Have you noticed a change in my sidebar recently? Things have moved! For instance, my archives, tags, and blog roll are now at the bottom of my blog to create some better visibility for other items in my sidebar. I’m still trying to decide if I like my sidebar tabs better but not all blog bots can see items in sidebar tabs (thus the change). In addition, I wanted to make room for a new sidebar item. Have you noticed it?
I added a “Let’s Connect” section with several social media widgets. Part of me thinks these widgets are silly because it sort of looks like the high school form of the “hey, look how many friends I have?” popularity contest but yet, what do I often look at on other people’s blogs to check credibility? The social media widgets. You know you’ve probably found a pretty good blog to follow if there are several blog fans. So I guess I’ll join the social media widget club for no other reason than to give you, my readers, assurance and a desire to follow me (will you?).
If you want to join me in this social media widget club and add these widgets to your blog, feel free to join me. Here’s a look at them one by one.
1. The Facebook Widget–To add a Facebook Like Box, visit the Facebook Developers website and edit the widget to your liking. When you like what you see select “get code” and follow the instructions on the next screen. My current widget has a width of 295 pixels, a light color scheme, no border color selected and no stream showing.
2. The Twitter Widget–To set up a Twitter widget, I used the widget created by More Tech Tips. Fill out the form under options to your liking, select “update demo and code”, and then copy and paste the code into a gadget on your blog. My current settings are set with a light theme style, followers in view, a width of 295 pixels, and a user max of 10.
3. The Google Plus Widget–The Google Plus widget was designed by Widgets Plus. Go to their website, scroll down to settings and add your G+ ID in the basic settings form. You may then either scroll up to select the yellow “get code” to place in your blog java script gadget or visit the other setting tabs to further customize your widget.
So what side of the fence are you on? Do you like social media widgets? Dislike them? Think they are silly? Do you use them as a guide for blog credibility? Let us know in the comments below.
