Loading...The social network flavor of the month is the one from the almighty Google themselves and although it has been noted in several tech sites that only those who are web savvy are on the platform. It can’t hurt to incorporate Google Plus on your site or blog. Google Plus is essentially a social media network very similar to Facebook. You add and are added as a member, you socialize and share links, photos and content from other members known as your “circle” of friends. The look is distinctly Google in appearance as it has a minimalist design and it does connect to various other Google services. It’s a network to watch in the coming months – if not years, but as with anything else on the web change is the only thing you can for sure count on. Let’s dig deeper.
Below we look at five methods (all of which are free) and relatively easy to implement to incorporate Google Plus on any blog. This is for Google Plus – the social network.
1. Google Plus Badge – this is the official badge provided by Google. To add the badge to your site grab the code snippet provided and place wherever you wish the badge to appear. Be it your blogs sidebar, below a post, above a post, homepage, etc.
2. WordPress Plugin – if your blog is powered by WordPress then there are several plugins that will make it super duper easy to add a Google Plus button or badge to your blog. We found the following through the WordPress.org plugin directory that are simple and come from established WordPress plugin developers.
A. Google Plus Button One Widget – for those who simply want the + one button added to their blog posts, this is the plugin for you. Simple and easy to add.
B. Google Plus WordPress Widget – this is a super cool widget that shows your updates lvery similar to the Facebook box. You can place it on your blogs sidebar and those wish to follow you can via this widget.
C. Google Plus – look for the one by Agitae, this plugin allows you to showcase your “Circles” in a widget on your blogs sidebar as well as your Google Plus stream.
3. Blogger Plugin – if your blog is powered by Blogger then try an add-on in your admin dashboard to quickly and easily Google Plus to your site. Since Blogger.com is a Google company we expect them to have made it quite easy to use their new social network. And they have.
4. HTML – this is where you go in behind the scenes of your blog and manually add the HTML code for the Google + badge or button and place it where you wish it to appearon your site. This is for advanced users who know how to manipulate the code in the backend of their sites. If this does not describe you, better to try one of the other methods we mention.
5. Hire Someone On Fiverr – as with any technical aspect of blogging, one can simply outsource the task. We recommend (and use) Fiverr for small and quick tasks such as this. Search on Fiverr for “add google plus button” or “install google plus badge” etc and as usual check the feedback and history of service provider. If they stack up give them a try and place an order. The cost for anything on Fiverr is five bucks hence the name.