How to Use Social Media Insights to Improve Your Marketing

Are you marketing on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest? Do you know which type of posts your followers prefer? Social media analytics let you see who your followers are and what they like. In this article you’ll discover how to use your audience insights from Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to improve your social media marketing. #1: Track Follower Preferences on Twitter […]

This post How to Use Social Media Insights to Improve Your Marketing first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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How to Create a Professional Online Resume in WordPress

Are you looking to create an online resume with WordPress? Adding a professional resume to your website allows prospective employers to easily find and contact you. In this article, we will show you how to build a professional resume in WordPress.

Things You Need Before You Start

You will need to have a domain name and a good web hosting company that knows WordPress. We highly recommend that you use Bluehost because they are an official WordPress recommended hosting provider. They will also give you a free domain and 50% off their hosting plan (special for WPBeginner users).

Since our users like options, we also recommend Siteground for WordPress hosting. They have the best support and have the same special offer for WPBeginner users.

You also need to make sure that you have installed WordPress. See our guide on how to install WordPress.

Also this tutorial is only for self-hosted WordPress.org sites and does not work on WordPress.com (see: WordPress.org vs WordPress.com – what’s the difference)

Creating an Online Resume with WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Resume Builder plugin. It works out of the box and there are no settings for you to configure.

Simply go to Resumes » Add New and start building your resume.

The resume builder provides an easy to use interface to create your resume. It is divided into two areas called sections and widgets.

First you need to click on the ‘Add Resume Section’ button. This is where you can add different blocks of information to your resume. You can choose to add either an introduction block or a default block.

Let’s add an introduction block first. This is where you can add introductory information about yourself, add a photo, and call to action buttons.

The photo you add needs to be exactly 237x303px in dimensions.

You will need to click on the ‘Add Button’ to add a call to action button. You can add multiple buttons.

In this example, we added two buttons one labeled contact and another labeled portfolio.

After adding the introduction block, you need to click on the Add Resume Section button and select default block.

We will be using the default blocks to add academic and professional information to the resume.

You can create a section called Education and then add subsections for each school/college.

After that you can create another section for experience and add each job as a new subsection.

Adding Contact Info Widget to Your Resume

The best thing about having an online resume is instant connectivity. Employers and clients can quickly send you a message, join you on IM, or call you directly. Resume builder makes it super simple to display your contact information.

Simply fill out the contact info form under resume widgets.

Adding Skills to Your Resume

Resume Builder also comes with a skills widget which allows you to add your skills, select your expertise level, and provide details for each skill.

You can add as many skills as you like by simply clicking on the add skill button.

Once you are done, simply click on the publish button to make your resume live.

Displaying Resume on Your WordPress Site

Resume Builder comes with a built-in WordPress resume template which works with almost every theme. Each resume you create has its own URL on your website. All you need is to add a link in your site’s navigation menu.

Simply go to Appearance » Menus and click on resumes tab to expand it. You will see the resume you just created. Check the box next to your resume and then click on the add to menu button.

You can now visit your website to see your resume in action.

If you don’t want to use default template, then you can use shortcodes to display your resume on any WordPress page on your site. You will find these shortcodes on the resume editing screen when you save or publish a resume.

Copy and paste these shortcodes on any WordPress page you want to embed your resume.

You can change the style and appearance of your resume using CSS in your theme’s stylesheet. An easier way to do that is by using the CSS Hero plugin. It allows you to change appearance of any element using a simple user interface and without writing any CSS or HTML.

Conclusion

The advantage of using a WordPress resume plugin like Resume Builder compared to using a WordPress resume theme is that you can change the design of your site at anytime without losing any functionality.

When you use a WordPress resume theme, you are forever restricted to using that theme. When you switch themes, you lose all the information and would have to recreate your resume.

Whereas a resume plugin will work with all themes even when you change your theme, all your data would be there.

We hope this article helped you build a professional resume in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to add a portfolio to your WordPress site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

To leave a comment please visit How to Create a Professional Online Resume in WordPress on WPBeginner.

How to Add Title and NoFollow to Insert Link Popup in WordPress

Do you want to add a title and nofollow tag to your WordPress links? By default WordPress does not provide a user interface for adding those attributes. In this article, we will show you how to add title and nofollow to insert link popup in WordPress.

Why You Need Title and NoFollow for Insert Link Section in WordPress

By default when a user click on the insert link button in WordPress, they see a popup like this:

It allows you to add the Link URL and the Link text (also known as anchor text). You can optionally choose to open the link in a new window. This will create a basic link that will look like this in the HTML view:

<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank">Example Website</a>

Often SEO experts recommend that you use rel=”nofollow” attribute on external links. This attribute tells search engines that they can crawl these links, but you don’t want to pass away any link authority to these websites.

Similarly, the title attribute in a link allows you to add a description of the page you are linking to.

It lets users know what they will find when they click on the link. Both these fields are important from an SEO point of view.

In WordPress 4.2, the core team decided to remove the title field in WordPress. Quickly came several plugins that would restore the title field, but they weren’t compatible with the nofollow plugins.

Since we needed both functionality on our site, we searched endlessly until we found a solution that works.

Adding Title and NoFollow Fields in Insert Link Popup

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Title and Nofollow For Links plugin. It works out of the box, and there are no settings for you to configure.

Simply edit or create a new WordPress post and then click on the insert link button in the post editor. The insert link popup will appear, and you will notice the restored Title field and a checkbox to add the nofollow attribute to the link.

The HTML of your hyperlink with a title and nofollow attributes will look like this:

<a href="http://example.com" title="Example Domain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Example Website</a>

That’s all. We hope this article helped you add title and nofollow to insert link in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 40 useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

To leave a comment please visit How to Add Title and NoFollow to Insert Link Popup in WordPress on WPBeginner.

How to Add Email This Option to Your WordPress Posts

Do you want to add an “Email This” button to your blog posts? Word of mouth is probably the most effective marketing technique. By allowing users to email your articles from your website can bring in new visitors and customers. In this article, we will show you how to add an “Email This” option to your WordPress posts.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WP-EMail plugin. Upon activation, you need to visit E-Mail » E-Mail options page to configure the plugin.

You can leave the SMTP settings blank if you are not using an SMTP server or third-party email service like Mandrill.

Next, you need to choose the email text and icon. Under the email settings, you can select email content type and fields that users will see on the email form.

In the email sending method, you can use PHP or Sendmail. If you are using an SMTP server, then you need to select SMTP as your email sending method.

WP-EMail allows you to set a character limit to be used as excerpt in the email. We recommend you to use 100 to 250 characters. This will give the email recipient an idea of the content, and they will have to visit your website to view the full article.

The next part of the settings page allows you to configure the outgoing email template. The default template should work for most websites. However, you can change it using the available template tags.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes buttons, to store your settings.

Important: One last but crucial step is to update your Permalink settings.

Simply visit Settings » Permalinks page and click on the save changes button. You don’t need to change anything. By just saving the permalink structure will referesh your .htaccess file.

Displaying Email This Button in WordPress

After configuring the plugin, the next step is to add the ‘Email this’ button on your WordPress posts and pages.

Method 1: Using The Shortcode

If you just want to add the email button to selected few posts or pages, then you can use this shortcode into your post’s content.

[email_link]

If you want to add email this link to all your pages, then you can use the same shortcode in a text widget as well.

However, WordPress by default does not allow shortcodes to be used inside text widgets. To enable shortcodes in text widgets, you need to add this code in your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_filter('widget_text', 'do_shortcode');

The downside of using the shortcode is that you will have to add this to your posts manually, or if you are using it in a widget, then the email option will be separate from the actual content.

Method 2: Editing Theme Files

If you are comfortable editing code, then you can add the following code in your theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:

//Add Email This Option to Bottom of Post
function wpb_custom_emailthis($content){
if (is_single()) {
	$emailthis = email_link('', '', false);	
	$content .= '<p>' . $emailthis . '</p>';
}
	return $content;
}

add_filter( "the_content", "wpb_custom_emailthis" );

The code above will add the Email This link at the bottom of all your single post pages.

Alternatively, you can use the emal_link parameters and add it directly inside your single.php for more customized display.

We hope this article helped you add email this option to your WordPress posts. If you are having issues sending or receiving emails, then please take a look at our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

To leave a comment please visit How to Add Email This Option to Your WordPress Posts on WPBeginner.

Topher DeRosia Launches GoFundMe Campaign to Attend WordCamp Pune, India

Topher DeRosia, founder of HeroPress, is asking for $2,150 to attend WordCamp Pune, India. DeRosia was asked to speak about HeroPress by Saurabh Shukla, who is a HeroPress contributor and also the lead organizer of WordCamp Pune, India.

In an effort to be transparent, DeRosia published how he will spend the money.

• $1400 for the plane ticket
• $300 for hotel
• $200 for food, cabs, Uber, etc
• $100 for emergencies
• $150 for GoFundMe’s fees

If DeRosia has money left over from his trip, he plans to sponsor a WordCamp that’s having difficulty finding sponsors or donate it to the WordPress Foundation.

Since launching the campaign a few days ago, he’s raised $1,000. Unlike most other campaigns, donors can choose the amount they want to give. Among the donors listed is Matt Mullenweg, who contributed $250. If you enjoy the time, work, and effort put into HeroPress, consider donating a few dollars.

BuddySlack Plugin Sends BuddyPress Activities to a Slack Channel

Not long after the WordPress project adopted Slack as its primary form of communication, David Bisset started using it to help organize WordCamp Miami 2015. The application added real time communication for organizers, speakers, volunteers, sponsors, and the public. He found it to be a helpful addition to the WordCamp’s conference communication tools.

As a new fan of the platform, Bisset decided to build an extension for those who want to use Slack with BuddyPress. BuddySlack is his first plugin released on WordPress.org. The bare bones plugin will send a notice to Slack whenever an activity stream item is generated by any of the following core components:

• Members
• Profiles
• Activity
• Groups

The plugin allows you send your selected stream of activity posts to a particular channel, private group, or as a direct message to a user on your Slack team. It also includes an optional Slack settings panel within BuddyPress user profiles, allowing them to opt out of having their activities sent to Slack.

In order to use the BuddySlack plugin, you’ll need to set up an incoming webhook via Slack, which can then be entered into the plugin’s settings panel.

Bisset doesn’t plan on officially supporting the plugin but will add more features as time permits. He recognizes that it is currently somewhat limited, as it only supports sending activities for four default BuddyPress components. In the future, Bisset plans to expand it to support custom BP components as well as allow the user to customize the message sent to Slack.

Ideally, the plugin would allow you to set certain trigger words so that you wouldn’t have to send the entire stream of activities from a selected component. Right now the best use for BuddySlack might be on a smaller social network that doesn’t have a constant stream of activities. For example, if the Groups component is used sparingly, sending group activity stream posts to a specific Slack channel could be useful. Being able to narrow it down to a specific group would be even better.

The Slack plugin for WordPress allows you to set up multiple integrations for sending notices to different channels. It also allows for sending test notifications and temporarily disabling notices. These might be a few handy features that could benefit BuddySlack. Bisset is accepting pull requests if anyone wishes to contribute to the plugin on GitHub.

Slack integration via a plugin is also available for bbPress, WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Contact Form 7, and Gravity Forms.

Highlights of Matt Mullenweg’s Q&A Session at WordCamp Europe 2015

Kari Leigh | Found Art Photography

The video of Matt Mullenweg’s Q&A session at WordCamp Europe is now published on WordPress.tv. For those who were unable to attend, this session provides a glimpse into what WordPress’ co-founder sees for the future of the software and the community.

One of the most exciting parts of the video is where Mullenweg talks about the potential of WordPress.org to serve other languages and eventually expand avenues of core contribution to non-English speaking audiences.

When asked what kind of contribution can be made to improve WordPress.org for Rosetta sites, themes, and plugins, Mullenweg replied:

Themes and plugins are undoubtedly the most important. To me, the next most important things are the Rosetta sites and having theme and plugin directories available on the Rosetta sites. There is actually a great example at ro.wordpress.org, which is the Romanian Rosetta site that shows both the potential and the problem:

Now there are themes and plugins menu items there, which none of the Rosetta sites have had prior to this. But when you click on it you see mostly English in the plugin descriptions, even things like screenshots and tutorials.

He described these updates to WordPress.org as just a “hint of what could be amazing” one day. Mullenweg noted that despite Europe having 23+ recognized languages, attendees at the WordCamp were all speaking English. However, not all areas of the world are populated by people with bilingual capabilities.

I think it would be amazing to open up WordPress to have a first priority experience of the thousands of plugins and themes that are available for people who do not speak a word of English. Right now WordPress is just not accessible to that group. Luckily, over half the people in Europe are bilingual… In places where that’s a possibility, WordPress can still do well even though we don’t have a native experience in someone’s mother tongue.

But English is only the third most popular language in the world and it’s not the fastest growing. There are huge audiences that I think would be an important part of the community. Someday I want it to be where, instead of things being translated from English to a different language, we’re getting core contributions translated from, say, Chinese or Hindi or Spanish, into English to be reviewed. We’re not looking to just how to translate plugins from English into other languages but vice versa. I think that will be when we’re successful.

In the same way that better language support opens up WordPress to a wider audience, Mullenweg believes that the customizer will open up the software for more non-technical users. During the Q&A he shared his thoughts on the future of the customizer:

As we currently are working, the customizer is the way forward…It essentially removes the fear and disconnect between wp-admin and the front end of a site. It’s a bridge that gives people the confidence to make changes while seeing those changes in real time. The real time feedback and safety net of seeing that, and being able to undo and redo things, is incredibly empowering, particularly for non-technical users who don’t know how to dive into CSS or the code. I personally believe that the work on the customizer is some of the most important going on in the WordPress project right now.

In addition to building the feature in a way that is responsive to mobile devices, Mullenweg noted that the customizer currently falls short on desktop:

The customizer is, for lack of a better word, a narrow interface, because it needs to show your site in addition to the admin. I think we need to do a better job of making sure that interface scales up as well as down, meaning that if you do have the space or would like to make it fullscreen, that it is responsive, so that it enlarges into an interface that probably looks and works much like the current wp-admin interface for being a fullscreen experience for editing and modifying menus, widgets, colors, fonts, header images, site title, all the things that are key to the presentation of your site.

It is curious that the customizer is being pushed through to WordPress 4.3 without the ability to scale up gracefully. If the situation were reversed, where the feature was unfriendly to mobile users, it seems less likely that it would have been deemed ready for core. This illustrates the WordPress project’s strong emphasis on being positioned to attract mobile users.

Mullenweg encouraged attendees to keep an eye on the customizer, because he believes it will do a much better job than Wix and Squarespace when it comes to providing a user-friendly way to customizer websites.

The entirety of the 66-minute long Q&A session is included in the video below. In addition to languages and the customizer, Mullenweg also answers questions about security, WordPress’ minimum PHP version, the possibility of multilingual features in core, and the importance of building for mobile.