Have you ever used the Share This feature on someone's blog you enjoyed?

[NicoleDean]

I keep seeing the "share this" plugin recommended on all of the "Best Plugins for Wordpress" lists and I realized that I've never once used it to recommend a blog post that I've enjoyed.

I'll email it to a friend, manually.
Copy the URL over to Bit.Ly to post to Twitter.
Or Grab the URL and send it via IM to a friend.

But, I've never once used the plugin.

It got me wondering if I'm unusual that way, or if the plugin is wasted energy on my blogs.

So..
1. Have you ever used it to recommend a blog post?
2. How often?

Thanks for indulging my curiousity. :)
Nicole

[ArikaL]

I have used it - especially if I want to help boost them up in Stumble Upon, Digg, etc.

I think from a blog owner perspective, you need to give them options of where to recommend you, but make it where it's most beneficial to you as the blog owner. That way they aren't overwhelmed with 100 options and decide to choose the one that will bring you little to nothing in return.

Me personally, I like StumbleUpon, Twitter & maybe Facebook.

[angienewton]

I don't usually use anything like that (I'm thinking more of the Tweet this button I see on blogs) because most times it asks me for my password and I don't give those to anyone LOL

[wendywood]

If a blog has it, I use it :) If they don't, then I manually copy and paste the URL's into Twitter, etc.

[PpcJen]

I love the Tweetmeme button and I use it all the time. Yes, it does ask for my twitter pw, but I trust that feature. I love Twitter and I know the instant power sharing a link on Twitter can bring to a blog post, so I use it often - several times a day.

I know that is not the "share this" plug in you're asking about, but for some reason, the Tweetmeme attracts my attention, it's simple, doesn't require me to think (ie: choose which site to submit it to) and I know it works.

As for "share this", I will only use it if I am REALLY excited about the post and they don't have Tweetmeme.

[retta719]

I'll use it if it's there, or a tweet this button, or whatever button is there to make my sharing faster. I've also looked for a social media sharing button to click on and not found one ... then I just go the copy and paste the url route, but I do find myself looking for some kind of sharing button when I find a blog post that I really like.

[NicoleDean]

Now you guys got me thinking. Decisions, decisions...

[TraciKnoppe]

I absolutely use a Share This button on blogs; and since I'm busy and time is short for me, if a blog does not have such a feature, I'm less likely to recommend it. So I assume my blog readers are also busy, so I want to make it extremely easy for them to share my content - I provide them with easy to use social bookmarking buttons. :)

[Courtney]

I've never used it on a person's blog, but I do use the Share This firefox addon.

[Kayla Fay]

I use it occassionally, but if it asks me to log into anything other than the site on which I am sharing - I back out.

[Lynn Terry]

As you know I have social media sharing buttons below each post on ClickNewz, and they do get used quite a bit. Definitely been beneficial to my blog in regards to sharing & viral reach.

[NicoleDean]

I think I'll continue down the path I was headed and just offer a few options rather than the whole "Share This" plugin.

Maybe I don't get it, but it just didn't stand out enough, and when I did click on it, there were way too many options that I just figured no one would use it.

So, if I offered Twitter, StumbleUpon... what else is a "must have"?

Thanks!
N

[TraciKnoppe]

I would perhaps include Digg and Facebook in there too, possibly FriendFeed and a print option.

I use either of these two WordPress plugins: Sociable or Sexy Bookmarks. Both are really good, with easy to see icons.

[retta719]

I'm using the Tweet This plugin that lets you pick a handful of socialized buttons to include. I think I have twitter, digg, stumble, facebook, and buzz ... or something like that.

[drmani]

Very interesting thread, thanks for asking that question, Nicole.

I use an 'Add This' button on my blog, but haven't tracked how many
readers use it. It is a (pleasant) surprise to see just how often this
feature might be helpful (I personally copy-paste the URL into Twitter
or an email).

Will re-look at my blog's 'referral system' again - and tweak/test it.

All success
Dr.Mani

[bar2k]

I would perhaps include Digg and Facebook in there too, possibly FriendFeed and a print option.

I use either of these two WordPress plugins: Sociable or Sexy Bookmarks. Both are really good, with easy to see icons.

Great information. Do you know which plugin Lynn use on clicknewz to get those nice bookmarks at the end of each post? I find that the Sharethis plugin is not too obvious.

[NicoleDean]

Well, I've dumped "Share this" and have switched over to Sociable. (Thanks for the recommendation!) Here's the plugin if anyone else is looking for it:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sociable/

Take a look. I think the text above the buttons should be more appealing, but at least it's better than it was. Agree?
http://www.nicoleonthenet.com/3683/personalized-twitter-t-shirts/

N

[cindybidar]

I honestly never thought about this before, but I don't use any of these plugins. I copy and paste the url. Creature of habit, I guess. I do have Sexy Bookmarks on my own blog, though. :o

But I did want to point out that I find share this to be really annoying on other sites. I invariably mouse over the link, then the whole window opens, and then the darn thing won't close. It just sits there, obscuring the text. It's probably user error, I know, but I've learned to hate that plugin.

[deannatroupe]

I use the tweetmeme button to tweet blog posts I find interesting. I find that I'm a lot less likely to share a blog post if it doesn't have that feature. I trust tweetmeme so I don't mind allowing them to access my twitter account.

[BoK]

Hi Nicole,

Just a quick note here. Although I think the Share This plugin is nicely designed and all, including not only a wide variety of alternatives for the social-bookmarking fan, as well as emailing functionality, I still think it suffers from a big problem.

The problem is that one doesn't visually SEE the icons of the social sites until one has clicked on the Share This button. So even though it has the capability of embracing many social sites, I believe it suffers from this "one-step-too-much" problem.

Personally, I like Sociable as a Wordpress plugin, and I use it on EbookBrothers.com. I think it does the job better than ShareThis, although I do miss the email functionality.

Take care!
Bo
EbookBrothers.com (http://www.ebookbrothers.com)
Example using Sociable Wordpress plugin on EbookBrothers.com (http://ebookbrothers.com/230/rewriting-plr-articles-and-plr-ebooks-who-should-do-the-work/)

[deniseoberry]

I love the sharethis option on blogs. It saves me a ton of time and I use it several times a week. But I like what you've done with your icons and think it will probably do the trick for you. The key is to have something that visitors can easily use to share your content and I think you have achieved that.

[NicoleDean]

Thanks everyone. I definitely prefer the visibility of the Sociable buttons over ShareThis. :)

Appreciate all the feedback. You guys rock!
N

[Cosminsky]

I have it installed on my site. But I don't like how it takes you directly to Twitter with a full URL. You know how Twitter will put the whole link up there and not shorten it.... End up doing more work than if I'd just cut and pasted it over.

[bar2k]

@Nicole any issues with Sociable and Wordpress 2.9?

[TraciKnoppe]

I'm not Nicole: but no, I've not had any issues with WP 2.9 and Sociable. All still works. :)

[deniseoberry]

Ok. I've been converted. Now using sociable. But I have an additional question. Lynn and Nicole both have big icons on their blogs. How do I do that?

[TinaWilliams]

Nicole-

I use the sharethis plugin on my blogs for myself and clients and definitely will use the function if I see it on someone's site.

Also, tweetmeme is a good one to have and use on blogs.

Happy New Year!

Tina
http://TwitterTina.com

[deniseoberry]

Figured out how to change the size. In the plugin settings you have to disable sprite usage and then in the sociable.css file you have to change the image size. More info here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/311903

[Jackie Lee]

Thanks for this discussion! I had been using the onlywire option but didn't really like it and had taken it off. Which left my blog with only the tweetmeme button. I just added the sexy bookmarks and really like it. I like how there's an option for people to subscribe to blog comments in there as well ~ even though I have the subscribe to comments plugin running too. Nice option! thanks!

[danwangert]

I like using Facebook Share This button. Whenever I find an article I like on Squidoo I share the articles to my friends. Not only do I keep my friends and fans and such interested in my page but I send traffic to other peoples sites too.

Its good there are also Facebook plugins in Wordpress. Here is a list of Wordpress Facebook plugins somebody put together

http://www.wpjedi.com/25-wordpress-facebook-plugins-you-shouldnt-ignore/