Anyone that reads my blog will know I hate hype and I love to pick apart claims that are overly optimistic. With that I really would encourage ANYONE WHO READS THIS POST and who publishes a website or blog, to stop writing or posting their daily content and install these 3 plugins. These 3 WordPress plugins are not just about increases social media but rather how together they can increase page views, decrease bounce rate, drive traffic, and increase targeted clicks where you want them. The goal of those tasks together would clearly be getting visitors to perform the action that you want them to once they are their. That comes down then to the value you build in the offer and the overall copy of the landing page where they are sent.
Try installing these 3 WordPress plugins on your websites or blog and then wait 1 week to measure what happens. Then leave me a comment and offer me your honest feedback. My experience has been THEY WORK and they work well. Also just b/c a plugin is new clearly has nothing to do with how good it is. Two of these three plugins are more than 3 years old. Anyway, here are my three favorite wordpress plugins for 2012 as far as both driving new traffic with social media and getting the most activity and results from that traffic.
1. The Best Social Media Plugin off 2012 just has to be HelloBar.
Hello Bar Plugin – The Best Social Media Plugin of 2012 – It’s all about CONVERSIONS! (RESULTS)
This plugin is free but for anyone who has a widely read blog it will cost them $ 4.95 to go pro as they’ll blow through the free clicks within a few hours. Hello Bar is amazing for drawing readers eyes where you want them and the conversion ratio boost you will get from it is well worth the 5 bucks, as long as your landing page / offer is good. The funny thing is the concept Hello Bar employs is probably the most profoundly simple one you can think of! It’s like a red table tent for a lemonade stand that says, ” Hi, LOOK AT ME!”
Hello Bar will simply add a bar that simply says… hello,______________________________(Your text). It has a whole host of options such as colors and link text that you can customize! That’s it! BUT IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM! This little gem should not be underestimated. It got results for me very quickly and I have since installed it on 4 or 5 sites of both mine and for customers. No wonder why some of the biggest names in blogging are now using hellobar. This plugin is all about converting that social media traffic you get. I’d argue that converting traffic is often more difficult than getting the traffic in the first place and that is why in my review, it’s clearly one of the most valuable social media wordpress plugins and my favorite find of 2012.
2. The second best Social Media WordPress Plugin for 2012 has to be Tweet Old Post! Are you asking, “How do I Automatically tweet old posts from my wordpress blog” (Without pre-planning a tweet) If so this is probably the easiest way online to do that! This plugin is no secret to anyone whose been marketing online a while, as it’s been around for a few years. However, I think many people are now giving it a second look based on the logic that if you can get rid of some of the other tools by using just wordpress plugins, your work is more efficient. SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE!
Automatically tweet old posts from my wordpress blog
It’s just so simple and quick to use and if you limit the tweets you allow the plug-in to send out, to the most recent ones, it avoids the need to worry so much about optimal tweet timing.
Timing issues, at least for me are one of the biggest challenges I face. I can’t always be tweeting and I prefer an easy way to get tweets on recent posts sent out every few hours. Planning tweets ahead takes too much time in my view. This solution gives me just enough control without having too many options and too much hassle! Tweet Old Post simply connects through your plugin options page inside wordpress. You simply connect it to your Twitter and tweak your settings and then WALA, every few hours or according to your settings your tweets, links, and hashtags go out. LOVE IT! Want more info on the Tweet Old Post Plugin? Check out Francisco Perez’s blog for a detailed explanation on hot it works. TwittNotes.com also covers Twitter Tools, Tips and Software in detail and counts me as a reader.
Tweet Old Posts WordPress Plugin Latest Version 3.3.3
3. The 3rd best social media plugin really has little to do with social media directly but more with getting people to click-through to more content in hopes that this will attract them to a product review or a post that they will either share or comment on. It’s a tool to decrease your bounce rate and get more page views. Think of it as oil in smoothly running social media engine. Without it the engine won’t get as many miles in the long run and you’ll have a lot of breakdowns in the meantime. By adding a New York Times Style Flyout, simply a plugin that will produce a pop-up or slider in the bottom right hand corner of your blog. (Or left hand) people will be reminded and shown more content when they scroll to the bottom of your blog. Just having a link to a page 2 or link to related products is not doing enough. I should mention that there are a few new wordpress plugins in private beta now that are improvement over this wordpress plugin but private beta does nothing for your traffic RIGHT NOW. Right now you should install this plugin. Here is a silent video that shows you what your blog or site will look like after you have it installed. You’ll also get the idea if you click on a few of our most recent posts themselves.
Anyway, the plugin is called either a New York Times Article Flyout, Previous Post Animated Notification or more commonly upPrev. You can download upPrev here.
Read our 10 Favorite WordPress Plugins Posts
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Have a plugin that you think should be on this list? Suggest it below.
