=== Social Essentials - Social Stats and Sharing Buttons === Contributors: ShaneRQR, bestwebsoft Tags: social, stats, twitter, google+, facebook, like, share, pinterest, stumbleupon Requires at least: 3.0 Tested up to: 3.4.1 Stable tag: 1.3.1 Social Essentials provides you with stats about social engagement as well as social sharing buttons to add to your posts and pages. == Description == Social Essentials provides you with: * A simple way to **add social sharing buttons** to your posts and pages. * A simple way to **add a call-to action** to your buttons, to increase social engagement. * **Stats** that show you how much your content is being shared, in detail. The following social networks are supported for both stats and buttons: * Twitter * Facebook (like/share button) * Google+ * StumbleUpon * Pinterest We've chosen to include these, because they are the most powerful in terms of driving traffic to your site. It's better to focus on the top networks than to add buttons for hundreds of social sites that no one uses. This plugin now features *improved Pinterest buttons*! The plugin works around the inherent limitations of the Pinterest sharing button and offers the visitor a choice of which image on your page they want to pin. Alternatively, you can also have full control and manually select the image URL and description text for the Pinterest share. **Check out the detailed instruction video on the [official plugin page](http://imimpact.com/social-essentials/ "Social Essentials on IM Impact").** == Installation == 1. Extract the "social-essentials.zip" file, using the WordPress plugin installer, or upload the contents of the file to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder. 2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress. 3. Use the "Setup" link in the "Social Essentials" menu to select the style and placement of the social icons. 4. On the setup screen, use the "Preview" button to see a preview of what the icons will look like and remember to click on the "Save" button to save all changes made. You can activate the social icons in your posts and pages using the setup menu, or they can be manually inserted using this short code on any page or post: `[social_essentials]` Or this code snippet in a php file: `echo do_shortcode('[social_essentials]');` You can also display small or large icons, independantly of your settings in the main setup menu, by using these short codes: `[social_essentials_large]` `[social_essentials_small]` The same works for the php code. This allows you to display both large and small buttons (e.g. small buttons at the top of a page, large buttons at the bottom). **Refer to the [Social Essentials tutorial video](http://imimpact.com/social-essentials/ "Social Essentials on IM Impact") for more information.** == Frequently Asked Questions == = Can I use the stats-feature in this plugin without adding the buttons? = Yes. When you activate Social Essentials, all the button display options are turned off. If you don't make a change, no buttons will be added to your site, but you can still check your social sharing stats. The plugin will also register all your social activity generated from manually inserted buttons or from people just sharing on their own accord, without any buttons present. = What happened to the Facebook share button? = According to Facebook: "We deprecated the Share Button when we launched the Like button, because the Like button improves clickthrough rates by allowing users to connect with one click, and by allowing them to see which of their friends have already connected." == Screenshots == 1. This is what the social icons look like if you select "above content on posts" and "large icons". 2. This is what the social icons look like if you select "above content on posts" and "small icons". 3. Note that you can change the order of the displayed icons simply via drag and drop. And of course, you can select which of the social sharing buttons you want to display. 4. When you first activate the plugin, no buttons will be displayed yet. Only once you select one or several of the display options and save the settings will the buttons appear. 5. Easy input options to set the margins between the buttons and align the call to action however you want. == Changelog == = 1.3.1 = * Fixed a bug that caused the setup screen to hang. = 1.3 = * Improvements to the stats screen. * Minor fixes and updates. = 1.2 = * Major update to the pinterest button: now offers the user a choice of which image on the page to pin. * Major update to the facebook button: now no longer using the phased out facebook share and fb like buttons separately. The new version offers one facebook button which is a combination of like and share! * Option to remove the buttons from a specific page or post. * Added option to remove the call-to-action arrow. * Many minor bug fixes and improvements. = 1.1.2 = * Update issue fixed. * Added short code parameters for large and small icons (allows you to display both large and small icons on the same page). * Minor bug fixes. = 1.1 = * Improved UI for the social metrics / social stats screen. Columns are now sortable, paginated and better looking. * Vastly improved call-to-action function in setup. * Added pre-designed call-to-action arrows. * Added simple interface for adjusting margins between buttons, position of arrow and text. * Fixed issue with sharing icons on pages. * Fixed issue with pinterest button. * Buttons now load asynchronously, which improves your page loading speeds. * Many minor bug fixes and tweaks. = 1.0.4 = * Fixed preview view for twitter button. * Fixed issue with short code. * Fixed facebook share button alignment issue. = 1.0.3 = * Added short code and php snippet for manually inserting sharing buttons. * Minor improvements to the user interface. = 1.0 = * First public version of the plugin. == Upgrade Notice == = 1.2 = Major improvements to sharing buttons and options! = 1.1.2 = Update for new features and fixes! = 1.1 = Major improvements and minor bug fixes. = 1.0.4 = Update with minor bug-fixes. = 1.0.3 = Update for additional features and UI improvements! = 1.0 = First public version of Social Essentials. More upgrades coming soon!