Manage WordPress Plugins

One of the best features of WordPress is the ability to add plugins.  However, managing WordPress plugins can be a bit cumbersome depending on the plugin you use.  Unfortunately, the more useful and configurable a plugin is, the more complicated the interface.   To start managing WordPress plugins, you need to log in to your WordPress dashboard.  Once your panel is displayed, look for the “Plugins” option on the left sidebar and click it.  It should look like this:
WordPress Plugins icon

WordPress Plugins

This will bring up the WordPress Plugins page:

WordPress Plugins dashboard

 

On this WordPress Plugins page, you will see a list off pre-packaged plugins. Note: these plugins are on your system but not activated.  Now go ahead and click on the “Add New” button at the top of the dashboard to bring up a window defaulting with a list of all available favorite plugins found at wordpress.org.

WordPress Plugins Add plugins popup

 

In the search bar type “social” and press enter.  This action will bring up a list of all plugins that relate to social.  Look for the “Social” plugin by Sygnoos (It should be one of the 1st ones listed).

WordPress Plugins search

 

Click the “Install Now” button to download and install the plugin.  You should see the Installing Plugin: Plugin Name page displayed.  This page may take a few minutes to load based on the size of the new plugin you are installing.

WordPress Plugins install status

 

Note: If there is a problem downloading the plugin this page will tell you. The most common problem with installing a plugin is folder permissions. So if you see this message go to “Troubleshooting WordPress Permission Issues” to configure your permissions.

When installing the plugin, you will have two options: “Activate”, and “Return to Plugin Installer”. Go ahead and activate your plugin.  After activating the plugin, the application will open the Plugins screen where you will now see a color bar next to your activated plugin.

WordPress Plugins Active social plugin


Configure the Social Plugin

Now that the plugin is activated you should see a new option on your WordPress dashboard sidebar called Social Media.  It should look like this:

WordPress Plugins Social Media WP Dashboard icon

 

Click on the “Social Media” to bring up the Social Media page where you can add custom social button menus to add to your pages and posts.

WordPress Plugins QP Social Button dashboard

 

Click “Add New” button at the top of the page to display the “Create New social buttons” Page.

WordPress Plugins Create New Social Media Buttons

 

At the start of this screen, you will see a text box that says “Enter title here.”  Go ahead and type in “Menu one”.  Then drag the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus icons into the area where it says “Drag over to add.”  It should look like this:

WordPress Plugins Social Media Buttons live preview

 

At the top of the screen in the “Live Preview”.  The Live Preview will show you what your users will see when you add the icons to a page/post.  Now look in the center of the screen.  There you should see a “Themes” option. Go ahead and Click it.  Now you will see all the available free/paid icons view you can use. Select the second one.

WordPress Plugins Social Button Themes

 

That’s it for this screen go ahead and click on the “Save Changes” button in the top right corner.  Then click on the “Social Media” button on the WordPress dashboard to go back to the social media page.

WordPress Plugins Social menu page refresh

 

You new social menu has been created and is now ready to use.  Now all you need to do to add the Social Buttons is copy and paste the Shortcode “[ sgmb id=1 ]” into your post/page or use the new “Insert Social Media Buttons” button that is now available to the editor.


These are some of our favorite plugins

Google Analytics Dashboard for WP Displays Google Analytics Reports and Real-Time Statistics in your Dashboard. Automatically inserts the tracking code in every page of your website.
Google SML Sitemaps This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to index your blog better.
Newsletter The Newsletter is a cool plugin to create your subscriber list, to send newsletters, to build your business.
Social Adds Social media buttons and lets you choose from  variety of free button icons.
WordPress Popular Posts WordPress Popular Posts is a highly customizable widget that displays the most popular posts on your blog
WP Statistics Complete statistics for your WordPress site.

Some more advanced features Plugins

CoSchedule an editorial calendar for your content marketing and social scheduling.
Memberful Sell memberships and restrict access to content with WordPress and Memberful.

 

Additional Resources


 

If you are taking our “Introduction to WordPress” class click here to return to where you left off.

 

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