Facebook and Social Startups Meme.

I will be surprised if a blogger comes up and says he simply hates the idea of connecting his blog to Facebook. Maybe the blogger might have his or her own reasons to hate, but having Facebook plugins helps the readers at least. I mean you wont mind sharing this article with the FShare or the Like button at the top on your Facebook profile, would you? What if they weren’t available? I bet many would leave a comment complaining about the unavailability of sharing features.

Startup Meme is a WordPress blog so the following plugins are going to be really helpful to you if you are a WordPress blogger as well. I would however request that you make sure that your blog is running the latest version of WordPress.

Share On Facebook

The plugin has a previous version by the name of Add to Facebook, which sadly is not supported by WordPress version 2.9. It simply adds a footer link to your post or the page. It provides a link to your current post and shares it on your Facebook profile, provided you are logged in, it will of course request you to login if you aren’t.

The plugin supports any version of WordPress up to 2.9.2 and its popularity has been increasing over time with over 800 downloads in the last week.

Facebook Dashboard Widget

Everyone loves to post on a friend’s wall or simply view what their friend’s status update, but at times logging on to Facebook can be a bit tedious or distracting. The Facebook Dashboard Widget resolves that issue by simply bringing Facebook activity to your WordPress Admin Panel. The widget is fully customizable from its dimensions to what number of items you need to display. The functionality might differ a bit depending on the version of WordPress you are using.

JanRain RPX – Authentication from Facebook

If you happen to be one of those bloggers who hates the idea of creating separate logins and would prefer using your Facebook credentials to access WordPress, this plugin is your answer. It’s not just Facebook, it lets you use your OpenID, Google, Yahoo, Twitter or Windows Live ID to access WP. The idea here is to help you leverage your existing account anywhere and become a part of the social conversation on your blog. I mean if I am already logged onto to Facebook why would I want to re-enter my name, email, etc for authentication to comment anywhere.

Gigya Socialize

This is another plugin to authenticate access to your WordPress blog and a more popular one. Users can login to your blog for comments and sharing with their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Yahoo or LinkedIn profiles. You can customize the plugin and need not be worried about having to know programming. I mean if I can do it anyone else can.

Facebook Fan Box

Almost every blog has a Facebook Fan Page and every blogger would love to promote and share that page as much as he or she would share his posts. Want to showcase that on your blog? Simply activate the widget or simply place the following code in your theme, anywhere:

<?php facebook_fan_box('API_KEY', 'PROFILE_ID'); ?>

You can follow detailed instructions for installation on the page itself.

Facebook Share Button

This is the most widespread and easiest of ways to share your blog posts and keep a check on how many of your readers have shared your post on the social network. It is really easy to place, you can place it before, after or anywhere on your page. This plugin also works in your RSS, meaning your RSS subscribers can directly share the post by hitting this button in the mails.

There are of course a lot more of these social plugins, for Facebook alone and I would be interested in learning what plugins you use on your blog or sites. Please do share your preferences in the comments below.

Oh don’t forget to Join us on our Facebook Page!

Image with thanks