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How to Add Google +1 Button to Your WordPress Blog and Track Social Media Engagement With Google Analytics

Now that everyone is rushing to get into Google Plus, you are going to see a lot more sites and blogs adding the +1 button.  I added it here last week, and the process is easy as pie.  It’s done via a plugin, here is the page for the one I used.  You can either go to that page and download the plugin then upload it manually, or go to the Plugins area of your WordPress dashboard, and search for it Google +1 Button and that should bring it up.  Pretty sure this is for WordPress.org only.

Something else that got kinda lost in the shuffle with everyone rushing to get onto Plus was that Google Analytics is now tracking social media engagement levels!  If you are already set up with a Google Analytics account, you’ll need to make sure you are using the New version, look at the top of your screen and there should be a link to Switch to the New Version.  You want to click that, because the new version of GA has some extra functionality, including measuring social media engagement.

When you get in, then click Visitors, and you’ll see a few new options, including Social.  When you click it, then you’ll see options to track Engagement, Action and Pages.  Now if you have installed the Google +1 plugin above, then GA will automagically start showing you how many clicks your Google +1 buttons are getting, how many page views, time spent on site, etc.  When you click on Engagement, it will show you your traffic for the last month, then the amount of traffic that was Not Socially Engaged, and Socially Engaged.  Here’s a screenshot of what mine looks like now:

Yeah I know, nothing to write home about yet 😉  But as I get a lot more data in, I can see how the usage of people that click the Google +1 button compares to other site users.  And the great thing about this report is that it can also track engagement levels with Tweets, Facebook Likes, Facebook Shares, and I believe even when posts are Stumbled!  The bad news is, that can’t be done via a plugin (yet), those can only be added via coding that I do NOT want to touch yet.  If you are adventureous, here’s some tutorials on how you can add this functionality.  I did note that Google is asking plugin developers to start updating their plugins so that it will add tracking functionality automagically, similar to how the Google +1 Button works.  So my guess is that these plugins that we are now using to add ReTweet and Facebook Like buttons to our blogs will soon offer this, so I’m going to wait a bit before I try to add it myself and break my blog 😉

So there you go!  If you were wanting to add Google +1 buttons to your blog, the above plugin will do it for you, then once you have it installed, you can start tracking how many clicks you’re getting and other forms of engagement with the new version of Google Analytics.  Let me know what you think!

About Mack Collier

My name is Mack Collier and I am a digital marketing and content strategist located in Alabama. Since 2006 I've helped companies of all sizes from startups to global brands such as Adobe, Dell and Ingersoll-Rand, create customer-centric programs, content and experiences. A long-time internet geek, I've been online since 1988 and began using social networking sites in 1991 when I joined Prodigy. Today, I help companies understand how new technologies like web3, crypto and artificial intelligence can integrate with existing marketing strategies to lead to exceptional customer experiences.

Comments

  1. MackCollier says

    @ashnewmedia Thank you Ashley! I can’t wait till the Twitter and Facebook plugins update to use GA SM tracking as well!

  2. ParkRidgeDDS says

    Well now…THAT was helpful….let’s see…I added Google +1 button to four sites, I updated my GA to the new version and played with the new social engagement tool…not bad for a Wednesday afternoon…Thank you @MackCollier …

  4. iamreff says

    @mpace101 @Mack @douglaswarnold thx indeed. I also installed the WP Greet Box WP plugin Mack uses.

  6. himay says

    @susanlynncope ” Pretty sure this is for WordPress.org only.” Craaaaaaaaaaap…

  7. Mechaphil says

    @himay @susanlynncope Still being hosted by WP has its advantages…all I had to do was drag and drop the +1 button into “Enabled Buttons”

  9. susanlynncope says

    @mechaphil I got it up and running on my site, but couldn’t replicate it if I had to.

  10. himay says

    @susanlynncope you run your own personally-hosted WP blog as well I thought, right?

  11. susanlynncope says

    @himay Yes, sir. Self hosted. I am not sure how I did it or that I could even replicate it. There was mos def code involved.

  12. himay says

    @susanlynncope Okie. I’ll probably resort to it likewise once things slow down after this week. Been hankerin’ some HTML’in’!

  15. TonyH says

    Thanks for that Mack, I didn’t even know there was a new version of GA available so have updated and can see the Google+ results from the plug in that was already installed. Not great numbers yet but it looks like the visitors are spending a lot of time on the site so maybe quality rather than quantity which is great.

    Looking forward to having Twitter and Facebook stats available, like you there is no way I am fiddling around with any code!

  17. lauraclick says

    @mackcollier Sure thing, Mack. I appreciate the tip. I was wondering how to pull G+ data into Analytics. Now I know. 🙂 Happy to share it!

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