Socialize Plugin

Socialize is an easy way to selectively add actionable social sharing buttons to your posts.

You can add sharing buttons in two places:

1. Inside the content (aligned left or right)
2. In a box below the content

The plugin was designed to make managing and adding actionable social sharing buttons easier and more efficient. Instead of adding new meta keys like other plugins require, there is an additional panel in your posts admin that allows you to select which sharing buttons you want to display. This is to encourage people to choose more relevant sharing buttons for their posts. By only displaying the more relevant and socially successful posts, you create a form of social proof that might encourage more shares, comments and subscriptions.

You are also provided with a box at the bottom of your posts that asks readers to subscribe and comment. This text can be edited in the ‘Socialize Admin Page’ and on individual posts/pages. You can also selectively display social sharing buttons in this box the same way you go about inserting sharing buttons in content. This is a great place to ask your readers to do something, like check out one of your services or to leave a comment and subscribe.

All buttons and call to action areas can be easily displayed and hidden at will. You can also change the call to action template and even overwrite the default CSS.

Features

• 12 popular buttons including Pinterest and Buffer
• Automatically insert Facebook and open graph data into head of site
• Easily change button order on individual pages
• Custom post type support
• Lots of display and placement options
• Bitly integration
• Actions and filter for developers

1. Upload the ‘socialize’ folder to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Tweak your settings under ‘Socialize’ in your settings panel
4. (optional) Choose some default sharing buttons to display on existing posts
5. Selectively display sharing buttons at your will

1. 

   Some buttons in the content

2. 

   The box displays below posts

3. 

   Default button set up, drag and drop to rearrange

4. 

   The settings panel

Can I change the background color of the ‘Call To Action’ box?

Of course your can. It’s one of the choice settings available to you in the settings panel.

What if I don’t want sharing buttons to show up?

Load the page/pages in question and make sure there are no checkboxes checked in the ‘Socialize’ panel of the post.

Can I hide the ‘Call To Action’ box on specific pages?

Load the page/pages in question and check ‘Hide Call To Action Box below this post’ in the ‘Socialize’ panel of the post.

How do I change @socializeWP to my own Twitter username?

Change the “Twitter Source” in the Socialize settings panel

Why are there two Facebook Buttons?

One is the official Facebook button and the other is the unofficial fbShare.me button. I prefer the fbShare.me button because it displays at full height when there are no shares where the official button shrinks when there are no shares.

Why do the buttons display in weird locations when I have a lot of buttons displayed?

Because you can only display as many buttons that will fit within the width of the ‘Call To Action’ box. Besides, displaying too many buttons defeats the purpose of this plugin. Try to display less than three (3) buttons in each area. This will increase page load time and will look a lot prettier.

The current version is 2.3 (2013.10.01)

2.3 (2013.10.01)

• Removed Digg button
• Fixed Pinterest button
• Added rules to fix new Pinterest counter values
• Added Bitcoin as a donation option
• Added Pocket button
• Make Socialize admin responsive

2.2.3 (2013.02.09)

• Added strip_tags() to og:title

2.2.2 (2013.02.09)

• Fixed a few bugs in admin

2.2.1 (2012.09.26)

• Fixed saving of default CTA

2.2 (2012.08.09)

• Added shortcode support
• Global update old posts/pages settings share settings
• Floating share bar
• Cleaned up admin
• Expanded API
• Cleaned up button styles

2.1 (2012.07.30)

• Added Pinterest
• Removed Google Buzz
• Changed location of settings and switched to tabbed navigation
• Added filters and actions for easy customization

2.0.6 (2011.08.27)

• Fixed bitly integration (sponsored by Bryan Eggers of VegasNews.com)

2.0.5 (2011.08.19)

• Switched to new Google Plus One button

2.0.4 (2011.07.14)

• Fixed assorted services javascript glitches

2.0.3 (2011.07.07)

• Added Google +1 button
• Slimmed down number of js calls

2.0.2 (2011.05.10)

• Fixed display issues with default buttons
• Cleaned up admin a bit

2.0.1 (2011.04.25)

• Fixed a few upgrade glitches
• New screenshots

2.0 (2011.04.22)

• Adopted Open Share icon (http://www.openshareicons.com)
• Optimized and organized code into classes
• Created new options pages
• Open graph support
• More design/display options
• Bitly integration
• Sortable buttons

1.3.1 (2010.11.30)

• Fixed LinkedIn javascript

1.3 (2010.11.30)

• Added LinkedIn button
• Cleaned up CSS
• Added option to not display ‘Call To Action’ box on pages

1.2.3 (2010.11.15)

• Fixed bug in socialize.php in socialize_metabox_action_admin(), variables not loaded properly

1.2.2 (2010.11.15)

• Added unneeded returns to readme.txt

1.2.1 (2010.11.15)

• Used wrong WordPress version in ‘Tested up to’ in readme.txt

1.2 (2010.11.15)

• Renamed ‘Alert Box’ to ‘Call to Action’ Box and edited readme.txt to match
• Re-designed settings page with collapsible drag and drop boxes to organize content
• Moved ‘Please Domate’ area in settings page
• Added Support area to settings page
• Added Tips and Tricks to settings page
• Added ‘Call to Action’ meta box to posts and pages so poster can change the call to action for a specific post/page
• Added official Twitter count button
• Added Topsy button
• Added Facebook Like button
• Added additional security to forms and data
• Added color picker to admin
• Updated header css with wp_enqueue_style

1.1.5 (2010.06.28)

• SVN glitch

1.1.4 (2010.06.25)

• Fixed issue where default Google/Yahoo Buzz options didn’t work

1.1.3 (2010.06.22)

• Fixed glith where alert box would only display if inline buttons were bing displayed
• Fixed CSS glitch with delicious inline button
• Removed unneccesary calls to displayButtons()

1.1.2 (2010.06.18)

• Added current_theme_supports(‘post-thumbnails’) to prevent error when no featured image

1.1.1 (2010.06.18)

• SVN glitch

1.1 (2010.06.18)

• Fixed Delicious button

1.0 (2010.06.18)

• Commented out javascript
• Added security to page meta box
• Added Yahoo Buzz and Google Buzz buttons
• Removed custom facebook button and replaced with official Facebook Share button
• Created Delicious button with save count
• Provided options to float in-content buttons to right or left
• Provided options to display buttons on different pages
• Added option to hide alert box on specific pages
• Fixed CSS
• Plugin now updates upon activation and keeps record of version
• Buttons can now be displayed in feeds

0.4 (2010.03.29)

• Added wp_is_post_revision() and wp_is_post_autosave() to prevent WordPress from trying to save empty data when autosaving
• Can now add buttons to pages

0.3 (2009.10.06)

• Fixed default options code

0.2

• Added http://www.fbshare.me widget
• Added backtype Tweetcount Widget
• Added new settings for Twitter Source
• Added default settings

0.1

• Plugin released