=== Social Essentials - Social Stats and Sharing Buttons ===
Contributors: ShaneRQR
Tags: social, stats, twitter, google+, facebook, like, share, pinterest, stumbleupon
Requires at least: 3.0
Tested up to: 3.3.1
Stable tag: 1.0

Social Essentials provides you with stats about social engagement as well as social sharing buttons to add to your posts and pages.

== Description ==

Social Essentials provides you with:

* A simple way to add social sharing buttons to your posts and pages.
* A simple way to add a call-to action to your buttons, to increase social engagement.
* Stats that show you how much your content is being shared, in detail.

The following social networks are supported for both stats and buttons:

* Twitter
* Facebook (like and share buttons)
* Google+
* StumbleUpon
* Pinterest

We've chosen to include these, because they are the most powerful in terms of driving traffic to your site. It's better to focus on the top networks than to add buttons for hundreds of social sites that no one uses.

**Check out the detailed instruction video on the [official plugin page](http://imimpact.com/social-essentials/ "Social Essentials on IM Impact").**


== Installation ==

1. Extract the "social-essentials.zip" file, using the WordPress plugin installer, or upload the contents of the file to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
3. Use the "Setup" link in the "Social Essentials" menu to select the style and placement of the social icons.
4. On the setup screen, use the "Preview" button to see a preview of what the icons will look like and remember to click on the "Save" button to save all changes made.

You can activate the social icons in your posts and pages using the setup menu, or they can be manually inserted using this short code on any page or post:

`[social_essentials]`

Or this code snippet in a php file:

`echo do_shortcode('[social_essentials]');`

**Refer to the [Social Essentials tutorial video](http://imimpact.com/social-essentials/ "Social Essentials on IM Impact") for more information.**

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Can I use the stats-feature in this plugin without adding the buttons? =

Yes. When you activate Social Essentials, all the button display options are turned off. If you don't make a change, no buttons will be added to your site, but you can still check your social sharing stats. The plugin will also register all your social activity generated from manually inserted buttons or from people just sharing on their own accord, without any buttons present.

== Screenshots ==

1. This is what the social icons look like if you select "above content on posts" and "large icons".
2. This is what the social icons look like if you select "above content on posts" and "small icons".
3. Note that you can change the order of the displayed icons simply via drag and drop. And of course, you can select which of the social sharing buttons you want to display.
4. When you first activate the plugin, no buttons will be displayed yet. Only once you select one or several of the display options and save the settings will the buttons appear.

== Changelog ==

= 1.0 =
* First public version of the plugin.

== Upgrade Notice ==

= 1.0 =
First public version of Social Essentials. More upgrades coming soon!