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Those buttons do serve a very important purpose, which is to make it simple for visitors to share information. The problem is "website designers" crossing the l

by jemka 14y ago

Those buttons do serve a very important purpose, which is to make it simple for visitors to share information. The problem is "website designers" crossing the line between providing the user with a tool to share information and just plain using that tool to "market" or "coerce" visitors into sharing. I run a few sites and I know first hand these buttons are used. What I'd like to see are A/B tests on the various button layouts and designs to show their affects on sharing.

hackNightly 14y ago
I think you hit the nail on the head here. It's really about good design and placement of the buttons. The buttons themselves, however, are extremely important to the flow of information through different mediums.
Domenic_S 14y ago
> Those buttons do serve a very important purpose, which is to make it simple for visitors to share information. Isn't it simple enough already? I mean, can you see a case where a visitor is like, "Man I'd love to share this post on Facebook, but opening up Facebook itself is just too much trouble."?
- tannerc 14y ago
  It happens, there are people who will not share content because they have to (god forbid) open a new tab. But if the content is good enough, little to nothing will prevent people from sharing it. If your content is that catchy or helpful or entertaining, people will share it.
- jemka 14y ago
  >Isn't it simple enough already? Pick one: - click a button & sign in (if not already signed in), & click share OR - Find the permalink of the information you want to share (not always obvious to people. e.g. the links my mom sends me via email), open the service you want to use to share, log in, navigate to the area of the service responsible for sharing information, paste the permalink, click share. The buttons not only make it more easy and convenient they add a suggestive quality. Especially if the buttons include # of shares indicating a form of popularity. So no, it's not a matter of something being "too much trouble" or "easy enough already". It's much deeper and if you really knew people well, you'd know there is no such thing as "easy enough already".
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    Those were my exact concerns, so I built a service to help: http://www.yourpane.com./ http://www.yourpane.com./ The low-down is that you install a bookmarklet and add some contacts. When you want to share a page, you click the bookmarklet, select the people you want it to go to, and click share. That's all. The recipients don't even need a YourPane account, they just get an email saying that you sent them a link. It's basically very streamlined link emailing.
makeee 14y ago
Exactly. You shouldn't slap a ton of these buttons on your site and assume your maximizing your sharing potential. The 3 share links I have on imgfave.com drive 10x the traffic of the addthis widget that I used previously. I tried using the facebook like button, but the share link I have on their now drives 15x as much traffic as the like button, even though it takes two steps to post back to facebook. Important to make no assumptions and keep testing.

by jemka 14y ago

hackNightly 14y ago

I think you hit the nail on the head here. It's really about good design and placement of the buttons. The buttons themselves, however, are extremely important to the flow of information through different mediums.

Domenic_S 14y ago

> Those buttons do serve a very important purpose, which is to make it simple for visitors to share information. Isn't it simple enough already? I mean, can you see a case where a visitor is like, "Man I'd love to share this post on Facebook, but opening up Facebook itself is just too much trouble."?

tannerc 14y ago
It happens, there are people who will not share content because they have to (god forbid) open a new tab. But if the content is good enough, little to nothing will prevent people from sharing it. If your content is that catchy or helpful or entertaining, people will share it.
jemka 14y ago
>Isn't it simple enough already? Pick one: - click a button & sign in (if not already signed in), & click share OR - Find the permalink of the information you want to share (not always obvious to people. e.g. the links my mom sends me via email), open the service you want to use to share, log in, navigate to the area of the service responsible for sharing information, paste the permalink, click share. The buttons not only make it more easy and convenient they add a suggestive quality. Especially if the buttons include # of shares indicating a form of popularity. So no, it's not a matter of something being "too much trouble" or "easy enough already". It's much deeper and if you really knew people well, you'd know there is no such thing as "easy enough already".
- StavrosK 14y ago
  Those were my exact concerns, so I built a service to help: http://www.yourpane.com./ http://www.yourpane.com./ The low-down is that you install a bookmarklet and add some contacts. When you want to share a page, you click the bookmarklet, select the people you want it to go to, and click share. That's all. The recipients don't even need a YourPane account, they just get an email saying that you sent them a link. It's basically very streamlined link emailing.

makeee 14y ago

Exactly. You shouldn't slap a ton of these buttons on your site and assume your maximizing your sharing potential. The 3 share links I have on imgfave.com drive 10x the traffic of the addthis widget that I used previously. I tried using the facebook like button, but the share link I have on their now drives 15x as much traffic as the like button, even though it takes two steps to post back to facebook. Important to make no assumptions and keep testing.