Part V-Twitterpated

This is the fifth of a five-part series for newbies to WordPress.

*See Definition of Technical Terms

SOCIAL MEDIA

Are you twitterpated, or smitten, with *social media?  If so you will really love the way your new blog or website will be able to incorporate all your social connections.  Actually my first suggestion before delving into adding social media resources and links to your site is to decide on which social media resources you want to add, and if they are new to get those set up separately first.  Facebook (pages for Facebook if your site is a business site) and Twitter are the most common social media applications.  I also use Pinterest and Flickr, and have a link for my Etsy site.  It did take some time to get each of those properly set up before the information from them could be added to my website, but it was well worth the effort, so have fun and enjoy the process! (Update 4/1/14-My site is now set up differently, still learning how to integrate various forms of social media into my site is crucial.)

*Social Media ~ refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Examples are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.

Once all your social media accounts are set up, you will want to do several things.  First, as mentioned in the last WordPress article, you will probably want to add links to some of your social media sites via your widgets.  Check your available widgets to see if what you need is already there, and if not add via a new plug-in.  Two of my favorites are “Pretty_Pinterest_Pins” and “Javascript Flickr Badge”.   These are great for displaying my photos from Pinterest and Flickr.  You even have options to set these up to only display pins from particular boards or photos from select folders.

You will also want to add a social widget (again if not already installed) that will allow you to display *icons that link to your social media sites.  The social widget allows you to select a category, establish/order/limit your icons, and show icon images.  You will see these in the top-right corner of my website.  There are so many great icons available, some free and some for purchase.  I purchased my custom chalkboard social media icons via Etsy seller ShinyMagic.  Be sure when making your choice to select icons that have several sizes available, in case after installation you realize that you really needed something larger/smaller.  The icons you choose will need to be added to your *media library via your site’s dashboard.  Open your media library, select “add new”, and drag your new icons into the “drop files here” box, or select  the “upload new media” choice.

*Icons-Picture, image or other representation
*Media Library – WordPress online library for stored images/photos

And, just so you know, this is a three-part process!  After you have both your social widget and social media icons installed, you will still need to establish your links to your social media sites.  This is done via the “links” menu in your dashboard.  Click “add new” and for each social media you want linked add the name, the category “social”, the rating or order you want them in, and the actual link to your social media site.  Now double-check your actual page to make sure your social media icons are linking correctly to your external social media sites.

The last social media item you will want to include on your site is a way for any readers of your posts or pages to easily share your information within their own social media, or via a bookmark, message or email.  This can be done via an “Add to Any Sharing” widget.  This widget by Lockerz is a great all-inclusive sharing platform, and makes it easy for visitors to share your content using any service.  This results in:

• More traffic
• Easy distribution
• Better rankings
• Extended reach

“Add to Any Sharing” will show up under your “settings” section via your dashboard once installed.  It can then be accessed and configured as you choose.  Looking for another way to share?  Check out this Smashing Magazine blog with suggestions.

MEDIA

When it comes to adding media to your site, WordPress has recently made that process easier.  To add photos, simple open your “media library” site and again select “add new”, where you can drop in photos from your desktop.  Photos must be kept to a maximum size of 2MB.  Once added to the library, you can enter the photo’s title, any text, and can save to a preferred size.  When creating a new post, you will see a box to “add media”.  Photos already in your media library will pop up, and you can choose a photo already saved, or upload new files.  Via the menu on the left, you can also set a featured image or create a gallery of photos.  Practice and play with these features to get just the look you are after!