What it's All About
Social Essentials is a WordPress plugin that mainly does two things:
- It allows you to easily add social sharing buttons to your posts and/or pages.
- It provides you an overview of your social sharing stats, across all of your posts and pages.
Plugins that add social sharing buttons are a dime a dozen, but we've taken things a bit further with Social Essentials. We've created an very easy-to-use interface where you can customize and style your buttons. Change the button order with drag-and-drop, pick small or large icons, automatically insert the icons at the beginning and/or end of your posts, pages and your homepage. In addition, you can easily add a call to action, such as "Share this Post!" next to the icons, to call attention to the buttons and increase your visitors' social engagement.
More importantly, with this plugin, you'll get an overview of your social sharing stats. You'll easily be able to see all the sharing stats for facebook, twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon and Pinterest, for each of your most recent posts and pages. Plus, you can see your top most successful posts, ranked by how much they've been shared across all those networks. This will help you determine what kind of content has the most viral potential, on your site and what topics to create more content about.
Where to Get Social Essentials
You can download Social Essentials from the WordPress plugins directory. Once you've downloaded the .zip file, unpack it and upload it to the wp-content/plugins/ folder on your server.
And easier method is to log in to your WordPress admin area, go to "Plugins" and "Add New" and then simply type "social essentials" into the search field. The first result that comes up will be this plugin and you can then install it simply by clicking on "install now":
Setup
Note that when you first install Social Essentials, all the button options are deactivated. This means you can install and activate it and then set up the type and style of buttons you want to display, before anything goes live on your site.
There are two settings you need to activate and save, before buttons appear on your site:
1) Select at least one button to display.
2) Select at least one of the display options.
Please note that especially on the homepage, the automatic insertion of the social buttons might not work. There are so many different themes with so many different homepage styles, we can't accommodate for them all.
Alternatively, you can insert the buttons within the contents of any post or page, by using this simple short code:
Please Share this Post!
Or you can edit your theme's PHP files directly and add this code snippet:
<?php echo do_shortcode('Please Share this Post!
'); ?>
You can also use these short codes to insert large or small buttons, independently from the settings in the main setup menu:
Please Share this Post!
Please Share this Post!
Here's an example of the buttons within a post's or page's content:
Please Share this Post!
How to Use Social Essentials
The stats mostly explain themselves. I recommend using the stats to figure out the "socially hot" topics on your site. If you have a post that was especially enthusiastically shared, it might be worth expanding on that topic and it might also be worth expanding, updating and re-publishing the post at a later date.
As for the social sharing buttons, I recommend not adding all of them to your site. We've already kept the selection of buttons to what we believe is a reasonable minimum, because we know that it's better to have buttons for the best, most popular, highest-traffic social sites than to have hundreds of buttons for sites no one's ever heard about.
In general, the more options you present to your readers, the less likely they are to take any action at all, at a certain point. I recommend using between three and four of the six available buttons. Of course, it's up to you. Different buttons make more or less sense for different types of sites, depending on the topics you cover and the types of content you publish.
If you haven't used buttons before, simply look at your stats and see what social sites people have been using to spread your content on, of their own accord. Or, if you previously used a plugin or widget with dozens of sharing options, check the stats to see which ones were used the most. Then, set Social Essentials to only display those buttons.
Updates and Bugs
Several updates are planned. If you have suggestions or if you've found a bug, please leave a comment below! Thanks!
I have installed your plugin, PROBLEM! I can’t see where to place buttons on my page!!! Help
:?
Hi Marney,
Go to “Social Essentials” -> “Setup”, in your WordPress admin dashboard. One of the option fields is “Display Options”, where you can tick boxes to choose where the buttons should display on your site. Save your changes, then check your site again and you should see the buttons.
If you’ve done this and the buttons aren’t showing, please let me know and share a link to a page where this is happening. If it’s a bug, we’ll try to fix it as quickly as possible. :)
My buttons are not showing up either :o( and i’ve saved all the settings.
The SE plugin seems to be perfect and the user interface is really cool, but for some reason i cannot see any buttons on the web although I ticked and saved everything needed from the setup … and saved it. The theme is Ascetica 0.1.6, Galin Simeonov … Can it be, that the theme does not support this plugin?
Hi Juss,
Just tested it with this theme. Works for me:
I’ll send you an email, so you can send me some more details and we can hopefully figure this out. :)
having the same problem…. can’t see the icons on the page. http://www.superiorgaragesale.com
Let me know if you find a solution.
Hi Daryl,
Thanks for your feedback! On the current version, we are having some issues with the icons on homepages and pages (i.e. wordpress pages rather than posts). I’ll hopefully have an update by tomorrow, that addresses these issues.
Any word on the blank icons? uploaded today May 30th—no Facebook icon?
Please advise. Thanks
Same problem here Shane.
I can get it working, but the icon for twitter is missing and G+ has nothing there at all.
Hi Shane,
I got your plug-in loaded up and the icons are where they need to be but on the Home page, the share button shows a consistent count of 112. This doesn’t seem to be happening on anything except the posts visible on the home page.
I do have a Pinterest plug-in from another source already installed in case you think that might be causing a conflict.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi Jamie,
Haven’t seen that before. Perhaps it’s getting the total share count rather than the individual share count, on this page. Adding it to the “bugs that need fixing” list.
Thanks… I’ll keep my eye out for the fix.
Beyond that, the whole plug-in was really well thought out in my opinon.
Later,
Jamie
Hi,
I can’t get the buttons to appear on my site. When I post something, I see them in the preview screen but not when I publish it.
Nevermind, I just had to check the “below content on homepage” button.
Thanks for the plugin, it is simple and just what I needed to replace a previous social plugin on our website that was buggy. I have only one problem though, when you go to tweet a link from any of our posts it is includes “?div class=” after the title and before the link. for example, copy pasted from the formatted tweet:
“James Cameron And The Dawn Of DeepTruth?div class= http://deepseanews.com/2012/03/james-cameron-and-the-dawn-of-deeptruth/ via @DeepSeaNews”
I can’t seem to figure out where to change that. Any thoughts? Additionally, when searching your style sheets, I found a misspelling of checkboxes in a few places as “checkbocxes”.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Kevin,
It looks like an issue with the h1 tag. In your posts, the h1 tag is wrapped around the title text and a div containing an avatar image:
The h1 tag should end right after the title text:
The twitter button is trying to grab everything in the h1 tag, but it gets stuck half-way through the code.
EDIT: So, apparently my theme doesn’t support the code-tag in comments, so I had to use images instead. Sorry for the mess, if you checked before.
Thanks so much for the prompt reply! I can see exactly what you mean in the source code. I’ve tried looking through my theme’s (Atahualpa) php and css files for “post_headline” and “avatar” but cannot seem to pinpoint a way to move that header tag. The plugin we use for to show the avatars in our posts (Display Avatar) is ridiculously simple too and I can’t find anywhere there to change the code. Do you have any advice or suggestions? Cheers, Kevin
So, the avatar next to the title is being inserted by a plugin? If so, then I assume that’s where the problem is. Not sure how to fix it, though.
Could you try taking the plugin code, deactivating the plugin and inserting the code manually, in the single-post.php and css files?
Hi Shane, on my Blog the Plugin looks not fine. Can you have a look? I think it`s a CSS Problem ?
I’ll send you an email.
Great plugin and exactly what I was looking for. However, the icons (large and small) always display vertically. When I preview them they are horizontal but not on the page.
Any ideas?
Hi Bob,
What happens if you change the alignment from float-left to left or center?
Hi Shane
It makes no difference what setting I select. There must be something overwriting it. But what?
I’ve checked your site and I can’t tell what’s causing this, sorry.
Hi Shane. Great plugin. One question – I would like to display the buttons elsewhere in my template. Can that be done?
Awww. sheesh. I see it now… *blush*
Did you get it to work?
With either the short code or the php code, you should be able to display the buttons pretty much anywhere. :)
Plugin appear on the posts not on the page. I use the twenty eleven theme the site is http://www.studiorighetti.it/index.php (working in progress).
Thank you
Looks like a bug. We’ll get that fixed in the next update. In the meantime, you can use the short code or PHP code to add the buttons to a page.
I can’t drag and drop the social media buttons in setup. Besides that I’m having troubles giving the buttons more padding. Because now buttons overlap and it’s not nice to see.
Can you show me a link to a page of yours where you’ve added the buttons?
I’ve made a screenshot, because the wordpress page is still under construction and I have a pluggin activated for a temporary overlay;
http://www.nathanlewis.nl/images/Spacing.png. And I can’t drag and drop because of my php memory I guess, but I’m not sure. The thing that I need the most is the extra padding between the buttons.
Hi Shane! Thank you for this great plugin. It goes unmatched in functionality. I just have one small issue. The Facebook Share image wont load. It just displays a text link. Every other bookmark displays properly except that one. Do you know what the problem could be? Visit my site to see what I mean. Thanks
If you set a featured image for a post, then the plugin is set to use that as the share image. If there is no featured image, then it’s up to facebook to try and find images on your page, which doesn’t always work. I checked a few of your posts and facebook seems to be able to grab one of the article images in most cases, when I try the button.
Hi Shane – thanks for sharing! I was able to get the plug in to activate on my home page, tested it – it works! But I also activated the plug in on the below content on posts and pages too. Not showing up on posts and pages. I’m using the ancient 2010 Twenty Ten 1.2 – maybe why?
I’ve tested it and it works on Twenty Ten 1.3. Maybe not on 1.2, though.
You’ll still be able to insert it via short code or PHP code, though.
Hi shane, i just installed the social essentials plugin but when i go to set up it only allows me to put in my twitter user name at the top, my question is how do i input my user name for my other social media sites if their different from the twitter ID ??
thanks!!
The other usernames aren’t necessary for the sharing process. With twitter, the username field is used to append “via @yourusername” to the end of the automatically generated tweet text, when you click on a button.
On something like a facebook share or a stumble thumbs-up, there’s no username reference that can be inserted anywhere.
duh, im in idiot. it was clearly way to early for me to be thinking i guess lol, thanks a lot. sorry to waist your time! great plugin by the way!
Hi Shane. Love the program. The facebook likes and facebook shares are not showing up right on their labels. It shows an inflated number on both. If i go in and look at the stats it says 34 likes and 12 shares but if you look at the page it says 87 likes and 87 shares. Am i doing something wrong?
http://zombieapocalypse-survivalguide.com/blog/?p=5
I can’t figure out what’s going wrong, there.
I just checked again and it looks like you’re using a different plugin now?
Using the “Small icons” option, the Google Plus icon is 15px, whereas the others are 20px high.
Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/8YkVa.png
Is there an easy fix for this?
Ah I see, you pull the “small” (15px version) from google. Their “medium” is 20px.
If anyone is interested, I fixed it by changing line 314 in the social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php
I just hardcoded “medium” for the size.
$html .= ”;
to
$html .= ”;
Thanks! Didn’t know they had a medium button as well. I’ll be fixing that in the next version. :)
can’t seem to get it to work with any of your methods, (via setup, editing the php of the shortcode)
I am using Kingsize, maybe that’s the problem
I am still using the testpage as my dns setup hasn’t happened yet
http://www.spaingaroo.com.php5-3.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/
If you have any ideas, I’d love to get this to work
I meant to say (via setup, editing the php *or* the shortcode)
It’s working on posts, I see now. I really want it on my gallery page though.
I’ll send you an email and hopefully, we can have a closer look at the issue.
im having a problem with the facebook button not showing… =(
its showing on safari and firefox ut not showing on chrome which is my default browser
Can you provide a link to the site where it’s not working?
here is the site….
http://www.dcfotograb.com/
in chrome i cant see the facebook button but on safari it shows up…
The facebook button shows up for me, in Chrome.
Might be some caching issue, on your side. Open an new window in incognito mode and check out your site (that will ignore any previous caching). If it shows up in incognito mode, everything’s fine.
its showing on incognito mode… but its not on my browser. i diable all my extensions and still its not showing up. =(
http://twitpic.com/94e0bx/full
It should be fine, in that case.
Try doing a hard reset on a page, by pressing F5. I think that reloads completely, which the refresh button on the browser doesn’t do, but I’m not sure.
Shane means ctrl + f5 for a hard refresh btw
That’s the one! Thanks!
Hi Shane
Great plugin. I’ll be recommending it to my students from here on. How about adding a feature to allow you to specify small or large buttons in each location. I love to have small buttons at the top to make them less intrusive, but large at the bottom to get their attention before they leave. Currently I use two plugins to achieve that.
Hi Andy,
Interesting suggestion!
We could probably add variables to the shortcode and php code, so that you could add, say, social_essentials_small or social_essentials_large, to have different sizes in different places.
I’m putting it on the to-do list! :)
Thanks dude!
I am cunfused though? With so many social share plugins
availabel how do we know which is the best for our senario?
I use Sociable on a couple sites, and then there is Comment Luv,
Facebook Like, and I got one from Cossack on the Warrior, etc, etc.
How can we make sure it isn’t too much and how do we know we made
the right choice?
Thanks!
Ryan K
One of the reasons I made Social Essentials is that with it, you can check what kind of shares you get the most of. You could, for example, have all buttons displayed on your site for a while and then see which types of shares you tend to get. Then, deactivate the buttons that are rarely used.
The reason I recommend this is because you don’t want to overwhelm your visitors with too many choices. But instead of just guessing what to show and what to hide, you can now measure it and know for sure.
Hi Shane,
I am using the FlexSqueeze 1.5 theme and the plugin works only on posts, but pages and homepage don’t show the share buttons.
I hope you don’t mind if I decline to modify the theme php files; this is not just because of my relative ignorance, but rather more to do with version control. In the past I had done manual adjustments to the theme, them forgot about it when I upgraded. Obviously I lost my mods and had to retrofit code.
May I toss an item to the wish list and ask for linkedin sharing in a future version?
Many thanks
Homepages can be tricky, but the button showing on pages should be sorted in the next update.
And I’ll see if we can add linkedin as well.
I’m going to chime in and add my desire for a LinkedIn button to make this superb plugin practically perfect!
A little bit cheeky, I know, but I’d second that request for a LinkedIn button – useful for B2B marketers, contractors, and anyone building a career profile online.
Thanks dude!
I am cunfused though? With so many social share plugins
availabel how do we know which is the best for our senario?
I use Sociable on a couple sites, and then there is Comment Luv,
Facebook Like, and I got one from Cossack on the Warrior, etc, etc.
How can we make sure it isn’t too much and how do we know we made
the right choice?
Thanks!
Ryan K
Hi Shane.
Good to see you are using your design skills with Social Essentials.
I currently use the Socialize plugin. While I think the stats in Social Essentials is a great feature, the only thing stopping me from moving to Social Essentials at this stage is that I like the ability in Socialize to override settings on an individual post/page basis.
For example, on some pages, I don’t have any social buttons and on other pages I have different call to action text.
Do you think it would be possible to add an override feature to Social Essentials?
Cheers
Peter
Hi Peter,
I think that’s something we can implement, yes. I’ll talk to the developers about this, tomorrow.
Hi Shane
Been looking for a decent social plugin lately, and all have been a bit of a let-down in some way, but this looks brilliant! Plenty of customizability but done in an elegant way so that the options aren’t overwhelming.
Will be giving it a go soon – thanks a lot!
Benedict
Hi Shane,
Plugin looks great…just a couple of questions.
1. Will your updates include additional sites…LinkedIn springs to mind? I realise you cannot have them all but LinkedIn seems to be pretty huge.
2. Will there be a facility to print the report on stats. This would be useful to add to and offline customer when working on their overall strategy?
Keep up the great work!
Gordon
Hi Gordon,
We’ll try to include both of those suggestions in future updates.
Hi,
I don’t know if you have any experience of thesis but the plugin is working fine on the post pages but not the homepage.
Within thesis there is an open hook feature for the homepage but it will not accept the php code.If you have any ideas I would be grateful.
thanks,
Brian
Hello Brian,
Do you have a link to that site, so I cold take a look at the source code? Thanks.
Hi again here is the link http://www.fleapillfordogs.net/
Thanks
Brian
Hi Shane,
Installed the plugin. Looks great, thank you! What a great idea to not only have sharing buttons but track the activity as well.
One Problem: I selected the Google+ button to display along with others. It doesn’t seem to always show in Firefox. Sometimes it does, most often it doesn’t.
Any suggestions?
Hi Louise,
That’s strange. It’s not showing up for me, either. It’s in the source code, but doesn’t show on the page.
Have you tried a different alignment to see if that makes a difference?
Yes I did try moving it around, but with same results. I also thought it may have been related to my being logged into Google+, so logged out. But that didn’t make a difference.
Hi Louise,
Have you done anything to resolve this outstanding issue? When I check the pages on your site in my version of Firefox (3.6.7), I can’t seem to replicate the issue that you’re having for some reaons?
No Paul I haven’t.
I am running Firefox’s latest version 11.0.
Hi Shane,
I wrote last week about the inflated numbers on the FB Like and Share buttons and you said you’d add it to the bugs list. In reading through some of the other comments, I noticed that Brian was having trouble with his Home page vs his Post pages, like me. He is using Thesis as am I. Something in the theme itself?
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi Shane,
I’m really excited about the plugin, I love the layout. However, it is not showing up on my site. Admittedly I’m no web developer, so I am not really sure what to check. Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks, Michelle
Hi Michelle,
Are you referring to the site that’s linked to from your comment?
If so, can you confirm what display options you are using in the social essentials setup? Also, which buttons have you selected to display?
As it stands, I can’t see any of the code in any of your pages which makes me believe that maybe you’ve got it set to posts instead of pages or something like that?
Can you tell me what option(s) you activated for displaying the buttons? I.e. “before content on posts”? Or using the shortcode?
Thanks.
I’ve installed your plugin on my wordpress site and I am using all the buttons except stumbleupon and it seems the Pinterest button never aligns with the rest of the buttons no matter the order or the alignment. I have it setup the way I want it but that one button goes a line down right below another button. Anything I can do?
I can’t figure out what’s causing that, from your site.
We’ll be releasing a new updated version shortly, where the displaying of the buttons has been tweaked. Perhaps the update will fix this issue.
Hey there, I’ve added the short code to this page and it’s not showing up: http://terraflamehome.com/collections/dwell/
Help?
any help would be great…
Did you try adding it via short code?
If the automatic insertion doesn’t work, that’s the best alternative.
yes, the short code is on top of that page that was linked above
I can’t see the buttons showing up in the source-code anywhere. I’ll send you an email and maybe we can figure something out.
Hello,
This plugin seems to be great (having stats of the social sharings is a good idea !) but when i try it, the buttons are bunk so the number of likes, tweets… is not fully visible.
Theme used is Twentyeleven.
Hi BAC,
Could you provide me with a link where this occurs. Also what browser are you using?
Thanks!
Paul
I enabled it here : http://www.gameandgraph.com
(please tell me when it’s ok for you, i use another plugin to replace, pending that this one displays correctly)
PS: i tried whith Chrome and Firefox, same bug for both.
I see what you mean. It seems like that’s caused by the text on the twitter button being different.
A quick fix would be to change the order of the buttons, so that the twitter one shows last.
We are currently working on an update that will include language options as well as options for setting the margins between buttons.
Also, if you’re familiar with CSS, you could add a right-margin to div.sebutton, which should also help out.
Well, i tried to change the order, but it’s the same problem with the FB and Twitter buttons.
I’m not familiar with CSS, so if i don’t know exactly what to put in it, i will not be able to do.
Just checked your site again. It looks fine to me. Here’s what I’m seeing:
mm… This is what i see with Chrome : http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/663189social.jpg
and with Firefox : http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/808896socialff.jpg
A friend tell me he see the same thing too.
I see. The button language on facebook seems to change automatically.
Try adding this to the custom CSS field on the setup screen:
.se_button{margin-right:12px;}
You can adjust the number of pixels from 12px to something else, if this is too much or too little.
Thanks, it’s better, but when count as a two-digit number, it’s always cut even if the next button isn’t bunk.
Like this: http://uprapide.com/images/invite/social2.jpg
Hi,
Thanks for the responses.
Paul, I have the display options for ‘below content on pages’ ‘below content on homepage’. I also had it for ‘below content on posts’ as I may add posts in the future. I have the G+, Twitter, FB share, Pinterest and Stumbleupon buttons checked.
Shane, I believe my response to Paul answers the question? I didn’t use any short code.
Another thing to mention, on the set up page, right side, I have 3 warnings from you…about file access, suitable wrapper and invalid argument…
Hi Michelle,
Could you copy the warning into the comments box so we can see what they’re all about? We’ll have the devs take a look at that for you.
Thanks!
Hi Shane, I’m a beginner and very happy that I’ve found your social essential, your tutorial and you – I’m using wp with a responsive themetrust-theme. I did the set up exactly how you’ve explained it – selected buttons to show as well as display options. Anyway, the icons don’t show up on my site (nowhere ;/) – I’ve also tried it with copying the php-code into the theme editor (stylesheet) – nothing again. Doesn’t it work with that theme or is there anything I could do wrong? Many, many thanks!!!
Hi Sabine,
I noticed that on this page: http://www.sabinefalk.com/2012/04/02/ac-art-in-kl/ The icons are showing up. Did you do something to fix it?
Paul, Thank you for your response. The answer is yes and no ;// I’ve changed the display options (at 1st I didn’t select “below content on posts” only “above content on pages/homepage” – they show up on the post, but unfortunately not on the pages… any idea? btw: for a beginner your site is very cool, one of the very few that doesn’t make me feel like a complete idiot – thanks!
Display on pages should be working with the next update (and that’s going to happen in just a few days). There’s currently a bug in there, which makes the display on pages option not work, in many cases.
Shane, I am trying to figure out how to move Social Essentials above Outbrain on my site
So my goal is to have the following:
POST
SOCIAL ESSENTIALS
OUTBRAIN
I scanned through the plugin’s code but I don’t know where/how you tell WP where to insert the plugin.
Can you help me out here?
Hi Gregor,
I’m sure we can do this by using the php code. I’ll send you an email, so we can get this sorted out. :)
I hope this plugin works for me. I like it. But right now, when i add it to posts, it shows this message on my homepage in my ‘latest news’
span.fb_share_count_top.fb_share_no_count,span.fb_share_count_nub_top.fb_share_no_count..
Any ideas how to get rid of this?
This looks like a conflict, caused by the tabs. I see that the line appears within the tabbed content and there’s probably a conflict between Social Essentials and the plugin or feature of the theme that creates those tabs.
Do the icons work outside of the tabs, on a “normal” post?
On the page it works fine, but on the homepage it shows that extra code stuff. So is there any possible solution?
yes, everything seems fine except on homepage
Hello Shane,
Love the plug-in, but currently it’s not working on my blog posts. I’ve gone through all of your procedures. Can you take a look at this? Thanks!
http://www.elliefunday.com
Bests,
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
I’ve had a look at the source code on your site and I can’t actually see any of the social essential plugin being loaded. Did you take the plugin out when you couldn’t get it working? If not, it seems there has been a problem with the activation.
The facebook button is too narrow. It cuts off like counts greater than two digits. Something is inserting inline css code (I don’t know what), so this happens even in preview mode within the plugin.
Oh, that’s the same problem i have now (see my above comments).
Hi Zach – what language is your facebook “like” and “share” button in?
We are working on a fix for this that will be ready very shortly. In the meantime, I’m working on a CSS snippet that will help you overcome this.
OK there will be an update to the plugin to fix this…
If you want to fix it immediately then this is what you’ll have to do:
1. Go to plugins
2. find social essentials
3. edit social-essentials.class.php
4. then find this:-
5. change the “72″ to the width that you want to use. I recommend somewhere around 90.
This is the temp hack until the new version of the plugin is released.
Let me know how you get on!
Oh, it works fine !
But now, for me, buttons are not shown it pages. Before i change social-essentials.class it was shown. Think your next update will fix this ? Or is there something to fix it pending the next version ?
Got an example link I can see BAC?
Hi Paul,
I’m a bit nervous that posting may be exposing some confidential info?
Hi Michelle – no problem – sending you an email now so you can send me the warning privately.
Hi Shane,
Can I unplug from the traffic? I was expecting to just hear back from my own questions to you.
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi Jamie,
There should be an unsubscribe function in the comment field. However, you don’t need to do anything, as I’ve already unsubbed you from further comments. :)
Hi Shane,
I was wondering if there is any way to adjust the SPACING between the buttons.
I want to make the buttons a little less crowded and separate them by a small amount of space.
Thanks!
Chase
Hello Chase,
For now, you can add the following line to the custom CSS box on the setup screen:
.se_button{margin-right:12px;}
Change “12px” to whatever you want the spacing to be.
In the next update (due later this week), there will be a simple interface for adjusting the spacing.
Sounds good, thanks Shane!
Hi Shane,
Great plugin man! But in my case there’s seem to be a problem with de pinterest button. When the popup box appears it dosen’t “grab” any of the images of the post so i can choose and pin. It appears blank, so i cant finish the pin.
Here’s the link to the post: http://donabaronesa.com/website/?p=172
Please help me!
Thks,
Pablo.
Hi Pablo – the devs are looking at this for you – should be fixed in next update which is due very shortly (possibly later on today).
pin not working
We’ve made a change to the pinterest button that should fix this issue. Update will go live today.
Good afternoon, Shane. I have disappointing news; I upgraded to version 1.1 and still no joy on Pinterest popup screen.
When I click the ‘Pin it’ button, the popup displays with no image set. I enter description info and the ‘Pin it’ button is enabled but still no image set.
I deactivated and activated the plugin after upgrade.
I restarted both browsers.
I’m running:
* Mac OS X 10.7.3
* Safari 5.1.5
* Firefox 11.0
* WordPress 3.3.1
Thanks
Mark
Sorry to hear that. I’ll try to get this sorted asap.
Shane, I’m so happy to have come across Social Essentials. When I saw the video then installed the plugin I felt fairly comfortable that I took the right action.
Now, after seeing how engaged you’ve been with your users and how responsive you are to problems, I know I made the right decision. Looking forward the Pinterest fix.
I’ll be checking out your other products as well.
Thanks.
Mark
Hi there,
I’t is a nice plugin, but I’ve got a problem with the PHP Code.
In normal posts it works, but when I put in on Pages it does not show anything. Is there a way to fix that or do I have to activate something over the functions.php?
Greetings
Alex
Oh ok,
I updated to 1.1, but know, when I use the Code, he is cutting of the whole theme on the point of using-
Reinstalled……working, sorry for posting…..
The Margin option is a bit genius….thanks a lot for that great plugin
Thanks for the update! Glad it’s working. There might be an issue with the auto-update. If there is, we’ll get that sorted in the next update and push it out quickly.
Look’s like a great tool. I wasn’t happy with the plug-in I had on my WordPress site. Thank you.
p.s. – great webinar on Saturday, Apr. 7th/12.
Desipte Shane’s bug warning, I just gave it a try. Looks and works fantastic! Only problem I could find is that the GOOGLE+ and STUMBLEUPON buttons aren’t showing up. I’ll give it an update and try again mid to late next week.
thanks-a-heap!
Jim
My previous problem has been fixed with newest update! Thanks much!
Hi Shane,
Just tried your latest update and got a whole face full of fatal errors. I deactivated it and everything came back so that’s alright but can you tell me how to see if we can make this work?
I am running Thesis on WordPress 3.3.1
Thanks,
Jamie
Jamie, I had the same issue with the new update. I just deactivated the plugin then reactivated it and all was wel. Hope this helps you.
That’s good to know. Of course, it shouldn’t be necessary to “restart” the plugin like that, so I’ll try to get that fixed.
Hi Shane,
I’m trying to use your plugin directly in php theme with the code but I have some problem.
I don’t active any “display option” in admin panel but social bottons appear both in my custom position and above content on post.
To test, I check “below content on post” but social bottons are always in my custom position and above content on post.
So I remove the code from theme and now the social buttons appear in the right position for each display options.
Am I doing something wrong or is a bug?
Thanks for your help,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
Can you provide a link to your website?
Not working for me. Uninstalled and reinstalled but getting fatal errors.
Fatal error: social_essentials::generate_buttons() [social-essentials.generate-buttons]: The script tried to execute a method or access a property of an incomplete object. Please ensure that the class definition "Margins" of the object you are trying to operate on was loaded _before_ unserialize() gets called or provide a __autoload() function to load the class definition in —–/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 355
Great plug in….any way to turn off the counts for twitter and pin shares?
Hello Britt,
Not in the current version. I’ll see if we can add this in an update.
Love the plugin and this would be a great option to add!
Hi Shane,
yes, please make it possible to remove the count! Love your work…
Tnx,
Wouter
You have so many cool features in the plugin, but the one that is missing is the ability turn off the counts, which results in four options, large or small, show counts or not. So help out Britt and me on this one :)
Hi I installed this plugin which is great by the way, but the next day all of my pages had an error and all of my content was gone. When I disabled the plugin everything was back to normal, what gives?
the shortcode [social_essentials] is working fine in the posts but its not working in the widgets…known problem or am i doing something wrong
Usually shortcodes do not work in widgets.
Support for shortcodes in widgets can easily be added. Let me know if anyone needs help with that.
Hey Griz,
I was reviewing all the comments here looking for info on inserting the short code in a sidebar widget. What is your recommendation?
Rick
Hi Rick,
Sorry for the delay.
Simply add the following to your theme’s functions.php file :
add_filter(‘widget_text’, ‘do_shortcode’);
Thanks for this!
I’ll see if we can build widget compatibility into the plugin itself, with a future update.
Hi,
Shane I just updated the plugin but the pinterest button still goes blank (no image from the post can be chosen). Any news about fix this problem?
Here is a post example: http://donabaronesa.com/website/?p=117
Please help!
Great plugin Shane. First version worked great but the latest version replaces all page content with an error message, once plugin is disabled everything goes back to normal.
Hi Terence, there seems to be a known problem with the update process – we’re looking into it at the moment to try and fix this asap.
Now, with this new version, everything is OK for me :)
Thanks to the team, good job !
Great, thanks BAC.
Hello there,
I’ve been looking for a plugin with these exact features. Unfortunately I ran into an issue. After installation and activation, when I click the link on my dashboard to access Social Essentials, it just spools and never comes up.
Seems odd, but I’ve tried it on various browsers, but still cannot access it. Have since deactivated and deleted. But would love to use it.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Casper, what browser are you using? It sounds like a problem with Ajax / jquery.
If you use chrome can you load the page that spools, hit f12, click “console” and then copy any messages that you see in the console so I can try and figure out what the problem is?
Thanks in advance!
Weird. I had already reinstalled a few times yesterday. But after I saw your response tonight, I went in to retry and send you the info you requested… and it actually allowed me to the setup page.
I will keep an eye on it, if it does it again, I will certainly get that information for you.
Thank you anyway. Great plugin
Having installed and got the plug in working (great, thank you) – the stats do not seem to be showing up. All columns showing 0 (despite some posts having likes/tweets etc) – except the FB cols which aren’t displaying anything.
Have you come across this before?
Hello Richard,
Give it a little time. We can’t make too many requests to twitter, facebook etc. so the data needs to be collected slowly, at first. If you have a site with many pages, it can take a few hours before the stats are completed.
Hi, Great idea, well done.
What i was really attracted to with this plugin was the stats, is there any way to get immediate update, as soon as a button is clicked the data is available immediately?
Hope so,
Thanks
Mark
Hi Shane,
Now that I installed the new version the buttons wont display right, just facebook. They load all messed up!? Im using a mac, chrome & safari (same problem). Plus the pinterest button still dosen’t work for my site.
Here’s an example post with the button problem: http://donabaronesa.com/website/?p=117
Please help!
Hello Pablo,
I saw the issue on your page earlier, but when I went back to check it again just before, it looked fine.
Did you find a way to resolve the problem?
Hi Shane,
I looked at Pablo’s site twice today. Immediately after his post the site was not displaying the button correctly, but later they were. Go figure!?!
I noticed he is still having problems with Pin It just as I am. The popup does not display the page media.
Mark
Hi Mark,
For the pins, we’ll be adding a custom field to enter an image URL that will be used for the pin, if no featured image is present. That should be included in the next update and will hopefully solve any issues.
Actually i drown graded the plug-in to the earlier version, because a a client was going to see the portfolio and I couldn’t show it with the error. But the problem displaying the buttons and the pin button still persists so if you can figure out what’s going on, it will help me a lot!
Thanks for this great plugin (I love that it keeps stats). I have a suggestion for a future update. Would it be possible to have the option for the list to be vertical and have it floating so that it moves as people scroll up and down the page?
This is a planned update. :)
Hi Shane,
Just installed your plugin and ran into a problem. Only Facebook like and Google+ buttons displays. I have tried different browsers, small and large icons, different placements, deleting the plugin and re-installing it but it still does not display the buttons for Twitter, Facebook share and Pinterest. Take a look: http://www.bilogmotorsykkel.no/kjopeguide-bmw-e30
Any suggestions?
Nice Plugin Shane !! Can you please add several features for the plugin like:
- integrate with bit.ly or other URL shortening service
- Can add image to facebook share
Thanks,
Leon
Hello Shane,
great plugin! just cant seem to align Facebook share. do you know how can i fix this?
Thanks,
Mark
http://blogs.lawcenter.ph/41/new-legal-wiki-entry-what-is-a-woman/
you cant remove the arrow after adding it!!
Oh, you’re right… what a blunder. We’ll get that fixed in the next update. :)
hi shane,
the plugin looks nice and sleek. i totally agree about having only the essential buttons.
any chance we can get a linkedin option in the near future? linkedin is pretty darn essential for anyone doing business blogging. :-)
thanks!
Hi Shane,
Sorry to say, I’ve had to de-activate the plug-in. I was playing with the setup (arrows) when it stopped working, and the site now generates this error message when I view a preview post. I’m using the Optimizepress theme.
Fatal error: social_essentials::generate_buttons() [social-essentials.generate-buttons]: The script tried to execute a method or access a property of an incomplete object. Please ensure that the class definition "Margins" of the object you are trying to operate on was loaded _before_ unserialize() gets called or provide a __autoload() function to load the class definition in /home/bzzhcks/public_html/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 390
P.S. Looking forward to the LinkedIn enhancement too!
wondering if it is possible to have 2 versions of the buttons? I want to have the large icons appear on individual post pages but also have a universal set of small buttons for overall sitewide social interaction (so people can like, tweet the site as a whole as well as individual posts).
Is it possible to set some configuration in the shortcode?
Hello Shawn,
This is already possible. Set up the icons the way you want them to appear universally, then use the shortcode followed by either _small or _large to display the different variation. This short code can also be used inside the php snippet.
I’ll be updating the instructions here to reflect that.
I have added in small icons for Facebook & twitter but the twitter button doesnt show, just the word “Twitter” Why?
http://angeloesposito.com/view/blog/
Hi Shane,
no help for my problem? I’d like to use your plugin but I can not solve my problem. See: http://imimpact.com/social-essentials/#comment-68874
Thanks,
Andrea
so the plugin is working great locally but when I activate it on the dev server it blows up…
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening ‘/nas/wp/www/cluster-1119/themessage/wp-content/advanced-cache.php’ for inclusion (include_path=’.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear’) in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1119/themessage/wp-settings.php on line 62
Notice: wp_register_script was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or init hooks. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1119/themessage/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3587
It basically loads the page to the first instance of the shortcode and then stops. In the admin you can configure/setup the plugin, save but upon return to the setup page it ends at the margin settings portion of the page, so there is no SAVE button.
Anyone else see this before, I would love to use this but it is not looking good at this point.
Hi Shane
I have installed your plugin and its not showing, I watched your video and tried both the alternatives you showed and still I see no buttons
Any help you can give me would be much appreciated
http://www.graphicjunki.net/blog/
I love this plugin, but it is having a slight glitch on my site. On the category pages with excerpts, the words Tweet Share Pin it appear at the beginning of every post. You can see it here.
http://www.learningonlineblog.com/category/technology/
It doesn’t appear to do that on posts that have a Featured image. What should I do? Thanks for the help.
I found the solution. I have to have an excerpt for each post.
Hi
I posted a nested comment on stats earlier, but seem to have another issue that they are not showing up at all, even after 12 hours.
This is installed on a plain page template, there are already several clicks.
link here
any suggestions
https://menupot.com/your-deatils
Thanks
Mark
Hi Shane
Just to let you know that the plugin works on my pages now :)
Thanks for this plugin keep up the good work.
Hello Shane,
The plugin works great on everything for me, but when I went to insert “[social_essentials]” to a certain area of my homepage, it was blank.
Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks!
Hi Shane,
I really love your plugin and have installed it on most of my sites, but there is a conflict with the W3 Total Cache plugin that I didn’t know if you were aware of it or not.
Will you be having an update that would provide a solution to this?
Thanks,
Dick
Can you describe the conflict?
Using twitter and facebook share buttons. They don’t seem to be able to align horizontally. Tried different layouts, floats, center, resetting, etc. Nice plugin otherwise. I will stick with it a bit and see if there’s an easy fix.
When I activate the plugin I get an ERROR
Fatal error: social_essentials::generate_buttons() [social-essentials.generate-buttons]: The script tried to execute a method or access a property of an incomplete object. Please ensure that the class definition "Margins" of the object you are trying to operate on was loaded _before_ unserialize() gets called or provide a __autoload() function to load the class definition in /home/content/86/8439886/html/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 390
Regards
Stanley
great plugin and works like a charm. one question though: is it possible to increase the gap between postinfo and social tool and the gap between social tool and post? right now post info, social tool and post are pretty much squeezed with almost no gap between them. looks not so good … thnx
Hello,
Great plugin. I’ve installed it manually on my homepage (after each excerpt), but unfortunately, when I select the Twitter button, at the beginning of each excerpt post, the word “Tweet” appears! (except on the first featured post)
http://johanlolos.com/wordpress/
Could you please help me with that? It’s kind of annoying.
Thank you
Great Plugin Shane!
It works perfectly on my sites with no errors or issues. I did ask Griz above on how to use it in a sidebar widget.
Great work.
Rick
homeinspectorinc.com
Hi Shane,
Thank you for your social essentials plugin. Actually there have already been many plugins similar to this, but this is kinda different because feature call to action and some graphics. By the way, I have some suggestion for plugin development:
1. Enable user to customize margin top and bottom in button margins. Currently, there are only right and left margins options.
2. Enable user to select or deselect arrow graphic. I can’t undo removing the arrow once I select it.
3. Enable user to put button on sidebar widget.
Thank you so much,
Lincoln
Hi Shane,
I’ve updated plugin to version 1.2 and somehow Facebook Large Button(Icon) is missing.
Thanks
Milan
Hi Milan, Can you show me a page where you’re experiencing this problem?
Thanks!
Hi Paul.
On all posts @ http://podstatne.sk, it should appear before tweet box.
For example: http://podstatne.sk/tv-ta3-neodvysielala-reportaz-o-ockovani-nazvanu-%E2%80%9Eobchod-so-strachom/
Shane, does this plugin only work on posts that have a featured image? Not just images in general, but where I had to actually select one of the images in the post to be the “featured image”? If so, I’m going to have to go back through 7 years of posts to put in featured images, yikes!
Also, I have the box checked for Facebook, but no matter how much I tweak the settings, it will not show up on either the homepage or individual posts. My blog is http://momcooks.net. Thanks!
Hi Elizabeth, I’m assuming you’re referring to the Pinterest aspect of the plugin? If so, then the latest version (1.2) will extract all the images on a post or page regardless of whether they’re a featured image or not. This is something we really wanted to include in the latest release because just having one featured image to pin is no good.
Regarding the Facebook problem – I see the Facebook icon when I load your site:-
I’ve reverted to the prior version as the small fb button is mal functioning.. The size is cut off at about half the width and the count bubble doesn’t count. Further using the button, doesn’t pop up a share window.. just adds a like link.. not good.. not happy here in southern foodie land.
Hello Shane,
Great plugin. I’ve installed it manually on my homepage (after each excerpt), but unfortunately, when I select the Twitter button, at the beginning of each excerpt post, the word “Tweet” appears! (except on the first featured post)
http://johanlolos.com/wordpress/
Could you please help me with that? It’s kind of annoying.
Thank you
Hi – love this plugin but I’m having a problem with getting the Facebook icon to show up properly. When I choose small icons it gets cut off and when I chose large icons it doesn’t show up at all. I’ve tried putting the icons in different order, putting them at the beginning of the post as opposed to the end, nothing seems to work. I’ve also changed the margins but it’s not helping either.
You can see on this post at the end, how it’s showing: http://www.chaosinunison.com/?p=1257
I’d really appreciate any help with this – thanks!
plzz fixed ur bug …. when i active the plug in disable My Html Mode…Thanks :)
The plugin just updated and the FB icon is only coming through partially. In fact after updating it automatically turned off facebook. Is there a problem. The majority of participants on my site are in FB, so if you are planning on dropping the FB icon please let me know so I can look for yet anther social sharing solution.
We’re working on a bug-fix for the facebook issue.
NOW IT seems the pinterest button is not pulling the images.. I have attached images.. just freaky
Can you provide a link to an example page?
deactivated until you get the fb issue square.. just can’t have 1/2 a plugin working.. guessing the fixes for pinterest are also in the update.. please advise when fixed.
I installed and got it all up and going works great except I don’t have a facebook share button option. I have the like button. Also noticed in a screen shot up there that there was the fb like and fb share option to check during set up. My setup only shows an option to check for facebook. I really want the share and the like option that is what I had previously and want to stick with those options. What do I do? Love the simplicity and ease of use so far!!!
I’m having the same problem.. i don’t know what happened to the SHARE button.
This will be fixed in the next update. We have integrated the new facebook button (the share button is officially not supported anymore). The new button is a combination of facebook like and share.
We’re aiming to push out an update today, which will address the facebook bug.
Is that possible to also fix this problem please? :
I’ve installed it manually on my homepage (after each excerpt), but unfortunately, when I select the Twitter button, at the beginning of each excerpt post, the word “Tweet” appears! (except on the first featured post)
Thank you
Yes, I’ll try to find a fix for that as well.
Hi, Shane, just downloaded your plugin today (it’s wonderful, best Pinterest pinning functionality of them all – and I’ tried them all!) but I didn’t get a facebook share icon option either in the package. Just wanted to confirm that the update you mention was NOT released yet, right? muchos gracias
Thanks :) I love this plugin! It’s so easy to use and you can move the buttons over without knowing the code.
I have been through the setup process and got things just how I want them but when I click save I get a pop up box saying “display thumb and display title can’t both be unchecked to show related posts. So at least select one from both.”
Any idea what this means and how to fix it? Thanks for a great plugin! Can’t wait to get it on my site
I’m getting same error. No help?
The ‘share button’ allowed you to share multiple times…the like button does not. Bad move on getting rid of the share button.
I love this plugin. It’s a great way for sharing. But I’m a little confused about the combining of the FB like and share features. I had a post with 16 FB shares and now those are all gone. There are just zero likes. If they are combined, shouldn’t I see 16 likes for that post? By the way, the stats page is really neat for this plugin.
Hi
I have the Facebook option checked, but it’s not showing on the page. Can you please help out, everything else is good – http://ihomeny.com
Thanks
Love the plugin but I’m having a couple problems. In the “Latest IM Impact Posts” box, I get this error:
Warning: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0 in /vservers/c101861-h222028/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1759 Warning: file_get_contents(http://feeds.feedburner.com/imimpact): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /vservers/c101861-h222028/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1759 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /vservers/c101861-h222028/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1309
Also, I get empty stats even though the buttons in posts show numbers. This happens on WP 3.3.1 and 3.3.2.
Hi,
I would like to find the way to change the language of the Facebook button. My WordPress and my theme are both setting in Spanish, but all the Facebook buttons on my blog (not only the one included in your plug-in) have became to English mode since I updated to the last version of Social Essentials, even if I insert the following code on the PHP template:
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/es_ES/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=237234252990555″;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
I’m confused on what a combination of like and share would mean. I really like that my readers can just like the post or share with more details. I’m sure you are busy updating but maybe you could take a minute and explain that.
Thanks, Leslie
Love the plugin. best and easiest one I have used yet. Only one question … is there any way to remove or relocate the pinterest button that shows up on each picture? Sometime it shows up to the side and sometimes it shows up above it but most of the time it blocks content and would be nice to either remove it or move it some where out of the way. Here it shows up on the side http://somewhatnerdy.com/home/horror-review-freddy-vs-jason-freddy/ and here it shows up over some content http://somewhatnerdy.com/home/links/ . Any help would be nice. Thank you. :)
looks like you have another pinterest plugin enabled.. you should disable it.. that button isn’t generated by this plugin..
Hi, Is this work only in wordporess, i want this in my php website , how to setup.
This is WordPress only, I’m afraid.
Hi Shane! Nice plugin! I was thinking of replacing my current social plugin. Will your plugin pick up all the current Likes, +1′s & tweets or will I be starting over from the date I install?
It will pick up all your historical data as well. :)
Hi Shane,
I have just noticed a bit of a bug with the plugin which i hope has an easy fix as the plugin is great and I don’t want to have to change.
The thing is my site has multiple pages and when searching on my site for a particular category the archives of the posts in that category are displaying the word Tweet at the beginning of the post intro text.
Do you have any idea how I can edit this please?
Thank you
Brian
I’ll see that we can get this fixed. Thanks for reporting it!
Great plugin guys!
Could you add some space below the buttons – it really crowds the initial text when you place it at the top of a post. I know that I can space out the top of my posts with a , but if you already have many posts, that would be a chore!
Thanks.
Hi Shane, I’m having an issue that the buttons are not keeping a count. And I don’t get any stats in my social essentials stat charts. I get a decent amount of traffic, but I think there may be something wrong.
Additionally, I’m also getting an error in the admin settings. The only buttons I’m using are FB, Twitter, G+ and stumble.
Here are the error msgs:
Warning: file_get_contents() [function.file-get-contents]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /nfs/c09/h03/mnt/133412/domains/xarm.com/html/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1759
Warning: file_get_contents(http://feeds.feedburner.com/imimpact) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /nfs/c09/h03/mnt/133412/domains/xarm.com/html/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1759
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /nfs/c09/h03/mnt/133412/domains/xarm.com/html/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1309
I’m using WP 3.3.2 and your lastest version.
Thanks. Beverly
Hi,
Thanks for the awesome plug-in! It is really easy to use and it looks nice and clean. I just installed this plug in at http://www.insightmagazine.com.au/blog and I have a few questions.
1. When I share the post, there is no thumbnail to choose on Facebook. Even though I set the featured image on my blog, Facebook couldn’t recognize it. Same problem with Pinterest.
2. Tweeter has no button image. Is there any way to fix?
Thanks,
Michelle
Thanks Shane – I watched your webinar on the panda update and noticed the facebook comments that were made (as opposed to a wordpress comment)
I am going to use the above-mentioned widget for blog posts (love the arrow feature), but I am wondering if you make a facebook comments widget that can take the place of the wordpress comments? This way I can encourage the cocial interaction to a larget audience by having it possibly post to facebook.
Thanks again for your help!
Nat
my facebook share off
I see the facebook checkbox, but why isn’t facebook share included?
Cool
Two issues:
1.When trying to use the php template shortcode, I would get two copies of my social media bar instead of one.
2.The shortcode that I placed in a page inside the page content area doesn’t show my facebook like button but it shows the rest. There is a blank space between the other buttons where facebook would go.
hey, shane! thanks for the great plug-in!
one problem we’re finding is that when we reach double or triple digits for a share – for example, pinterest – the numbers are getting chopped off and are not visible.
i’m also finding that in the admin section, our numbers aren’t visible EXCEPT for pinterest.
any solutions?
melanie
“one problem we’re finding is that when we reach double or triple digits for a share – for example, pinterest – the numbers are getting chopped off and are not visible.”
I’m having the same problem.
Although I installed and configured the plugin correctly when I post the shortcode into my site the social buttons do not load on custom post pages such as this: http://www.templatebasics.com/web_template/simplistic-photopink/
Now on my blog pages it works. Any help is appreciated!
Im having the same issue. Social share only showing up on my regular posts, not custom post types. Will you post your fix if you repaired the issue?
Hi,
Great plugin for WP ! Thanks.
One interesting feature would e to allow users to choose to use secured access to resoures or not (checkbox option in setup panel by example).
This allows in browsers as Chrome to not have on SSL website the https part dashed and colored in red.
The modification in code is simply (I tested very quickly, so…) to change http by https in javascript assets URL in ‘social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php’ close to comment ‘Register scripts for social buttons’.
Thank you again for this plugin.
Hi Shane
Thanks a lot for the plugin! I have a small problem with the plugin. It’s working fine on my website but when I like for example a post with a picture enclosed the picture doensn’t show up in the Facebook mention.
Do you have any tips on this particular subject?
All the best!
Hi Shane–
I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but I’ve installed the plugin at the bottom of the page using [social_essentials_small]. It does work, but clicking on the Facebook like button brings up a clipped message box. My Facebook image and the message box are cropped and not really usable. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Love this plugin! Best I’ve seen so far!
ONLY, and I mean ONLY, thing I noticed that seemed to be an issue was that the share buttons don’t seem to appear on any GALLERY formatted posts. Hopefully this issue is resolved in a future update?
Thanks!
Hi – love the plugin but I’m also frustrated by the lack of Facebook share. When you just ‘like’ a post there’s a link but no picture or text that comes up to preview it, so it’s less effective as an advert. Is there a way to bring it back?
Hi Tanya, we’re uploading a new version of the plugin later on today which includes a Facebook share option.
Hi Shane, great plugin. I am only having one issue and didn’t see it mentioned in the comments above.
Whether I use the auto placement options or the short code…social essentials also shows up in every widget. So, I’ve got 3 footer widgets all showing social essentials, and every widget in the sidebars showing social essentials.
Any idea how I can stop this?
Hi, I really like your plug in but have two questions.
First, I just loaded it but I still don’t see a Facebook share option. Based on your posts above it sounds like that was already rolled out but the version I got today doesn’t have it. Can you clarify the status?
Also, is it possible to get the icons so you don’t see the numbers? At this point I doubt I will get that much sharing so I’d rather not see them at all than have them appear with little/nothing in there. I assume I would still see the stats through my Dashboard.
Thanks!
I’ve been enjoying the social media plugin for a while now but noticed that they don’t keep an accurate count. For instance, I pin my articles on Pinterest, yet the button shows a 0 count.
Will there be an update for this?
Thanks
Still waiting to hear about any fixes to the missing facebook icon? Do I need to uninstall and reinstall? or will it auto update? when repaired…..thanks.
Hi Everyone, just a quick notice to let you know that we do have a new version of the plugin that should solve a lot of these issues that you are having and we are going to be uploading this new version either later today or tomorrow for you. I will post a comment here to let you know when this has been done.
Hi! Great plugin! I just updated to the newest version of this plugin (the update has probably been available for several days, but I’ve been lazy) and then my Stumble Upon button disappeared. I tried unselecting and reselecting it in my list of chosen buttons, but no luck. Should I try uninstalling and reinstalling the plugin or will your next update solve the problem? Thanks!
hi, i have the plugin and it’s great. really easy to use and setup – great work.
I am experiencing a problem though and that is – my stumbleupon button has disappeared… i have selected it in the right place and it was working fine up and until yesterday.
do you know what the issue is?
thanks
Craig
Hi,
just found this plugin!
Paul mentioned a week or so ago that a new version was imminent – is this available now?
Thanks!
Mark :)
Hi Shane,
I had this installed on a site, and cloned the site over to a ‘test site’ to work on customizing the theme for a major theme upgrade.
I noticed that NONE of the data in Social Essentials (the likes etc and the setting of what I have already customized) have been cloned over. So all the details on the cloned site are showing up EMPTY (like a fresh new install).
I obviously want to be able to keep all social stats I’ve already received and customized on the original site, and transfer that over to the test site. Because once I’m done customizing the test site, I will be cloning it back to the originial site, and I don’t want to lose what I already have on this plugin.
Please let me know how I can do this!
Thanks!
Hi Shane,
Wonderful plugin, I have installed it on many of my wordpress sites. I was wondering if you are considering expanding the functionality of this plugin to cover rss feeds. This is because the tweet and pin buttons, in a stripped down version, are visible at the end of the post in rss feeds, while the other buttons are not. This is a problem for me because I would either have all of them (and would be delighted if this could be possible) or non at all. In the second option, there are other plugins that put social sharing options in the rss feed, even feedburner offers some basic functions for this.
The idea is to create a consistent user experience, if the user can share on the blog, the same set should ideally be in the full rss feed, and in my case, ideally in the feedburner version.
Many thanks and have a wonderful day
TB
Hi,
I have just installed your plugin, but the facebook button doesn’t work with chrome, instead it works with firefox. There is a reason?
The pinterest button is ok.
Thanks for your help,
elisa
Hi Elisa, please can you test this with the new version and let me know if everything is working OK for you now?
set up page has disappeared since the update…you should consider to move the comment box to the top!
oops wrong address, new attached!
Hi Tamara, Please update to latest version (1.3.1) – this bug has been fixed now.
For me, the SETUP page will not load. I even tried reinstalling the plugin, but I cannot get to the Setup page in my menu. Obviously, I can’t get the buttons setup, showing, and operating on my site, without setting them up first.
Please advise. Thanks!
Hi Laura – I’m looking it right now – will hopefully launch a new version of the plugin tomorrow. Will update this page as and when.
Hi Laura, this has now been fixed – please update to version 1.3.1
Thanks for pointing this out!
My setup page isn’t loading either since the update. I click on setup and wait and nothing loads. Something’s wrong. I hope you update it soon!
Hi Paul – thanks for the input – looking into it now and will get this bug fixed asap.
Hi Paul – please update to the latest version – this bug has now been fixed (version 1.3.1)
Thanks…just did. I was able to see the set up page now. Next…not that this is a new issue, but can you tell me why the right side of the number box on the Twitter and Facebook boxes are not showing up? Here is an example: http://www.virginiawinetime.com/2012/08/10/bloggers-meet-at-the-barns-at-hamilton-station-vineyards/ Scroll down and see at the bottom of the post.
Thanks!
Hi Paul, what browser are you using? It seems fine on mine:-
That was capture from Chrome by the way.
I’m using Safari. Glad it looks okay on others. I guess it’s nothing then. Sorry. Thanks for looking into it.
[...] Social Essentials by Shane Melaugh It’s right there in the name, essential! This plugin not only gives you those nifty sharing buttons on each post, but it tracks how people interact with them too! This is especially useful if you are blogging for a client and want to give them stats about readers sharing your posts. Comments aren’t the only indicator of how good your blog is, after all! [...]
My set up page will not load either, and I am also having trouble with the ‘pin it’ button…it has stopped working!?
Update to the latest version as I mentioned above and the setup page will work (version 1.3.1).
Can you give an example URL where the pin it button isn’t working? Thanks
The Set up works now, thanks! The ‘Pin it’ button still doesn’t seem to be working thought. Here a link to the most recent post where it stopped working. http://momamusings.com/index.php/2012/08/marshmallow-printing/
I am wondering if it is possible to have the share buttons available on the blog page under each post, rather than having to click on each post to share. As most of the posts will be short, there is no need for people to click on it to read all of it.
http://jmcigar.com/news-and-events/
Hello, nice plugin but the FB share and twitter images dont show, the link is there and u can tweet it, but it doesnt show the official tweet image (images do work for FB like and Google+).
Any tips?
Hi RJ, can I have a link to look at? – This isn’t a problem I’ve heard of before. Thanks!
Hi Paul,
Yes you can but is there a way I can give you the link in a private message/email?
Regards, René.
Hi René, Yes if you can raise a ticket here at http://helpdesk.swissmademarketing.com and look for the department “Social Essentials” and I’ll take a look for you.
Thank you, submitted.
Hi René – I’ve had nothing come through the helpdesk yet for some reason. When did you submit it?
Hi Paul,
About 40 minutes ago.
Shall I try again?
Regards.
aha Actually it’s just come through now. Excellent – I’ll take a look for you.
Hi Ho,
thanks for this great plugin.
the buttons works fine, but the stats dont display any likes / shares.
the plugin now runs for 2 weeks.
any idea what i can do ?
Cheers
Oliver
Hi Oliver – what version are you running? Stats should update on a daily basis on the latest version.
2.1. i guess thats the latest version ?
i just saw that i have an error message in backand at the stats site:
Warning: file_get_contents() [function.file-get-contents]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /homepages/30/d86698815/htdocs/srwp/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1898
Warning: file_get_contents(http://feeds.feedburner.com/imimpact) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /homepages/30/d86698815/htdocs/srwp/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1898
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /homepages/30/d86698815/htdocs/srwp/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/social-essentials/social-essentials.class.php on line 1351
Thanks for a great plugin! A few questions:
-Does the plugin validate(w3c)?
-Can stat tracking be disabled?
-Are these stats only viewable from within the plugin?
-Is the stat tracking or any other tracking being utilized by a third party?
Thank you!
Hey there, I’m in the midst of setting up my blog, and just added your social widget to it. Would really appreciate your help on the adjusting the widget.
http://relax1corner.com/
Currently, it displays after each post, but as you can see, it is the line directly after the content, giving a rather cluttered feel. Where should I edit the coding to move it down a line?
I’ve tried adding to the custom CSS script provided but it doesn’t seem to do the trick. I’m guessing I have to edit my theme’s php files but have not found the place to do the trick.
Appreciate any advice on it =3
Hey love the plugin but just recently our facebook share button has disappeared in some of our post’s.
http://www.getrudemagazine.com is our site
Hi Shane,
I’m using twenty eleven on wordpress and was wondering if I can add this feature under headings without clicking the link [social_essentials_small]
It looks odd in the headings and was wondering if you could tell me how you can implement the features without clicking on the link.
Please let me know.
Hey Paul,
I put the PHP Code
in my theme header.php into a div which is on top of the homepage. It’s just a landing page with no deeper pages. But unfortunately, the buttons doesn’t appear, neither on the page nor in the source.
Do you have any idea?
Kind regards
Kai
Hi Kai, can you raise a ticket through the helpdesk (http://helpdesk.swissmademarketing.com) -> “Social Essentials” department and let me have a WP user login so I can take a look? I have one other issue to fix before I can get to yours but I would hope to have a response to you by the end of the day.
Such a great plugin – but for one annoying problem. The word “Tweet” appears before each output in my RSS feed. I see similar problems has been reported as far back as April 2012, so I have to assume that no fix is available (yet)?
Great Plugin !
Sorry if this was answered before.
The Facebook “share” button is not displayed on my site. Everything is working perfectly execept for this one annoying bug.
Here’s an example : http://blog.potopoto.be/drawing-o-matic-day-three/
Could you help? Thanks in advance.
same here.
Have you find a solution?
Like the looks of your plugin but can’t get it to show on posts or pages. What do I do now?
Hi,
It looks like the twitter button stopped showing properly. Could it be a Mac issue?
Thanks for the plugin, its great.
M.
Its back!! So quick!!
I had final question… Sorry to a bother.
Is this the correct code to add it to a php file:
I’ve tried numerous times, but without any luck. Everything else is working perfectly.
Thank you for your time!
As Alan mentioned above, when using the php template shortcode () I get two copies of the social media bar instead of one.
This occurs with none of the Display options checked. Please help.
Thank you
Last post was on here for over a couple hours then disappeared. Anyway, as Alan mentioned, I’m having an issue with the social media bar being displayed twice when using the short code in php and this occurs with no display options checked.
Please help. Thank you
The Pinterest button does not display/let me choose an image to pin. I have tried it using both options with no success. Is there something I am doing wrong?
Thanks!
Hello everyone!
I installed the plugin on my site, and it works everywhere … except in the homepage!
What’s could be the problem? I put the code directly in php and, of course, is the same on all pages.
Help me! :)
Can you tell us the URL to your page?
Sorry.
The website is http://www.partystag.it/
The plugin works on archives and posts, but not in homepage :(
Hi, I just downloaded the plugin this afternoon and love how it looks except for one thing. I choose to place the share buttons below my content on posts and pages. The problem is that on posts, it seems like it’s going to the right of the end of my content, rather than truly “below” my content. Is there a way to fix this? I tried it with “left” placement “float left” and several others, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
Hi there! I love the plug-in. It has been working great for me for months, but suddenly the Pinterest button is not counting the number of pins a page has. Even on pages that once had counts of hundreds of “pins”, all pages now just show a dash under the Pinterest button. Is there something I can do to fix this?? Here is a page that once showed a couple hundred of pins, but is now blank – http://www.inquiringchef.com/2012/09/05/chicken-banh-mi-sandwich-with-siracha-mayonnaise/
Hi Jess,
It seems like the image they were using for the button has been deleted so I made a quick fix to show the button on my blog.
Go to the plug-in editor in WordPress and select this file: social-essentials/inc/pin-it-button-user-selects-image-iframe.html
Got it? Then you have to modify some lines of code for these ones:
#SEPinItButton {
position: absolute;
background: url(//passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/bps1.png);
font: 11px Arial, sans-serif;
text-indent: -9999em;
font-size: .01em;
color: #CD1F1F;
height: 20px;
width: 40px;
background-position: 0;
}
#SEPinItButton:hover {
background-position: 0 -40px;
}
#SEPinItButton:active {
background-position: 0 40px;
}
Now save it! It should work. At least it worked for me.
Hi Shane,
Please could you let me know how I get the social buttons to float on the left of the post while scrolling… like yours at imimpact.com.
Cheers
Ian
I love the plug-in. Just one problem, my “Pin It” button is not showing up. If you hover over the blank space you can see it is linked, but it is not visible. Please let me know what I need to do. Thank you.
Hi Elizabeth,
It seems like the image they were using for the button has been deleted so I made a quick fix to show the “pin it” button on my blog.
Go to the plug-in editor in WordPress and select this file: social-essentials/inc/pin-it-button-user-selects-image-iframe.html
Got it? I basically modified the next lines of code so you just need to find them and copy this and paste it over them:
#SEPinItButton {
position: absolute;
background: url(//passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/bps1.png);
font: 11px Arial, sans-serif;
text-indent: -9999em;
font-size: .01em;
color: #CD1F1F;
height: 20px;
width: 40px;
background-position: 0;
}
#SEPinItButton:hover {
background-position: 0 -40px;
}
#SEPinItButton:active {
background-position: 0 40px;
}
Now save it! It should work. At least it worked for me.
Hey, following a recent update to wordpress, my twitter button has been replaced with a text link and my google+ button has disappeared…can you please suggest a fix?
See issue here – http://www.oldhatstore.com/box-ing/
Skip my last question…I now have the same problem as Elizabeth…Pinterest is there but not showing!
Hi Rob,
It seems like the image they were using for the button has been deleted so I made a quick fix to show the “pin it” button on my blog.
Go to the plug-in editor in WordPress and select this file: social-essentials/inc/pin-it-button-user-selects-image-iframe.html
Got it? I basically modified the next lines of code so you just need to find them and copy this and paste it over them:
#SEPinItButton {
position: absolute;
background: url(//passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/bps1.png);
font: 11px Arial, sans-serif;
text-indent: -9999em;
font-size: .01em;
color: #CD1F1F;
height: 20px;
width: 40px;
background-position: 0;
}
#SEPinItButton:hover {
background-position: 0 -40px;
}
#SEPinItButton:active {
background-position: 0 40px;
}
Now save it! It should work. At least it worked for me.
I have the same problem as Elizabeth & Rob….Pintereset is there but the button is no longer showing. Please advise as this is the button most used by my readers.
Shane,
Fantastic plugin – I think it’s the most customizable of all social media sharing plguins.
Wondering if you can give me any insight as to why the “Pin it” button isn’t showing up on our site – http://exercisecoach.com/index.php/strong-national-growth-in-2013/ (this is a blog post entry for an example)
All of the others display fine. I added a pin-it button for images but I’d also like it down beneath the post. The color of the pin it button is the same as our background color, but at least the red lettering should be showing. Please let me know if you can help!
Amy
I have two issues:
(1) I installed the plugin on my site, and it works everywhere … except in the homepage. How do i add the buttons on the Homepage.
(2) The formatting / alignment of the buttons is an issue. Instead of all showing in one straight line Google + and Pinterest show above the rest of the buttons.
Help me! :)
Love the plug-in, but since last couple of updates, the Pinterest button is not showing up on homepage or posts. Weird, but I can click the blank area (where button should be) and selection of my images appear, for Pinterest share process to begin. Really need that button to show in blogs and on homepage. I know you’ll solve this for me. :0) Thanks for all your hard work.
Hi Patricia,
It seems like the image they were using for the button has been deleted so I made a quick fix to show the “pin it” button on my blog.
Go to the plug-in editor in WordPress and select this file: social-essentials/inc/pin-it-button-user-selects-image-iframe.html
Got it? I basically modified the next lines of code so you just need to find them and copy this and paste it over them:
#SEPinItButton {
position: absolute;
background: url(//passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/bps1.png);
font: 11px Arial, sans-serif;
text-indent: -9999em;
font-size: .01em;
color: #CD1F1F;
height: 20px;
width: 40px;
background-position: 0;
}
#SEPinItButton:hover {
background-position: 0 -40px;
}
#SEPinItButton:active {
background-position: 0 40px;
}
Now save it! It should work. At least it worked for me.
To ALL who are missing their “Pin It” button! I figured out how to make it appear again!
From the pinterest site, they may have changed their script and you just need to update the following (this is taken directly from Pinterest’s site)…(you can view it yourself here: http://business.pinterest.com/widget-builder/#do_pin_it_button)
I did the following today and my pin it button is now back on every post!
Include this SCRIPT tag once and only once per page. For best results, put it just above your closing tag:
Hi Bruno,
It seems like the image they were using for the button has been deleted so I made a quick fix to show the “pin it” button on my blog.
Go to the plug-in editor in WordPress and select this file: social-essentials/inc/pin-it-button-user-selects-image-iframe.html
Got it? I basically modified the next lines of code so you just need to find them and copy this and paste it over them:
#SEPinItButton {
position: absolute;
background: url(//passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/bps1.png);
font: 11px Arial, sans-serif;
text-indent: -9999em;
font-size: .01em;
color: #CD1F1F;
height: 20px;
width: 40px;
background-position: 0;
}
#SEPinItButton:hover {
background-position: 0 -40px;
}
#SEPinItButton:active {
background-position: 0 40px;
}
Now save it! It should work. At least it worked for me.
Pablo! You are a genuis! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK You!!! I just copy and pasted your code into my editor and it works perfectly!
I discovered a problem with my solution…it made the button show up but it didn’t show any images when you went to use it and pin an image. So I hadn’t actually solved it.
BUT YOU DID! Thank you again!!!
Apologies, I meant Amys, not Bruno.
This may have already been covered. But any reason why a Linkedin share button is not included?
It’d be nice if author or user could add in other social networking buttons like Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare… what have you. I’m not CSS intelligent so would have to be built in.
Hello
I have 2 problems:
First: The icon Share and Pinterest not appear.
Second: I prefer to apply the PHP code in my preferred position, but when I do it appears duplicated.
Hi Bruno,
It seems like the image they were using for the button has been deleted so I made a quick fix to show the “pin it” button on my blog.
Go to the plug-in editor in WordPress and select this file: social-essentials/inc/pin-it-button-user-selects-image-iframe.html
Got it? I basically modified the next lines of code so you just need to find them and copy this and paste it over them:
#SEPinItButton {
position: absolute;
background: url(//passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/bps1.png);
font: 11px Arial, sans-serif;
text-indent: -9999em;
font-size: .01em;
color: #CD1F1F;
height: 20px;
width: 40px;
background-position: 0;
}
#SEPinItButton:hover {
background-position: 0 -40px;
}
#SEPinItButton:active {
background-position: 0 40px;
}
Now save it! It should work. At least it worked for me.
Hi there,
I love the analytics that Social Essentials provides, but there are a couple of issues on the “setup” page. For instance, why is “activate/deactivate” in the same field?
Also, the css field has “#call_to_action h4{padding:0px 5px;}” written in it by default. I cannot erase this field and pressing “delete” on the call to action section does absolutely nothing. This css is displaying beneath all of my events on my calendar page (Time.ly plugin.)
Suggestions?
Thanks,
Rae
Ha, Shane, I’m wondering as I read all the problems people are having with the plug-in if you regret your good deed.
“No good deed goes unpunished” the old saw says and this freebie seems to be causing some headaches.
Anyway, as I dance around your site I don’t see you using Social Essentials. Am I missing it, or do you not use it?
-Joe
Hi Shane,
I am having a problem with the Facebook like button. When a user clicks on like, the comment box width is clipped. I’ve tried increasing the width of se_button_small but no joy. Any thoughts?
To see the problem just go to my website url and click on any post.
Thanks!
Hi Shane, this looks like a really cool plugin and so much easier than what I have used in the past. It also has some very cool optimisation tweaks that transform it into a super cool plugin, and to think I had somebody hard code my social share buttons into my website’s code! Go figure.
Thanks for sharing!
Alan
I would like a button on the FaceBook Share function – instead of the “naken text: share! How do I do?
Hello,
The plugin is not counting any of the tweets. I’ve tweeted many times using the button, but still shows at 0. Can you please help?
Thanks!
The counter doesn’t update instantly. Also, I don’t think multiple tweets from the same account show up as more than 1 tweet in the counter.
Help!! my tweet counter not working anymore!
the icon & button is gone..only left the word “tweet”..
anyone else facing the same problem?