Added the Shareaholic “Sexy Bookmarks” social button bar
Posted By RichC on August 30, 2012
I’m finally getting around to adding a social media plugin for WordPress after I received a comment from a friend who said his Internet reading now comes from links being shared on Twitter and Facebook. I had to admit that I no longer use my long list of RSS feeds as often as I once did and instead “flip” through aggregators such as Zite and Flipboard on my iPad. 
I still would rather read stories forwarded (emailed) from trusted colleagues, but even more of them are using social networks tools that are being included in the “sharing bar” even knowing their clicks and forwards are being compiled (the “Sexy Bookmarks” bar is now included at the top of “full” posts).
After reviewing a few different plugins, the “Sexy Bookmarks” by Shareaholic seemed to fit the bill. The optional settings enabling me to exclude the bar from the main index and static pages, along with a single “half-hidden” less intrusive icons seemed like a good way to go. I’m not sure Internet users need so many social sites, but for now I’ll just include a fraction of what is available … yes, a fraction. Obviously Facebook and Twitter are the most popular … but there has been a recent change in 3rd place with Pinterest surpassing Google+ (Experian’s chart from July 2012 to right).
Anyway, I chose to include the number of icons that would squeeze single row width-wise in a column and besides the major social sites, decided to include a the more generic Stumbleupon and a a Gmail button. It made more sense to include something I actually use rather than forwarding to blogging sites or add-ons for sharing photos, video or audio that are used in conjunction with Twitter, etc.
I’m reserving the right to remove the the plugin if it proves problematic or slows down the site to a crawl … let m know if you really dislike it.
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