5 Questions to Ask before installing a Social Share Plugin

Bloggers, businesses, E-commerce sites, forums – social share plugins are pretty much everywhere online these days. They've even popped up on other tech beyond just websites, like in apps or even some smart devices.

Social share plugins basically let you stick social share buttons onto different parts of your website.

So, why do businesses even bother with these share buttons? Content marketing is the answer! It helps them get their content seen by more people and connect with a wider audience.

Anyways, let's not get too deep into all the benefits and marketing stuff. Social9 actually started because we really wanted to stick to some core values and build them right into our product. That's what makes our plugins a bit different, and yeah, they're free too.

Back when we started, and even now, the questions that led to Social9's creation haven't really changed.

So, here are 5 questions you should totally ask yourself before picking a social share plugin.

1. Does it sell my data?

Privacy is a huge deal these days, right? (Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of ...) You know, like when you read about migraines, share it with a friend, and then suddenly you're getting emails from random people offering miracle cures?

A lot of companies get caught selling customer info, even personal stuff. (How Businesses Are Collecting Data (And What They're Doing With It)) That kind of privacy invasion is pretty concerning.

And then there's also making sure it follows country-specific data rules. European countries, for example, have some pretty strict data policies that software providers have to follow. (What is GDPR, the EU's new data protection law?)

If you're worried about privacy, definitely give the Terms and Conditions a read before you pick a plugin provider.

2. How many Share platforms does it support?

You never really know where your visitors might end up. It's common to think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest get the most shares, but did you know China doesn't even have Facebook? They've got their own social network called Weibo.

There are tons of examples like this that can prove that common thought wrong. Depending on your business, who you're trying to reach, and how they use things, that perception can totally change.

You've got the insights, you know your audience, you've done your research. Look for a provider that supports a good number of share buttons and keeps them updated.

3. Does it offer customization?

This is something we get asked about a lot in our support emails. A lot of our social plugin users want to be able to tweak our existing settings to give them more flexibility, and we're totally cool with that.

Most share plugins are pretty locked into their own features.

For Social9, we're all about giving you full control over customization – from button colors to size and even animations. Click here to see all the details.

4. Is it SEO Friendly?

SEO is a pretty big deal for getting traffic to your site. Anything that messes with your SEO efforts is basically poison for your site, and that includes social share plugins that make it hard for crawlers to do their job.

Some plugins are coded so poorly, or just built for function over SEO, that they actually stop search engine bots from rendering a page properly.

Another issue is when share plugins don't show the OG meta tags for the content being shared. If OG tags aren't displayed, it can really hurt your click-through rate on shared content because people don't get any specifics about what they're clicking on, and dynamically generated tags just aren't that reliable.

5. How Lightweight is it?

Website speed is important. (Did you know a 1-second delay in page response can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions? That's a pretty huge percentage for just a tiny bit of time. Just like other stuff on a website, social share buttons use up server resources and add to how long your page takes to load.

The best way to check this is by using website speed test tools which can analyze the page-speed of specific pages on your site.

By considering these questions, you can make a more informed decision and choose a plugin that aligns with your needs, just as these principles have guided our growth.

You should now have a clearer idea of how to pick the right social share plugin for your website. So before you hit download or install, definitely ask these 5 questions and make a smart choice.