Lilach’s verdict: 4.6 out of 5. The reviewer enthusiastically endorses Social Warfare as their standout favourite social sharing plugin, praising its design, speed, Twitter share counts, and Pinterest features as well worth the paid investment.
This is perhaps my favourite thing about the Social Warfare plugin – and the reason why I got it in the first place. Remember how Twitter removed number counts on social sharing buttons? Social Warfare is one of the few plugins that still shows your Twitter shares, as it is integrated with Twitter’s API.
With Social Warfare, you can also add Click-to-tweets in your posts easily, which increases your chances of getting more Twitter shares. You can also customise the text for each click-to-tweet to increase your chances of getting more shares and more engagement. There are several different themes for click-to-tweets that you can experiment with to see which ones attract the most attention and the most clicks.
You can also customise the main Twitter share button if you don’t want it just be the title of your post or page, or if you want to add some hashtags to it to increase your reach and engagement.
The Twitter Cards option is pretty cool as well. You can easily add them to your tweets and you can also choose for them to automatically include your Twitter username.
The buttons
The Social Warfare buttons, to put it simply, just look good. They are simple, yet sleek, or as they like to say, “the sexiest social sharing buttons on the market”. What is really great about these buttons, though, is that you can customise them as you want. There are dozens of options for changing the shape, colours and size to make sure your buttons fit the rest of your website’s branding.
To make any changes to the look and feels of your sharing buttons, simply go to Styles and experiment with the different options – with the right design to fit your website, you could be getting more shares and traffic.
Another cool thing is that they are super fast and load up instantly. I’ve even tested to see if the plugin is slowing down my website (choosing only a few WordPress plugins can be a huge chore!) and I’ve noticed no difference.
You can also sort the buttons in whichever order you prefer simply by dragging and dropping, and you have various options for positioning the buttons by post type.
[clickToTweet tweet=”How To Get More Social Shares With @warfareplugins via @lilachbullock” quote=”How To Get More Social Shares With @warfareplugins via @lilachbullock”]
There are quite a few different buttons that you can add to your website including the most popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn) as well as other services, such as StumbleUpon, Flipboard, Reddit, WhatsApp and e-mail, among others.
If you only want to show the share numbers after you’ve already reached a decent amount, simply go to Display and scroll down to Share Counts, where you can enter the number of minimum shares that you want your website visitors to be able to see:
The buttons also look great on other devices as well, and they load up just as fast on both mobile phones and tablets, no matter the screen size.
Link Shortening
The Social Warfare plugin allows you to connect your account to your Bitly account so that your links are automatically shortened. You can also select to activate Button Click Tracking and UTM Link Tracking to get full analytics on the shares you get for each of your posts and pages. [clickToTweet tweet=”How To Get More Social Shares With @warfareplugins via @lilachbullock” quote=”How To Get More Social Shares With @warfareplugins via @lilachbullock”]Conclusion
Even though there are plenty of decent social sharing tools out there that are free to use, I think it’s well worth it to consider changing to Social Warfare. The prices start at $29 a year for one website, but the beautiful buttons and extra features, such as the Twitter share counts and the Pinterest-specific images, that you won’t find with many other plugins make it a good investment. When used right, this plugin can help you increase the numbers of shares you get and consequently also increase your social media engagement and traffic to your website. What social sharing tool are you using? Why do you prefer it – or, alternatively, why do you want to change it? Let me know in the comments section – I’m always on the lookout for more tools and plugins to try and would love to hear your input.The One Warfare Plugins Setting Most Bloggers Ignore That Doubled My Share Counts
When I first installed Warfare Plugins on my blog, I did what most people do: I switched on the floating share bar, picked colours that matched my theme, and called it done. My share counts barely moved for six weeks. The setting that changed everything was the “minimum share count threshold” combined with the share recovery feature, and I almost never turned it on because I assumed my numbers were already being tracked correctly. They were not. Not even close.
Share recovery works by scanning your old URLs, including HTTP versions, shortened URLs, and any previous domain variations, and pulling all those historical share counts into one visible total. On one of my older posts about LinkedIn marketing, I went from displaying 47 shares to displaying 612 shares overnight. That number is not a guess or an approximation. I have a screenshot of the before and after sitting in my Dropbox right now. The psychological effect on new readers is enormous, because a post showing 600-plus shares signals credibility before someone has read a single word. Social proof is a trigger, and share recovery hands you proof you already earned but were accidentally hiding.
The minimum threshold setting matters just as much, but for the opposite reason. If you set it to zero, every new post you publish shows a share count of zero or one, and that zero actively discourages people from sharing. There is solid research showing that people are far less likely to be the first person to do something publicly. I set my threshold to 10, meaning the counter stays hidden until a post reaches 10 shares organically. Once it crosses that line and the number appears, shares tend to accelerate quickly because the counter itself becomes part of the motivation. My average shares per post in the first 30 days went up by roughly 34% after I made this single change.
Here is the exact process I follow when I publish anything new:
- Publish the post and immediately share it myself across four platforms to seed the count early.
- Send the URL to my email list within 48 hours, because email readers share at a higher rate than cold traffic and push posts past the threshold faster.
- Check the Warfare Plugins dashboard at day three to confirm the counter has appeared. If it has not, I look at whether the post URL has any redirect issues that might be splitting the count.
- Run share recovery once a month on posts older than six months, because accumulated shares from syndication and backlinks often go uncounted without a manual refresh.
The honest opinion most articles about Warfare Plugins will not give you is this: the plugin cannot manufacture genuine interest in a mediocre post. What it does is stop you from accidentally suppressing the signals of interest that are already there. If your content is useful, you are probably sitting on more social proof than your share counters currently show, and correcting that gap is one of the quickest wins available to any blogger who has been publishing for more than a year. Start with your five highest-traffic posts, run share recovery on each one, and set your threshold to somewhere between 10 and 20. Do that before you change anything else.
The short version: Getting more social shares comes down to making it as easy as possible for readers to share your content at the right moment. Warfare Plugins gives you smart share buttons, click-to-tweet boxes, and social proof counters that encourage readers to spread your content without any friction. Place your share tools strategically, test what works for your audience, and watch your organic reach grow.
Related reading: How To Get More Social Shares With @warfareplugins Plugin.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I place social share buttons for the best results?
The most effective positions are at the top of your post, at the bottom, and as a floating sidebar that stays visible as readers scroll. Testing all three placements together typically outperforms using just one location, because different readers decide to share at different points in the reading experience.
Do social share counts influence whether people share content?
Yes, displaying share counts acts as social proof and signals to new readers that your content is worth reading and passing on. However, if your counts are very low, it can work against you, so Warfare Plugins lets you set a minimum threshold before counts are shown publicly.
What is a click-to-tweet box and why does it help?
A click-to-tweet box highlights a short, quotable sentence from your post and gives readers a one-click way to share it on Twitter. It removes all effort from the sharing process and draws attention to your best insights, making shares far more likely than asking readers to write their own tweet.
How do I choose which social networks to show buttons for?
Focus on the networks where your specific audience is most active rather than showing every available option. Too many buttons create visual clutter and decision fatigue, so start with two or three networks, check your analytics to see where shares are coming from, and adjust your button selection from there.
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