Want to make it easy for your blog visitors to share your great content with their friends? Add social media sharing buttons to each of your WordPress posts! They can share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and more without leaving your blog. (If you have a Blogger blog, you can view those instructions here: How to Add Social Media Buttons to Blogger Posts.)

Don’t worry – you don’t need to do this every time you write a blog post. Simply use a WordPress plugin to have them automatically appear on all your blog posts (and/or pages!). There are several plugins that allow you to add social media sharing buttons to your WordPress blog. However I found that the ShareThis plugin is not only easy-to-use but also allows for some additional customization to meet most bloggers’ needs.

Installing the ShareThis Plugin:

1. In Your WordPress Admin Area, select Plugins > Add New from the menu.
2. Search for “ShareThis”
3. Install the “ShareThis: Share Buttons and Sharing Analytics” plugin.
4. Activate the Plugin.

Choosing Your ShareThis Plugin Settings:

1. Select Settings > ShareThis from the WordPress admin menu.
2. Select your settings from the available options on that page. Some examples:
   • To change the appearance of the buttons: Click the blue arrows at the top of the page to select the style of the buttons you want to use.
     
   • To add a Pinterest button: Click the “Add Pinterest” checkbox.
   • To change the order that the buttons appear in: Click the “+”  next to “Click to change order of social buttons or modify list of buttons.” Then change the text in the textbox by listing the items in the order you want them to appear in.
   • To remove the ShareThis icon: Click the “+” next to “Click to change order of social buttons or modify list of buttons.” Then remove “sharethis” from the list of items in the textbox.
   • To add additional social media icons: Click the “+” next to “Click to change order of social buttons or modify list of buttons.” Then add additional items to the list. (Items should be separated by a comma.) 
   • If you want to promote your Twitter account through the Twitter shares from your blog, you can automatically append “via @yourTwitterAccount” at the end of the Twitter shares from your blog. To do this, click on the “+” next to “Click to add extra Twitter options.” Then type in your Twitter account name in the textbox.
   • Select “Yes” or “No” to automatically add the social media icons to the bottom of your posts and/or pages. (*Instructions for moving the icons to the top of your posts are included below.)
     
3. Click the “Update ShareThis Options” button at the bottom of the page to save your settings.

Moving the Social Media Sharing Buttons to the Top of your WordPress Posts:

By default, the social media sharing buttons are located at the bottom of your posts. If you prefer to move them to the top of your posts:

1. Go to the ShareThis Settings page (WordPress Dashboard: Settings > ShareThis)
   1. Select “No” for “Automatically add ShareThis to your posts?”
   2. Click the “+” next to “Click to view/modify the HTML tags.”
   3. Copy the code in the text box that appears. (Make sure you scroll down in the text box to select all the code.)
      
   4. Click the “Update ShareThis Options” button at the bottom of the page.
2. Click Appearance > Editor in your WordPress admin area.
3. In the “Templates” section on the right side of the page, click the post template: “single.php”. (If you want to add them to the top of a page instead of a post, you would edit the “page.php” file.)
4. Paste your code in the spot of the post (or page) that you want the buttons to appear.
5. Click the “Update File” button.