Slides and notes for a training session for student organizations at Seton Hall University. This is a session for somewhat experienced users covering ways to enhance their blogs, including:
An events calendar
Image galleries
Forms
Social media integration
Intended to be speaking notes for a hands-on demonstration, this is by no means a polished presentation. It is posted as an aid to students who have attended the course and wish to review.
3. If you can think of it, there’s probably
a plugin that does it*
* And we probably already have it installed.
4. A Few Of Our Favorites
From the back…
• Mail SMTP
• wpDirAuth
• Akismet and WP Zero
Spam
• Black Studio Touch
Dropdown Menu
• Google Analyticator
• User Role Editor
• Private! and Private Only
• Sidebar Login
• My Custom CSS
• WPtouch Pro
To the front
• Social media widgets
• Advanced YouTube,
Custom Field and Featured
Page Widgets
• Contact Form 7
• Events Made Easy
• Google Maps
• Search Everything
• Shutter Reloaded
• Subscribe by Email
• Yet Another Related Posts
Plugin
5. What We’ll Cover
• Events Calendar
• An Image Gallery
• A More Advanced Image Gallery
• Forms for contacts, information,
applications
• Social Media Integration
6. How To Do It
• Click Activate
• But wait, that’s not all.
– Read about it. Click on the link to the plugin
page
– Look at the screenshots
– Make sure you configure it!
• Look at the settings
• Apply the widget and configure it, too.
9. Let’s Experiment
• Make an events calendar
– Activate Events Made Easy
– Look at the settings page
– Add a location
– Add a new category
– Create a new event
– Preview the home page, then the calendar
page
19. An Image Gallery
• Built-in tools let you do some things
• Powerful plugins let you do more.
20. Using the WordPress Gallery Tool
• Group your images into blocks of
thumbnails
• Each leads to a larger version
• Captions
• Basic functionality
• Do it from within a post or page
• Use the Add Media button
21.
22.
23.
24. NextGEN Gallery
• NOT MULTISITE
COMPATIBLE!
• But it works great on
individual sites.
• A fairly complex plugin with
lots of features and
customizations.
• Gather images into galleries
• Gather galleries into albums
• Different views
40. Social Media
• For following,
– Invite your blog readers to follow or like your
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. page
• Sharing,
– Make it easy for people to share your stories
on social media sites
• Integrating
– Including social media content within your
blog
41. Pull Content In
Including a Twitter feed
Using the Twitter Widget Pro plugin.
42. Set up API keys
You’ll need to log into the Twitter Developer section to do this.
Instructions are included on the other tabs
More details are available at blogs.shu.edu
43. Configure the Widget
Add it to the widget area of your choosing
Account name
Title
Specifications and options
44. Advanced Twitter Feed Integration
Uses full API credentials, which can be tricky to set up
Avatars, additional links, more options
49. Sharing Is Good
Clockwise from top left
• Share Buttons by AddToAny
• Social Sharing Toolkit
• Facebook, Twitter & Google+
Social Widgets
• Monarch
50. Build Followers
Social Sharing Toolkit
Can add icons for 26 different social media presences
51. Other Widgets
EP Social Widget
Theme Support
Accurax Social Media Widget
Subscribe by Email
Monarch
52. What Makes A Great Site?
• Useful
• Interesting
• Timely
Google
Facebook
YouTube
Yahoo!
Baidu
Wikipedia
Windows Live
Amazon.com
Tencent QQ
Twitter
How long we’ve been doing it, where we’ve been. Moveable type etc.
Predates me, maybe six years
Four years ago made the move over
Circle back to look at the menu in the browser.
We’ve got around 175 ready to use.
Behind-the-scenes functionality , to more and better interactivity
The plugin’s page on wordpress.org will have detailed instructions on how to use it.
Can be simple, can be complex.
When you activate a plugin you will likely find new settings pages and/or new widgets.
Again, it may not do anything until you configure it.
Divide this up among people.
A widget is already set up
Done. In the background it’s created a new page, “Events.”
Everybody do this. Your events will all be somewhere. Set up a list of places. Maps! Images!
Categories can let you generate multiple calendars, or give different kinds of events different styles. Rehearsals vs. Concerts for example
Typing in the “name” of the location gives hints. Focus on the Name, Date, Time, Location. Don’t forget to save it.
Default status is “draft.” Use the Events tab on the Settings page.
Drag and drop
Select the page, Add To Menu, drag into position, Save.
Wait for everyone to save their events.
This plugin can do a lot. Customize widget view – date, time, formats, places, which text to show, featured images, registration forms, attendance.
Can also independently manage the calendar page to show a grid, or an agenda,
individual event views
with all of the formatting options.
Select Your Images, Start Upload, wait
Important concepts:
Title and description.
Linked page – lets you display a gallery as a freestanding page. Get a new one by creating a new page
Preview image – the shot representative of your gallery
Editing, tagging, titles, descriptions, rotate, metadata – many are options professionals might use.
The thumbnail sizes and other things can be modified.
You can even start here – build a gallery without going through the other screens.
I like to override the thumbnail settings, which are too small for my taste.
Here’s what the “Request A Blog” form looks like on the back end.
Shortcode to embed on page, post or widget
Field types
Required fields
CAPTCHA
Use both codes enclosed in square blocks, one in the form itself
And the others in the message body.
It even supports file uploads.
Alternative messages – send a notification to yourself PLUS a receipt to the user, for example.
The Contact 7 Form Database plugin saves all these so you can view or download all your results.
Just embed the shortcode
Everything below “Feel free…” is generated by the Contact Form 7 settings.
Create as many forms as you need for different purposes.
Many of these require some configuration, as the SM sites introduce more powerful APIs they restrict access.
A tricky process that we can help you with
Works for PAGES, not personal profiles.
In almost every case, the plugins you need to make these work are tricky.
There are lots of cryptic API keys and poorly written instructions to slog through, and even then there might be a version or SSL problem..
RSS tends to be easy
Not to say don’t try them, just be prepared for it to take time.
These allow you to automatically re-publish your posts on your social media pages.
Icon size, text, custom text custom icons through settings page
The widget is simple
Most offer customization
Size, shape, placement on page, alignment
And of course select your networks.
Build a subscriber list.
Top ten sites according to Wikipedia.
Chinese search engines and social media sites are here.
Other sites in the top 100
Sports news
Social media
Shopping
Photo sharing
In all its glory, unchanged since it was launched in 1996.
