New social networking platform Google+ is getting popularity day by day. Many of us are already using this awesome platform and increasing the circle. Features like Hangout, Notification on search engine homepage, Spark and much more are really good in Google+. Even Facebook and Twitter are facing the heat and they are planning to come up with new features to compete with this new kid from search engine giant. Recently Facebook launched the video chat feature in collaboration with Skype to compete with Google+ hangout but early reviews are showing Google+ hangout quality much better than Facebook video chat application.
Anyway, if you are using Google+ and own a WordPress blog and want to increase the followers, then you should try embedding the Google+ profile widget in sidebar of the blog. This way you status updates and shared links will reach to more and more users and will help you in spreading the content of the blog to maximum people. There is no official update from Google about releasing a widget for blogs but there are few WordPress plugins and online service to add the profile widget in blog for free. Here are few of them that I tested on few test blogs.
1. GoogleCard WordPress Plugin
It add a simple box in sidebar or any other widget enabled area of the WordPress template. Once you will activate the plugin from dashboard, you can see a new widget option in widget area of the blog. Drag and drop that option named “GoogleCard” to the widget area and provide the Google+ profile ID of your account. You can find the profile ID (21 digit number) in your Google+ profile URL. For example my profile ID is 101186485812857061482 where my Google+ Profile URL is “https://plus.google.com/101186485812857061482”.
2. Scriptrr Google+ Profile Widget Plugin
This is more advanced and option rich plugin for the same purpose. Apart from “Add to Circle” option, it also shows the social networking links available on your Google+ profile. It also shows the details about you that you have entered on about page of Google+ account. You can hide the social media links from the Widget area. Here also you just need to drag and drop the widget of this plugin to widget area on WordPress dashboard.
3. Google Plus Widget
This is a web service and not a plugin. It can be used on WordPress or any other HTML/PHP Websites. You just need to go to this page and provide your Google+ Profile ID. You can also provide other details to customize the look and feel of the widget. Now click on “Get Code” to get the JavaScript code that you need to paste on theme template or Widget Text Box of your blog. Here is how it looks with minimum customization.
If you are aware of any other plugin or web service to add widget in blog or website, share that through comment section of this post.
I spend most of my time around WordPress and related plugins. It is almost impossible to resist myself from sharing good tips, tutorials and updates related to the platform. After all, I am a blogger by passion.
Ola! Wpoptimus,
I was wondering on a similar note,, I followed the walkthrough when I looked it up on google, but when I save it, all that shows up is a clickable link to my formspring. I want the formspring box, not the link. I’m trying to get the little widget thing on there…I have myspace 2.0 idk why it’s not working.
Great Job!
But how I do to add google+ to my wordpress.com blog? where?