Social Share.

Simply install Sassy Social Share, and then:

• Go to Settings > Sassy Social Share

• Check the box to enable floating interface

• Select your preferred icon shape

• Choose the social platforms to display

• Customize the look and rearrange icons

This will nicely add a fixed social sharing toolbar on your site. You can use CSS to position it as desired.

Pro Tip: Make sure to disable the standard share buttons in Sassy Social Share settings if you already have them added using Shared Counts. You don‘t want duplicate buttons.

Floating bars make sharing more convenient by keeping buttons accessible. Give it a try!

Final Thoughts

Adding social share buttons to your WordPress site is a highly effective tactic to increase engagement and drive more traffic from social media.

As an experienced WordPress user, I find that the Shared Counts plugin provides the easiest way to add beautiful and functional share buttons.

It also allows displaying social share counts to indicate content popularity. And you can enable a floating share bar for greater visibility.

Implementing well-designed social buttons improves sharing, click-throughs, and overall user experience on your site.

I hope this guide helps you get started with adding social media sharing buttons in WordPress! Let me know if you have any other questions.