Content marketing and blogging are two of the best investments you can make for your business’s online presence right now, especially when it comes to connecting with new users and building a loyal following.

This is fantastic news, as it’s an accessible tactic for businesses of all sizes. The bad news: it can be extremely difficult to get your content in front of the right people.

Even if your content is truly outstanding, there’s so much competition online that it can be difficult to get users to find your blog posts. The best way to get more users to your site is to have other users share your content, so finding methods to encourage users to share your content on social media can be almost as important as the act of blogging itself.

Fortunately, there are a variety of amazing WordPress plugins that can drastically increase social sharing from your site.

1. Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress   

The first social sharing plugin every business should add to their site is a social sharing toolbar.

This does exactly what it sounds like, and you’ve definitely seen them all over different sites; they feature different clickable buttons that allow for one-click (or close to it) sharing to various platforms, and may appear at the top or alongside the page.

There are a ton of different amazing social sharing button plugins, but one of my favorites that I use on my own sites is the Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress plugin.

This plugin is highly customizable to fit your needs, including having 40 different platforms that you can choose to add for users to share to, and allowing you to choose the style of the social sharing buttons with 31 different templates. You can also choose from 22 different positions to place the sharing bar, including at the top or bottom of posts, in posts via shortcode, or appearing in a popup.

If you want users to share your content, placing this social share bar will make it insanely easy for users to share your posts across multiple platforms, increasing the likelihood that they’ll do so.

2. Social Profile Linking

Not only do you want users to share your content straight to media, you also want them to follow you on social media, too! This increases the likelihood that they’ll get more frequent exposure to your content on a regular basis as well as the possibility of them sharing more in the future.

The Social Profile Linking is a free WordPress plugin that helps increase your number of followers quickly and efficiently. It allows you to place a bar of social icons onto your site, and when users click on them, they’ll be taken to your individual profiles. There they can see more of your social content, subscribe to follow your content, and start sharing.

This plugin lets you choose what social icons and platforms to include, with options including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more; if you don’t want to add one, you simply don’t enter a URL for it during the easy setup. You can enter the social profile icons into your content via shortcode or place it on your site via a widget.

3. Pinterest “Pin It” Button

Pinterest has turned out to be an enormous force in marketing, and if you want your content to be shared, again and again, you shouldn’t be ignoring Pinterest. Seriously- the life and circulation of a pin are much higher than the life cycle of a Tweet or Facebook post.

The Pinterest “Pin It” Button plugin is hugely important for all businesses, especially if you have images or products that you want to be shared. The free version of this plugin lets readers select a picture when they’re pinning your content, though you can pre-select or choose default images that will show up first.

You can choose which Pin It button style you’d like, and you can hide the button on individual pages or posts. You can also place Pin It buttons anywhere on your site using a short code, and you can place it via a widget.

4. Simply Instagram

Like Pinterest, Instagram is a big deal for marketers right now, and with visual content being prioritized by both users and marketers, featuring this content on your site can increase social engagement and social sharing.

Simply Instagram is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to easily share some of your recent Instagram photos to your site online. This plugin has a ton of awesome features, including the option to use different photo viewers, the ability to create custom slide shows and the choice of what to display. You can even choose if you want to show the pictures’ captions in addition to just the images.

Having an Instagram gallery on your site is so important right now, especially if you can feature UGC (which you can use the “Photos I Love” to feature)—this isn’t an opportunity you don’t want to miss when you’re looking to increase social sharing.

5. Easy Twitter Feed Widget

Plenty of brands publish brief snippets of content or information more often on Twitter than they do on other platforms, but it can be difficult to get a ton of engagement. An excellent way to generate more conversations, boosting both visibility and social sharing, is to place a Twitter feed on your website.

The Easy Twitter Feed Widget is yet another free and easy to use plugin that can benefit all businesses. It allows you to place your Twitter feed into a widget on your site, sharing your most up to date Tweets and increasing Twitter engagement and social sharing in the process. This is ridiculously easy to use and doesn’t require you to create an API. You can customize the appearance of this Twitter feed, helping it fit naturally into your site while still standing out.

Final Thoughts

Social media users are more active and excited than ever to share great content, but providing them with truly great content is only one part of the equation.

The 5 social sharing tools I just showed you, make it easier for users to share your content on social media, increasing the reach and visibility of your content with little to no extra work on your part. These 5 wordpress plugins to increase social sharing are all easy to use, making them great solutions for businesses of all sizes.

What do you think? What are your favorite wordpress plugins to increase social sharing? Did I miss one of your favorites? Share your thoughts in the comments below!