Would you like to make it easy for people to share your content on your blog?
Things just got easier thanks to ShareThis!
Last night, they sent out an email saying you can now list out your favorite social networking sites with their new update!
I’ve created a tutorial on how to add the new “multi icons” into your WordPress blog over at Freshworkshops.
Why Sharing Buttons?
When you read something you like, you want to share it. In the past, we would read the newspaper or a book and then tell someone.
With email people began to send links to each other. They would copy the URL from the address bar and then paste it into an email. That has gone the way of the slicing your own bread; not many folks are doing it.
Now people can simply send articles right from websites, blog and even on mobile devices!
If you’re reading this at ButYoureAGirl, you’ll see the new icons! If you’re reading via RSS, come on over!
Here are some examples from popular websites:
New York Times
Here we can see that they offer the option to:
- Sign in to recommend
- Sign in to email
- Request reprints
- Share (offers LinkedIN, Facebook, Digg, etc)
Mashable Sharing Buttons
- Tweet it
- Share on Facebook
- Digg it
- Share (Uses ShareThis as well and offers email, Facebook, Twitter, Bookmark, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Slashdot, LinkedIN, Reddit, Technorati, Friendfeed, etc)
Huffington Post
For some reason you have two different sharing areas to choose from (testing purposes?).
They invite you to:
- Digg
- Stumbleupon
- Delicious
- Buzzup
- RSS
What if I don’t use WordPress or have a blog?
No worries! ShareThis supports regular websites built in HTML as well as other Content Management Systems (CMS) like Joomla and Drupal.
In most cases, you will be adding code to your theme/template/design and allowing the buttons to be automatically generated when the page is loaded.
There is also support for hosted blogging solutions like Blogger and Typepad too!
I first tried out sharing buttons on my blog and website July 2008. The first one I tried was ShareThis so I’m happy to see so many improvements made!
