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If you use WordPress or another content management system for your website, such as Joomla, you may have come across ‘plugins’. Basically, a plugin is software which gives additional functionality to the website and many plugins are free.
For example, when you have a site built in WordPress (the self hosted version, not the free hosted version), you may want additional functionality that will allow you to share blog posts. This isn’t built into the WordPress program, so a third party ‘plugin’ is required for you to be able to share your posts across social networks. On Savvy Marketers, at the bottom of each post you’ll see some social networking icons. If one of these is clicked on, it will allow you to share the post with your social network on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. The plugin we use for this is called ‘Bookmarkify’ and I had to install it onto the site as an addition to WordPress.
Plugins not only give you additional functionality, such as sharing posts, but include securing your site better, allow you to back up your posts and pages, add advertising to your site, e-commerce functionality – the list goes on. Plugins will make your site unique from the next one and really give you the ability to have your site just how you want it, aside from design.
WordPress offers a definition of a Plugin and how you could write your own (if you’re a real geek techie!) and they have their own directory of Plugins on the WordPress website. There are almost 8500 plugins in their directory, so it’s quite likely you’ll find something that will add the functionality you want to your website.
If you use plugins regularly, let us know which ones you use and how they help you – it’s always good to know the most useful ones out there!
