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Free Plugin by rtCamp v2.2.4

rtSocial

This plugin uses non-blocking JavaScript to display social media sharing counters on posts/pages

rtSocial

The facts

Rating
4.7★ from 9
Active installs
30+
Price
Free
Last updated
24 Jul 2024
Added
Oct 2011
Requires WP
3.0
Tested up to
WP 6.6.7
Downloads
29,442

Our analysis

AI-assisted

rtSocial is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance social media sharing on your site. It utilises non-blocking JavaScript to improve load times by fetching social sharing data without slowing down the page, especially beneficial for sites with multiple sharing links. The plugin offers minimal settings and options for displaying links automatically above and below content, as well as customisation for Facebook button styles and layouts.

This plugin is suitable for website owners who want to integrate social sharing functionality without compromising site performance. It supports major social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Best for: Website owners looking to enhance social sharing without affecting performance.

What it does well

  • Improves page load times with non-blocking JavaScript
  • Uses a single CSS sprite for images, reducing external requests
  • Offers options to display links automatically and customise styles
  • Supports multiple social media platforms

Where it falls short

  • Limited feature details provided
  • May require some technical knowledge for custom function calls

Verdict

rtSocial provides a practical solution for social sharing on WordPress sites, focusing on performance. It may suit those who prioritise speed and efficiency in their social media integration.

From the developer

rtCamp's own description of rtSocial, lightly tidied.

Normally social sharing codes provided by facebook, twitter, etc renders iframes at run-time. These iframes increases page-size and slow-down your website (on client-side).

The power of this plugin lies in non-blocking JavaScript. Normally social sharing links use iframes to output their content viz. icon images, share counts etc. The load time of these iframes block the page load, and hence slow down the site. The slowest is on pages with multiple instances of sharing links (e. g. blog indexes). rtSocial uses non blocking JavaScript to get all the data in one shot, and injects them in the mark-up. And it uses a single sprite with all the images required, hence eliminating the need to load the images from the service provider’s CDN. Comes with minimal settings, options to display the links automatically above and below the content, choose FB button styles and layouts. A simple function call lets you to display the links anywhere in your theme!

With just 1 image (CSS-sprite), 1 JavaScript and 1 CSS file loaded from WordPress-running server; counts are fetched using AJAX request for sites like facebook/twitter after page loading finishes.

Supported Social Channels

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Useful Links

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

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