How To Add a Social Media Sharebar To Your blog

written by John Chow on November 23, 2011

One of the most dynamic elements of the new blog design is the sharebar on the left side of the post. The bar offers a way for readers to share my blog posts on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The social media widget has generated a lot of emails from readers asking where/how they can get the bar for their blogs. Fortunately, no custom coding is required because the sharebar is available as a WordPress plugin that you can download and install.

Written by DevGROW, the sharebar is fully dynamic. For most readers, the bar will appear on the left side of the blog post.

Readers using mobile devices or running monitors with resolutions below 1,000 pixels will see the horizontal sharebar.

Because it’s fully dynamic, you can see the switching from vertical to horizontal sharebar but simply resizing your browser to below 1,000 pixel.

Installing the sharebar is pretty painless: download the plugin, upload it to your plugins directory and activate it in the WordPress admin panel. The plugin is enabled automatically when you activate it so that’s really all there is to it.

Settings and Customization

You can change nearly everything about the plugin from the Sharebar settings page. The main page displays all the active plugins. You can change their order, edit the button code or delete them. There is an option to add more buttons. The plugins comes preinstalled with seven social media sites, plus email. I’ve engaged Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus only.

You can change the way the Sharebar element itself looks by modifying the CSS file found in the plugin folder. This is where Unique Blog Designs came in. They tweeted the look and feel of the sharebar to match the new looks of the blog.

Click Here To Download The Sharebar for WordPress

Did you enjoy this post? Get John Chow Dot Com updates via email...

Stay up to date with all of John Chow’s tips for making money online and blog posts by subscribing via email. Your email will be kept private and never shared with anyone.

{ 27 comments }

From Desire To Success November 23, 2011 at 1:38 am

I like these sidebars, and I think the plugin works well for most blog designs. For my site, I don’t like how it overlaps the footer as you scroll down the page. I tried several plugins and they all did the same thing, so I ended up coding my own that disappears when it reaches a certain point, that way it’s not overlapping content I want to show. Kinda picky I guess

Tony http://www.FromDesireToSuccess.com

John Volpendesta November 23, 2011 at 2:20 am

Hey John nice post. I was using a different plug-in that was similar but I’m going to give this one a try. Do you know why the floating box won’t load the tweet box and facebook like in chrome? It’s loading in firefox but for some reason chrome it isn’t.

HeadwayCoupons November 23, 2011 at 2:46 am

i use a plugin for all

http://headwaycoupons.blogspot.com

Abhik November 23, 2011 at 4:40 am

This is what I use.. Way better than the one you are using.. IMHO.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/slick-social-share-buttons/

John Chow November 23, 2011 at 1:34 pm

@Abhik That looks pretty good! I may have to try it out. Thanks!

Abhik November 23, 2011 at 8:41 pm: Glad that you liked it.. @John Chow

rabbistarak November 23, 2011 at 8:35 pm

Thanks for sharing this awesome plugin I will check it out @Abhik

Abhik November 23, 2011 at 8:41 pm: You’re welcome pal!! @rabbistarak

Online doctor November 23, 2011 at 5:34 am

I have been using the same types of stuff.Thanks you to share with us!

fas November 23, 2011 at 6:41 am

The below post sharebar looks much better.

John Chow November 23, 2011 at 10:56 pm: @fas Maybe, but the left sidebar grabs more attention and gets more use.

Olivier Vasquez November 23, 2011 at 11:02 am

This left static sidebar is getting great results… The people at Mashable are using it too. I’ve seen it on some of the blogs I visit daily but mainly Mashable and Jeff Johnson’s site are the ones I’ve seen with this Social Media Bar… I might make the switch during the week after I get fat from Thanksgiving - Happy Holidays

onlinelivescores November 23, 2011 at 11:54 am

great…now I know how to inser this plugin into my webpage…thanks for sharing

John Chow November 23, 2011 at 10:54 pm

Yes you can.

Faizan Elahi ( BestBloggingTools) November 24, 2011 at 9:15 am

I use the GetSocial plugin which is pretty similar but I will check this one out too. I am interested to know if he sidebar sharebar better than the one below posts?

Kent Chow November 24, 2011 at 9:29 pm