Last week I got an invitation to try out the beta version of the Wibiya Bar. You can read my short review of it here. The poll results were pretty interesting with a whopping 40% of you saying that, “It’s pretty cool! I’ll definitely use it!” and another 40% of you saying, “It’s ok. Nifty features and all . . . I might use it.” What’s a blogger to do? I decided to keep the bar up for a week, see how it performed, and also to see if it would net me a considerable return on investment. In the end though, I don’t think it has.
Actually, it really came down to a comment Steve Borgman made;
While I like the wibiya bar, it’s a little distracting/busy.
That and the fact that the bar took a little too long to load in the browser on certain occasions. In other words it started to become an unnecessary burden.
While the Wibiya bar is very functional in what it can do, but I feel like it just wasn’t functional for my community. No one was really using it as intended and there’s nothing wrong with that. This blog has plenty of social features built in such as the Disqus comment system, the Twitter re-tweet button, and the “share this” plugin for each article.
As a blogger you’ll find a lot of great tools, plug-ins, and widgets that can really enhance your blog. The only way to know what’s right and what’s not is to test them out. However, remember that you’re not testing it for self, but for the greater good of the community you’re trying to foster. If it’s not functional for them then it certainly won’t be functional for you.
Fellow bloggers and blog readers, let me hear from you. What’s your favorite social tool/plugin for your blog? What works for your site? What feature do you wish you had? Leave your mark in the poll below and add your two cents in the comments section as well.
What are your Favorite Blog Social Plugins?
- Tweetmeme Button (100%, 1 Votes)
- The Sociable Plugin (100%, 1 Votes)
- Other (100%, 1 Votes)
- The Disqus Comment System (0%, 0 Votes)
- Intense Debate Comment System (0%, 0 Votes)
- Facebook Connect (0%, 0 Votes)
- Share This - Social Buttons (0%, 0 Votes)
- All (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 1
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About the Author
Rod
