Popularity of social networks rose considerably over past couple of years and penetrated all other spheres of the web. Now, when website content can be liked, tweeted or pinned, it is important to be quick and introduce these functions to your website.
Wide number of add-ons give opportunity to integrate most popular social networks into Plone and bookmark favourite content or share it with friends. Here is the short review of the Plone products that help to integrate social networks into the Plone-based websites.
XHOSTPLUS Social
sc.social.like
sc.social.bookmarks
zest.social
collective.addthis
Twitter and Facebook widget
collective.sharerizer
Simple Social
collective.portlet.socialnetworks
XHOSTPLUS Social
xhostplus.social 1.4.6 (2013-06-10) is easy to install and use Plone package that helps to display buttons for the 4 most popular social networks: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Linkedin on the Plone site. 
After activating XHOSTPLUS Social on the Add-on panel you can configure several options in the Social Network Configuration.
sc.social.like
sc.social.like 2.0a1 (2013-07-23) is a Plone package that provides simple Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Facebook integration for Plone website.
Several features can be configured in the plugin settings:
- different Plone content types for which plugin can be applied;
- social network icons that can be displayed;
- horizontal or vertical button style;
- plugin-specific configurations for Twitter and Facebook.
![sc.social.like settings]()
sc.social.bookmarks
You can use social.bookmarks 1.2.3 (2012-06-12). This particular package adds a Bookmark & Share action to a Plone 4 website pages. Any user can bookmark or share a content from a Plone site to a huge number of services (62 providers already included), for example: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks, Yahoo Bookmarks, BlogMemes, blogmarks, Bluedot, co.mments, Bumpzee, connotea, Digg, Delicious, Linkter, MyShare, Netscape, Reddit, Scoopeo, Simpy, YahooBuzz.
You can choose display style: either icons only or bookmark link with options in the popup. 
After activating this product in the Add-on panel you can configure its settings in the Add-on Configuration section:
- choose which of provided services will be used for bookmarking;
- select for what content type this options will be possible;
- tick Use as a content action if you want a popup with links to appear only after mouse hovering over Bookmark text, or untick it if you want permanent bookmarks available;
- tick Show icons only? if you want to display only icons without text.
![sc.social.bookmarks settings]()
zest.social
Zest.social 1.3 (2012-09-12) adds a viewlet at the bottom right corner of the page that allows to share content on LinkedIn, Twitter or Google. Additionally there is a print button. It is possible to share page on some other services using a popup menu.
There are more than 285 services available for sharing and you can quickly search for them using simple popup window.
After activating zest.social product it is important to enable viewlet on the particular page. To do this go to Settings tab on the editing page and tick ‘Show social bookmarking viewlet’.
collective.addthis
Collective.addthis 1.3.3 (2013-05-27) combines addthis services with Plone CMS. This package produces a viewlet near the bottom of the page. After clicking on the Share button there is a possibility to share the content via more than 285 social network services. 
You can change configurations on the AddThis settings tab. For instance, it is possible to display the most popular social networks icons beside the Share button to make it easier for visitors. Just select necessary icons from the list, choose their order and press Save. 
You can add your account name with which you are registered on http://www.addthis.com and you will be able to view statistic information on sharing. Receiving in-depth report you can learn how sharing is increasing your traffic and what interests your visitors. Use this tool freely for your business. 
Twitter and Facebook widget
Embed portlet 1.1 (2012-09-04) allows to embed Twitter and Facebook widget with the respective Like and Follow buttons into Plone website page. 
Except activating the app it is necessary to take code from Facebook and Twitter websites. Useful video tutorial is here Plone: embed code from services like facebook, twitter, .... 
collective.sharerizer
Collective.sharerizer 1.4 (2012-11-29) simplifies the process of adding a third-party widget to the Plone website. It is not bound to any particular third-party tool, but provides a control panel where the needed Javascript widget can be pasted. Some tools that could be used are Add to Any and ShareThis.
In the settings tab you should tick ‘Display Document Actions Icons’ and add code provided by the relevant service. Here is the example of Facebook Like button implementation.
Simple Social
collective.simplesocial 1.8 (2013-11-12) is focused on the integration of Facebook within Plone website, including:
- Like Button
- Like Box Portlet
- Feed Form Portlet
- Post to Facebook Fan Page
- Custom Facebook Connect Integration
You would need to create your own app on the developers.facebook.com and insert its information to the settings tab. 
collective.portlet.socialnetworks
collective.portlet.socialnetworks 1.2 (2013-01-18) allows to add icons with links to your blogger, digg, facebook, flickr, google plus, linkedin, myspace, pinterest, stumbleupon, tumblr, twitter, vimeo, or youtube accounts. 
After activating the product go to Site Setup -> Configuration registry. Find collective.portlet.socialnetworks there and add links to the social networks you are active on to the record. E.g.:
facebook|http://www.facebook.com/TalkQuintagroup
twitter|https://twitter.com/quintagroup
youtube|http://www.youtube.com/user/quintagroup
Number of Plone packages for Social media websites integration increases. It is important to choose the one that suits your website or web application. Consider not only display options, functionality, speed, and number of social networks presented, but also the way such add-ons influence Plone website structure and code.
Plone, social networks and Internet in general are constantly developing so it is important to be familiar with the latest trends. Integrate social media platforms to your Plone website and people will find you.