Social Locker WordPress Plugin: The Ultimate Guide to Boosting Social Shares in 2024
As a website owner, you know that getting visitors to share your content on social media is crucial for expanding your reach and driving more traffic to your site. But simply asking readers to share isn‘t always enough. You need to give them a compelling reason to spread the word. That‘s where the Social Locker WordPress plugin comes in.
Social Locker is a powerful tool that "locks" a portion of your content until the visitor likes, shares, tweets or subscribes. This innovative approach incentivizes social sharing, enabling you to quickly grow your social media presence and following.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll dive into everything you need to know about Social Locker – how it works, its key features, real-world examples, tips for success, and more. Whether you‘re a blogger, marketer, or business owner, you‘ll learn how to use this plugin to maximize your content‘s exposure and impact.
What Is Social Locker and Why Should You Use It?
In a nutshell, Social Locker allows you to restrict access to certain content on your WordPress site until the user takes a desired social action, such as:
- Liking your Facebook page
- Sharing the post on Facebook or Twitter
- Tweeting a message you specify
- Following you on Twitter
- Subscribing to your YouTube channel
- Signing up for your email list
The content is blurred out or completely hidden until the visitor clicks one of the social buttons you‘ve set up. This could be a free download, a discount code, an exclusive video, a contest entry, or simply the rest of the article.
The psychology behind this is based on the principles of reciprocity and FOMO (fear of missing out). By giving something valuable away for free, but requiring a small "payment" in the form of a like or share, visitors feel more compelled to comply. No one wants to miss out on what‘s behind the locker!
The benefits of using Social Locker are substantial:
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Increase social shares, likes, and followers: Turn your existing website traffic into valuable social currency that expands your reach.
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Generate buzz and social proof: People are more likely to engage with content that‘s popular. All those shares make your brand look more trustworthy and in-demand.
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Grow your email list: Integrate with your email marketing platform to build your subscriber base.
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Reward loyal fans: Give your social media followers exclusive perks to strengthen their connection to your brand.
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Get more mileage from your content: Recycling old posts with a content locker breathes new life into them.
Best of all, Social Locker provides detailed stats and analytics so you can see exactly how well your lockers are performing and which types of content get the most engagement. This allows you to optimize your strategy over time.
Key Features of Social Locker for WordPress
Now that you understand the potential of this plugin, let‘s explore its specific capabilities and settings. Social Locker integrates with all the major social networks and offers a host of options for customizing the look and functionality to suit your needs.
Social Buttons:
- Facebook like, share, and follow
- Twitter tweet, follow, and hashtag tweet
- LinkedIn share
- Google +1 and share
- YouTube follow and subscribe
- Pinterest Pin
Email Locker:
- Integrates with all popular email marketing services
- Captures name and email address
- Can require confirmation of email
- Set a custom redirect URL after signup
- Option to export subscriber list to CSV
Content Locking:
- Hide or blur selected text, images, downloads, videos, or iframes
- Highly customizable locker themes and designs
- Set number of actions required to unlock
- Option to skip locker for already subscribed users
- Stats for each individual locker
Advanced Features:
- Integrated with Google Analytics
- Secondary content lockers (e.g. ask for share AND email)
- Batch lock all external links on a page
- Dynamic locks that rotate different share messages
- Time delays and close buttons
- Mobile responsive designs
As you can see, Social Locker has an impressive range of functions that go beyond simply locking content. It‘s a Swiss Army knife for your social media marketing needs.
Examples & Use Cases
Social Locker is extremely versatile and can enhance many types of content. Here are a few creative ways to use it:
Downloadable Resources:
Got a PDF guide, whitepaper, swipe file, video tutorial or other freebie your audience would find valuable? Use Social Locker to gate it behind a tweet or like.
Exclusive Newsletter Content:
Tease a summary of your latest newsletter content and ask visitors to subscribe to read the full version.
Viral Contests & Giveaways:
Run a social media contest where fans have to share your post and use a specific hashtag to gain an entry. Or do a treasure hunt promotion where the clues are hidden behind social lockers.
Premium Content for Fans:
If you have a popular podcast or video show, reserve bonus content just for your social media followers. It‘s a great way to convert casual listeners into loyal subscribers.
Dripped Online Course Content:
If you have an educational email course, use the email locker to reveal each lesson only after the student shares it. This helps attract new students via word of mouth.
Coupons & Promo Codes:
Drive sales by offering an exclusive discount code to anyone who likes your Facebook page or follows you on Twitter. The urgency of an expiring offer is a powerful motivator.
Breaking News Snippets:
If you run a news or gossip site, tease a headline and the first paragraph of a breaking story, but require a social share to read the rest. Just like magazines putting juicy bits on the cover to force you to buy it.
As you can see, the applications are endless. Any time you can trade a desired action for something your visitor wants, Social Locker can facilitate that value exchange.
Setting Up Social Locker on Your WordPress Website
Sold on the benefits of Social Locker and ready to install it? Let‘s walk through the setup process step by step.
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Purchase and download Social Locker from CodeCanyon or the developer‘s website.
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In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
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Choose the Social Locker zip file you downloaded and click "Install Now"
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Activate the plugin
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Go to Social Locker > Lockers to configure your first content locker:
- Choose which social buttons to include
- Select the content you want to lock (e.g. a block of text, download link, video embed, etc.)
- Customize the design and text labels
- Set any extra options like number of actions required
- Click "Publish" to generate the shortcode for this locker
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Paste that shortcode into any page or post where you want the locker to appear
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To add an email signup locker, you‘ll also need to integrate your email marketing service under Social Locker > Services
That‘s it! You can create unlimited lockers, each with their own unique settings, and insert them anywhere.
Best Practices & Tips for Using Social Locker Effectively
Simply installing the plugin won‘t automatically lead to a surge in social activity. You need to deploy your lockers strategically, with compelling and relevant content. Here are some guidelines for success:
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Ask for action proportional to the value of the content. A small request like a Facebook like is fine for a quick tip or template, but a meatier resource like an eBook can justify subscribing.
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Focus on the benefits and end results when writing your calls-to-action, not just the features included. For example: "Discover the 5 secrets of reducing your energy bill" vs "Get our free energy-saving guide"
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Test different styles and button placement to see what works best. Some audiences respond better to a blurring effect than a complete hide. Sometimes putting the buttons above works better than below.
-Use time-limited bonus content to add urgency. E.g. "This video will only be available to our Twitter followers for the next 48 hours"
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Mix up the platforms you promote to. You likely have different portions of your audience more active on certain networks.
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Don‘t overuse content locking. If every post is gated, it can get annoying. Use it selectively for only your highest value content.
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Craft a compelling "Featured Image" to capture attention and encourage clicks in social news feeds. It‘s what will entice people to check out your locked content.
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Deliver on your promise and then lead visitors to additional content or your product pages. The goal is to turn that new social follower into a loyal customer or fan.
How Content Locking Benefits You AND Your Audience
Some bloggers and website owners are hesitant to "gate" any content, worried that it creates a barrier that will annoy visitors. But when used tastefully and with respect for your audience‘s time and intelligence, content locking creates a win-win scenario.
Your visitors get free access to valuable resources that help them solve problems, be entertained, or learn something new. You get to grow your social reach and email list with an audience that has proactively expressed interest in your content.
It‘s a way to screen for your true fans, rewarding them with exclusive content, while filtering out the freeloaders who aren‘t willing to engage. The people who unlock your content are also more likely to actually consume and act on it, since they had to take that extra step.
Social Locker turns a casual visitor into an active participant in your community – someone who is more likely to keep interacting with your brand and spreading the word to new people. When you make that initial interaction fun and worthwhile, it sets a positive tone for the relationship.
Potential Limitations & Considerations
While Social Locker is a robust and versatile plugin, there are a few things to keep in mind:
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It won‘t automatically make lackluster content go viral. You still need to create something unique and compelling that your audience really wants.
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The additional calls-to-action can decrease the number of people who ultimately view the content, compared to having no locker. But the idea is that you‘re getting quality followers, not just quantity.
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Some of the advanced features can be confusing to set up. You may need to dive into the plugin‘s documentation or contact support.
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The lockers aren‘t 100% uncrackable for visitors who are clever enough to hack the source code. But most people won‘t have the time or skills to bother circumventing them.
Use your best judgment and put yourself in the shoes of a visitor. A social locker should enhance the user experience, not detract from it.
Social Locker Lite vs. Premium – Which One Should You Choose?
Social Locker comes in both a free "lite" version and a premium version. The lite version is fairly limited in features, but can be a good way to test the concept before investing in the full plugin.
However, most of the settings and integrations I covered in this guide require the premium version. If you‘re serious about using content lockers as part of your social media strategy, the premium version is well worth the affordable one-time cost. You‘ll be able to do so much more in terms of customizing the design, analytics, and functionality.
Social Locker vs. Similar WordPress Plugins
Social Locker is one of the most popular and highly rated content locking plugins for WordPress. But it does have some alternatives worth considering:
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Grow by Mediavine (Formerly Social Pug): A full-featured social sharing plugin with content locking built in
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OnePress Social Locker: A lightweight option specifically for content locking, but not as many customization options
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Revive Old Posts / Revive Network: Focuses on automatically resharing old content to social media, with an option to hide each post until shared
Ultimately, Social Locker strikes the best balance between ease of use, depth of features, and ongoing developer support. But you may want to try a couple options to see what works best for your specific needs.
Frequently Asked Questions About Social Locker
Still have a few burning questions before taking the plunge with Social Locker? Let‘s address some common ones:
Q: Will Social Locker slow down my website?
A: The plugin is well-optimized and shouldn‘t create any noticeable impact on your site speed or performance. You can also enable caching to further minimize load time.
Q: Can I use Social Locker on non-WordPress websites?
A: No, Social Locker is exclusively a WordPress plugin. For other platforms, you‘d need to use a different third-party tool or custom code a solution.
Q: Do I need to display the Social Locker branding?
A: No, you‘re free to customize the design and remove any mention of Social Locker. The plugin is unbranded and white-labeled.
Q: What happens if Social Locker stops being supported in the future?
A: Social Locker has been around for many years and the developers are active in providing support and updates. But in the unlikely event they went away, your lockers would continue to function as long as the APIs of the social networks don‘t drastically change.
Q: Are there any limits on how many lockers I can create or how much traffic I can get?
A: Nope, it‘s unlimited! You can create as many lockers as you want on as many websites as you want.
Is Social Locker Right For You?
We covered a lot of ground in this epic guide to Social Locker. While no plugin is a magic bullet for social media success, I truly believe Social Locker is one of the most effective ways to proactively grow your presence and turn casual visitors into avid followers, subscribers, and customers.
It‘s a tool I recommend to all my clients who are struggling to get traction despite creating great content. Because sometimes you have to put up a velvet rope to make people want to get into the VIP section, you know?
Obviously, you don‘t want to use lockers on every piece of content. But for those signature resources you put extra effort into, why not make them "earn" that access with a quick like, share, or subscribe?
Run a few tests and keep an eye on your Social Locker stats. Once you start seeing those numbers climb and the positive comments roll in, I‘m confident you‘ll be locking it up on the regular.
To a future of content they can‘t resist sharing,
[Your Name]
