The right WordPress plugin for LinkedIn can help B2B marketers better connect with prospective clients and drive ongoing conversions.
It’s a big market: The number of active LinkedIn users in the United States has been steadily growing for the past few years, according to data from Statista. As of Q1 2021, LinkedIn has reached 64.7 million monthly active users in the US. By 2022, that number is expected to grow to 66.8 million.
Done strategically, engagement on LinkedIn can even drive traffic back to your WordPress website. But how do you transform this pie-in-the-sky potential into results that matter to your bottom line? The right WordPress plugin for LinkedIn can make this happen.
The Purpose of WordPress Plugins for LinkedIn
There’s a wide variety of WordPress plugins on the market, but they don’t all accomplish the same goals. Before we dive into some amazing LinkedIn plugins that will take your online presence to the next level, take a moment to decide what objectives you want to achieve by connecting LinkedIn to your WordPress website. Here are a few places to start:
- Earn Referral Traffic: Adding share buttons is your best bet for earning referral traffic from LinkedIn posts back to your website. These share buttons work because users can post your webpage or blog post directly to their newsfeed. If their followers want to read more, they’ll click the link in the post which brings them to your site.
- Expand Your LinkedIn Community: Something as simple as displaying your LinkedIn follow count can show readers that you’ve built a thriving community of like-minded people who love your content.
- Garner Engagement on Your WordPress Site: If you’ve ever seen comments at the bottom of a blog post on a website you’ve visited, you may have noticed those comments are connected to social media platforms. LinkedIn plugins support this feature as well. You’ll get more engagement on your posts with comments supported by LinkedIn.
- Increase Time on Page for Your WordPress Site: In addition to the goal above, adding LinkedIn comments to your blog posts can encourage people to read the reactions others have had to your content. The longer they stay on the page, the more relevant Google sees your website.
- Work More Efficiently: Rather than scheduling LinkedIn posts in a separate platform, you can work more efficiently by scheduling everything within your WordPress website.
- Create a Personalized Website Experience: If you require a login to your website, there are a wealth of plugins that allow visitors to do so with their LinkedIn credentials. You’ll get access to basic information about the user that can be used to personalize the content they see on your website.
Each of the plugins below will meet one or more of these objectives. And if you want to accomplish the entire list above, you can install multiple plugins and use them together.
Best WordPress LinkedIn Plugins
- WP LinkedIn Auto Publish
- WP to Linkedin Auto Publish
- Best WebSoft's LinkedIn
- Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress
- FS Poster - WordPress Auto Poster & Scheduler
- Social Auto Poster - WordPress Plugin
- WooCommerce Social Login
- Social Warfare
- Super Socializer
- Social Snap
1. WP LinkedIn Auto Publish
WP LinkedIn Auto Publish is the highest-rated free WordPress LinkedIn plugin in the WordPress plugin directory. This plugin lets you automatically publish pages, posts, and even custom post types from your WordPress site to your personal LinkedIn profile and any company profiles that you manage.
This plugin is simple and lightweight, so it won’t take much time or server resources to install and configure. The settings page includes options for choosing who you want to share your LinkedIn posts with. It limits the content that's published based on categories and includes either the post’s featured image or just the text.
You can also use the plugin’s shortcodes to set up a default share message, which you can override in the post meta box settings for certain posts or pages that need a custom message. If you’d rather not have a post shared on LinkedIn at all, then there’s a box you can uncheck for that, too.
What we like:
WP LinkedIn Auto Publish lets you quickly and easily create posts and schedule them for automatic publishing to drive brand interest. Plus, the lightweight nature of the plugin means it won’t impact site performance.
What we don’t:
If you’re looking to branch out beyond LinkedIn, you’ll need to spring for the premium version of the plugin, Auto Social.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to create a default caption (or share message) that saves time on your LinkedIn connection building.
2. WP to LinkedIn Auto Publish
WP to LinkedIn Auto Publish is a free tool with a similar name and feature list as the plugin above, but they do have some differences. With this plugin, you can automatically publish WordPress posts and pages to your personal LinkedIn profile and company pages, which gets your content to a wider audience.
You can publish these as text only or as text with an attached image. To tailor the content before sharing it, there’s an option to configure the plugin to only publish content that is a custom post type or from specific content categories you’ve determined for your site.
You cannot set up a default caption when sharing a post, however, so keep that in mind if you choose this plugin.
What we like:
This plugin makes it easy to publish links to your WordPress site on both your personal and business LinkedIn pages to increase your reach.
What we don’t:
Unlike its similarly-named counterpart, this plugin doesn’t let you create a default caption for your posts, meaning you’ll need to copy-and-paste one or draft another caption each time you post.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to leverage custom category posting and ensure a consistent approach to your social sharing.
3. Best WebSoft's LinkedIn
BestWebSoft's LinkedIn plugin is a smart choice for growing your LinkedIn following and referral traffic. This plugin adds follow and share buttons to your WordPress website posts and pages. With this free tool, you can automatically display buttons on your posts, pages, and homepage and control where the buttons show up on your site.
It’s a simple plugin that is limited to the follow, share, and customization functionality, but if that’s all you need, you’ll have the benefit of a lightweight plugin that won’t slow down your website. Best WebSoft’s LinkedIn plugin will work perfectly for site owners on a budget.
What we like:
Simplicity is the key here — this lightweight plugin lets you easily create follow and share buttons on any WordPress post, page, or your homepage itself.
What we don’t:
If you need more in-depth functionality, this WordPress plugin for LinkedIn falls short since it only supports share and follow buttons.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to customize the placement of buttons on your WordPress website to maximize user engagement.
4. Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress
Easy Social Share Buttons is a premium plugin with most of the features you need to achieve the goals we mentioned above. Offering CTA buttons and subscription forms, this tool will help you grow your social engagement, followers, and subscribers not only on LinkedIn, but on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other sites as well. You don’t have to be a coder or social media expert either. You can select from over 40 styles for your share buttons and monitor your social activity in the plugin’s built-in analytics dashboard to see what button placement and messaging is working.
Below is a look at some button styles and the customization options available with the Easy Social Shares plugin.
What we like:
This plugin is lightweight and fast-loading and includes robust mobile support to ensure your posts and links look good on any device.
What we don’t:
Unlike the BestWebSoft plugin, Easy Social Share is stuffed with features — meaning it can sometimes be confusing to navigate all the options.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin for complete visual customization. If you have a specific idea in mind for what your LinkedIn share and follow options should look like, Easy Social Share is a great choice.
5. FS Poster - WordPress Auto Poster & Scheduler
FS Poster is a premium plugin for automatically posting, scheduling, and reposting content on social media sites. Rather than automatically posting content to your social media platforms once it’s been published, you can schedule the content to reach your social followers at the most optimal time. FS Poster isn’t the most robust auto-scheduler out there, but it works when you want to speed up your workflow.
You can also use the scheduling feature to post content that’s already been published on your WordPress site. In addition to LinkedIn, this plugin supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, and six other platforms.
What we like:
This tool will help you update your social media sites with fresh content and increase your referral traffic, all while saving you time. Its automatic scheduling feature helps keep your content new and engaging.
What we don’t:
While you can customize your messaging, you can’t choose where the URL shows up in the post, potentially leading to readability issues.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to branch out beyond LinkedIn — FS Poster lets you post to 14 social networks simultaneously.
6. Social Auto Poster - WordPress Plugin
Similar to FS Poster, Social Auto Poster is another premium plugin from the CodeCanyon Marketplace that removes the hassle of sharing your WordPress content on social media. Social Auto Poster supports 11 social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube.
With Social Auto Poster, you can also configure the plugin settings to automatically post or schedule new and existing content to your social media accounts. While it doesn’t support all the social platforms that FS Poster does, it’s a viable option for connecting your WordPress site and LinkedIn.
What we like:
Social Auto Poster is intuitive and user-friendly, comes with robust support, and includes free lifetime updates.
What we don’t:
The free version of the plugin lacks features, and creating posts — even with the premium option — can be time-consuming.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin if you’re looking for a solid sharing option that helps grow your business impact.
7. WooCommerce Social Login
WooCommerce Social Login is a premium social login plugin specifically designed for WooCommerce sites. This plugin allows users to register an account, log in, or checkout on your site using their information from one of the 13 supported platforms, including LinkedIn as well as Facebook and Apple Pay.
By removing the hurdle of creating a new account (and asking your customers to remember yet another password) they can use their LinkedIn account to login to your site. You’ll get some basic information about them to customize their experience in the future. They’ll have a smoother user experience on your site as they convert.
What we like:
A simple interface, solid documentation, and full WooCommerce support make this WordPress LinkedIn plugin a great choice to connect products and pages with your LinkedIn profile.
What we don’t:
With a host of options for posts and placements, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by this plugin — especially if you’re already managing a complex WooCommerce site.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to improve the user experience when customers log into your WooCommerce site with their LinkedIn account. Offering such a seamless experience will be sure to boost customer loyalty.
8. Social Warfare
Lightweight and free to download, Social Warfare is loved by content and social media marketers alike because it can grow your LinkedIn following without slowing down your site. This plugin adds social icons to your WordPress site. When visitors click, they’re automatically taken to your LinkedIn profile where they can follow your business for more great content.
When it comes to the user experience, these social buttons aren’t an eyesore at the footer of the webpage. You can enable floating buttons which keeps these beautiful buttons visible on the screen as users scroll.
What we like:
A simple interface, solid documentation, and full WooCommerce support make this WordPress LinkedIn plugin a great choice to connect products and pages with your LinkedIn profile.
What we don’t:
With a host of options for posts and placements, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by this plugin — especially if you’re already managing a complex WooCommerce site.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to improve the user experience when customers log into your WooCommerce site with their LinkedIn account. Offering such a seamless experience will be sure to boost customer loyalty.
9. Super Socializer
This three-for-one plugin can help you increase referral traffic with social share buttons, enable visitors to create accounts with their LinkedIn profiles, and drive engagement under your blog posts with LinkedIn comments. Although Super Socializer is lightweight and fast, you may need to download additional plugins like Heateor Social Login to get more button customizations with this plugin.
What we like:
This free plugin requires minimal effort to create social share buttons and connect them with 24 social networks, including LinkedIn.
What we don’t:
While the plugin is free, accessing some of its best features requires you to install additional add-ons.
Pro tip:
Use this plugin to streamline your social sharing so you can focus on other brand-building tasks.
10. Social Snap
With more than 20,000 installations and regular updates, Social Snap is a powerful option for connecting your WordPress website to social networks. The plugin includes share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, along with “Mix” share buttons and support for more than 30 platforms to extend your reach. Social Snap also lets visitors easily email, print, and one-click copy current page URLs to help encourage organic sharing.
While the basic version of Social Snap is free, there’s also a premium option that unlocks share counters, URL shortening, and additional share buttons and actions.
What we like:
Social Snap can help you boost both current and past posts with easy customization and powerful shortcodes.
What we don’t:
The basic Social Snap version lacks most of the plugin’s best features.
Pro tip:
Use the premium version of this plugin to get your message across on more than 30 social platforms.
Leveraging the Power of LinkedIn on Your WordPress Site
If you can combine the functionality and reach of your LinkedIn profile and WordPress website, you'll be able to attract and engage more visitors. With any of these plugins, you can add LinkedIn features to your WordPress site and make these two platforms work better together to achieve your marketing goals.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
