There are plenty of roundup posts about social bookmark plugins for WordPress. However, I have to ask: have you really tried them out before settling on the best, or did you pick the first one you found?

I am a real stickler when it comes to using plugins, especially social bookmark plugins. Why?

For several reasons:

1. Design – It looks good.
2. Convenience – Cuts my time down from hard coding social networking and social bookmarking icons into a layout.
3. It works. There are plugins that I have had to hard code around to get it to look right.

So, here is my list of social bookmarking plugins for WordPress sites.

Sociable

http://blogplay.com/
I use this plugin and regularly include it on all of my clients’ websites. It is easy to implement and includes a lot of selections to display. It also leaves room in case I want to customize my plugin later on without having to alter the plugin files directly.

Digg Digg

http://www.mkyong.com/blog/digg-digg-wordpress-plugin
I use the manual code for Digg Digg in my own websites. However, Digg Digg applies a floating Ajax powered plugin that kind of works like a fixed background- when you scroll down, the social bookmark area travels down. This is something that a lot of people saw first on Mashable.

Share This

http://sharethis.com/
Share This allows users to social bookmark to over 40+ websites.

Sexy Bookmarks

http://www.shareaholic.com/
This little social bookmark has some very cute icons that have a peek-a-boo effect when you hover over.

I Love Social Bookmarking plugin

http://www.milienzo.com/wordpress-plugins/i-love-social-bookmarking/
Provides a little drop down menu . Very simple plugin.

AddtoAny

http://www.addtoany.com/
This social bookmark plugin display a drop down menu that is clean and has many services to choose from. For some, it might be overwhelming. Others… well, they might just select them all.

Because of services like Add to Any and Share This, be aware that they could go down. You might want to avoid that. On the other hand, those services have been around for a while and are quite popular.

Another caution is Digg Digg. This plugin is update often and it is not unusual for the next update to be incomplete – does not display properly. It is a great plugin, but with this one, hold off a week. Typically the developer is pretty good at updating after people point out the bugs.

In using these types of plugins, select the services that are most relevant to your site. Some of the social bookmarking sites are focused on certain niches, so it would be pointless to include every single site.

What social bookmarking plugins do you use for your website?

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