over 4 years ago from Dale-Anthony Williams, UI Designer at BaseKit
Just wondering how many people actually use share buttons on websites? Personally I tend to just copy the URL of a website and manually share myself.
I either manually share or use Safari or Tweetbot’s share buttons. I don’t think I’ve ever used a share button on a website.
Belam's article has some good actual data in it. Lot of designers who argue against social media buttons forget the first rule of design (you are not your user).
Also, social media buttons are handy for tracking social media sharing via Google Analytics event tracking.
If people wanna share they share. Simple as that. Buttons just slow down your site.
Lost count of how many articles I would have shared but couldn't find a button so didn't share
If I really value the content and want to share it with my folks I go every extra mile. And I like that it is that way. If the effort for sharing is too much for me than the content wasn't good enough.
I discovered something really interesting about this recently. Backstory: I work for a social analytics company, and we provide our customers share buttons which generate tracking links so users can understand which channels perform, what content gets shared etc. Last year we started offering address bar tracking as well. At the end of last year we ran some campaigns for a very major retail brand, and were astonished to find that 90% of their sharing came from the address bar. In many cases people barely touch the buttons, so most people are unable to account for 80-90% of their social traffic.
Amazeballs. I'd be interested in hearing more details :]
Hilariously the company almost didn't implement the address bar tracking. They would've had no idea how much money they made off of people sharing their content / products.
Well, that's because tracking and statistics are an utter waste of time. You're better off building more functionality.
[/sarcasm]
Manually, and I always edit the copy. Those buttons are ugly and makes a design look cheap. Keep in mind you are asking a design crowd, not the average visitor.
I usually look for the share buttons. Stories should come with a prewritten tweet and intended hashtag; I like to format it the way the author intended, then add my 2¢.
Plus, it's much easier.
I don't use pretty much because of the prewritten stuff.
Copy/paste. Always. It's ingrained in my mind and my fingers.
cmd + L, cmd + C, cmd + V
I tend to use the share buttons pretty frequently on mobile, it's just a couple steps easier. That said, I rarely use them otherwise.
Copy url. Paste in email, twitter, etc. Send.
Really, I never use share buttons. Sometimes with Twitter, but nothing else.
If I want to add my own comment to the URL, I do it manually, otherwise, I use the sharing buttons.
The one place I do use them is YouTube, not really sure why. Think it's the guaranteed preview / thumbnail.
The thumbnail and associated information is generated from the itemprop schema on the page being linked to.
I always use the buttons :)
I prefer it that way although I often edit down if it's too long or too many hashtags - Vimeo I'm looking at YOU!
Copy paste. Always. I don't trust like buttons.
Also, I have this thing where I just want a post to be perfect down to the last punctuation mark, so I'll write all of it myself.
I always look for Facebooks share button when sharing to Facebook. Not any other button though.
I copy/paste because I like to track clicks on the links I tweet. I also sometimes edit the titles, use a quote or something else than the articles headline. I don't know (outside of a facebook like or testing to see if social buttons work) that I've EVER used them.
I use Pinterest share buttons if they're on the image I want to pin. I also use tweet buttons at the end of articles regularly. Never share to facebook though.
I only use the share button for G+
A more relevant question would be whether your site users use share buttons or manually share.
No buttons, I either manual copy/paste or flip it bookmarklet into my flipboard magazine. :)
I use a Twitter bookmarklet if I want to share, so no, I don't use share buttons if they're on a page.
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