Archive for the ‘Implementation and Customization’ Category

 

ShareThis, Now for IOS Apps and Mobile Websites

December 5th, 2011
 

 

LogoAdding sharing and analytics to your iOS apps and mobile websites is now super easy. ShareThis now offers solutions for your mobile websites and iOS applications. You will continue to get all the great sharing features and in-depth analytics that you already get with ShareThis solutions on the web.

Sharing on your mobile websites couldn’t be easier. If you are already using ShareThis, you are good to go. The mobile widget will automagically show the mobile specific sharing widget. It will work beautifully with touch inputs on your iOS devices and your blackberry scrollers. If you don’t have a ShareThis button on your mobile website and would like to add the ShareThis button, you can get the code here. In addition, we have tailored email sharing to use your native email service.

We also offer an iOS SDK that lets your application share to a majority of the OAuth services including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Pulse and native E-mail.

We hope you enjoy this great new feature and we look forward to introducing many more in the near future.

by Sumit Malhotra, Principal Architect, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Like ShareThis on Facebook: /ShareThis

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ShareThis Publisher Services Blog Post

November 15th, 2011
 

 

Here on the Publisher Services team, we often get the question, “What type of websites use ShareThis?” This never fails to put a smile on our faces, because there is no one answer to this question.

Anyone who is interested in harnessing the power of social media (and who isn’t?) can benefit from social sharing in different ways. From sports and entertainment content giants to brand and e-commerce businesses, our network of over 1 million websites is comprised of a wide range of web properties.

Just like people, every web property has its own unique identity, and therefore can benefit from social sharing in different ways. Some properties have audiences that share almost exclusively via Facebook, while others have users that share more privately through email. Internationally, people will share into social destinations that are popular in only certain regions of the world. ShareThis makes it easy to allow every publisher to feature sharing channels that best resonate with their audiences.

But how does a publisher know the best way to implement – and optimize – social sharing on their site? As with many strategic decisions relating to running a web business, guidance can he found by monitoring analytics. Just a few months ago, ShareThis revamped its Sharing Analytics dashboard for publishers (http://help.sharethis.com/analytics/analytics-overview). By using this free tool, web and editorial teams can see what content is being shared and clicked the most, the channels that users are sharing to, and even what parts of the world have the most sharing!

Using these insights, publishers can fine tune how they display ShareThis on their site, and even make editorial decisions informed by social sharing data points. On the publisher services team, we work closely with many of our publishers to help them make informed decisions. As mentioned earlier, there is no “one size fits all” approach, and that’s what makes the job both challenging and fun!

If you are a publisher, feel free to take a look at our latest product and analytics offerings at: http://sharethis.com/publishers/.

And, if working with publishers sounds interesting, you might want to think about joining the Publishers Services team at ShareThis! Here are some of the roles we are looking to fill: http://sharethis.com/about/careers/

by, The Publisher Services Team, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Like us on Facebook: /ShareThis

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The Endless Pursuit of Innovation at ShareThis

October 12th, 2011
 

 

I’m often asked what it was that attracted me to the position of product VP at ShareThis.  After all, Silicon Valley is packed with exciting companies that all hold promise – or at least claim to hold promise – to change the world.  And there is certainly no dearth of opportunities to join the latest hot startup (with the requisite, nonsensical, monosyllabic name) and help to guide product development.  Whereas most of these companies are strong in a few key areas, however, I found ShareThis to excel across the board in culture, vision, talent, customer focus, and product execution.  But one area, in particular, really stood out to me: the consistent spirit of innovation that permeates everything we do.

ShareThis offers an environment where innovation doesn’t just live and thrive, but rather informs all of our thinking and decision-making.  When the company was founded by Tim Schigel five years ago, the idea that sharing could become the universal language of the Internet was not just innovative, it was bold and game-changing. Yet, when you look where we are today, it would be hard for anybody to argue against the fact that sharing has become one of the primary ways people communicate on the Web.  On top of that, sharing has become an invaluable way for publishers to understand what content resonates the most with their visitors, and for marketers to disseminate their brand gospel.

At ShareThis, the ability to constantly innovate drives competitiveness, customer satisfaction, and even employee passion.  We recognize that, in order to attract and retain some of the most talented minds in the industry (across engineering, marketing, sales, etc.), we must foster an innovative environment that leads to employee enthusiasm and excitement.  We take risks to ensure that we’re constantly pushing the limits of what our products can do, and we never stop recognizing and rewarding innovation across our teams.  Thus, the world has seen us launch customizable sharing products from buttons to toolbars, powerful analytics products, and a far-reaching media business built on big data and the best social insights in the industry.  And, internally, our innovative spirit led us to become one of the earliest adopters of Amazon’s web services to run a cloud-based enterprise, as well as one of the most advanced companies in the social space when it comes to deriving meaningful user insights on sharing behavior and trends.

Last week, I was excited to lead our product development team through a fun and fruitful “Hax” day.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with this popular concept in Silicon Valley, this is a day completely dedicated to innovation.  Everybody in the product development organization picks a project that can be completed in a day, from concept to production readiness, and focuses on flexing their creative muscles.  It offers a nice break from the endless hours we spend building core products and features for our customers, and instead empowers our team to create some fun “quick wins” that enhance our offerings.  The results were amazing, and I can’t wait to see many of them go into production soon.  From new data visualizations to expanded widget functionality, and from deeper audience insights to fun consumer tools, we’ve got some really amazing products headed out into the world.

Moving forward, ShareThis will continue to be the most innovative media and technology company that uses sharing behavior to create value for consumers, publishers and advertisers.  We will never stop pushing the boundaries of what it means to be “social” on the Internet.  And we won’t cease to encourage creativity and risk-taking in our development efforts.  After all, that is why I came here!

by, Barry Grant, VP of Product, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow Barry on Twitter: @BGrant2000

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

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On Multi-Post & Fast-Sharing

September 13th, 2011
 

 

At ShareThis we are constantly looking for ways to make it easy for users to share content they find interesting with their friends and followers. To this end, we recently released two key features to our popular sharing widget.

Multi-Post helps users share content to several social networks in one step. You click the ShareThis button on a page; choose the social networks you wish to share to, enter an optional comment and share. You are done. Your content is now shared to these social networks and is visible to your friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ShareThis will remember your choices the next time and highlight the previously selected choices by default. Multi-Post is provided using the Open Authentication Protocol, OAuth for short, an industry-accepted standard that allows users to permit 3rd party application such as ShareThis to share to their social networks. This permission step occurs once and is subsequently remembered by ShareThis. OAuth is safe, secure, and strictly opt-in; meaning users may revoke these permissions any time. Multi-Post is currently supported for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Yahoo.

Fast-Share is a complementary feature to Multi-Post; the main objective is to help users share quickly to a single social network of their choice through a 1-click step. When users visit sites implementing ShareThis they see a green check mark on the social network icons into which they have authenticated (i.e. OAuth). If they hover over the icon (e.g. Facebook) a small window pops up to enter an optional comment and share. A good analogy is FasTrak lanes on toll roads; cars with FasTrak move through toll booths quickly compared those in the regular lanes.

 

 

Both these features benefit publishers by i) promoting their content to more social networks ii) removing friction from the sharing process and iii) keep the user engaged on your site instead of leaving to complete a share.

The features described above are available with the release of our new Multi-post widget. We realize that some of our Publishers that like our tried and true experience of sharing without asking for information up front. While this experience still helps an audience to share content and provides some baseline information to the Publisher, it’s without the ease of integration into the social networks that has become so prevalent across a consumer’s experience across the web. We call this the Classic widget, and it is available for download here: http://www.sharethis.com/get-the-button

At ShareThis we are always looking at ways to deliver a great user experience while creating value for our publishers. If you have any feedback or comments, please don’t hesitate to send it along: nanda@sharethis.com

by Nanda Kishore, CTO, ShareThis, Inc.

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Introducing FastShare From ShareThis, and a Fresh New Design

July 25th, 2011
 

 

Hello Publisher!

Today we’re excited to announce the release of two updates to our free sharing tools.

First, we’ll begin roll-out of a redesigned version of our classic sharing widget to the ShareThis Publisher Network. The upgraded versions include the latest and greatest bells and whistles and design standards including a streamlined user interface that reduces the steps to sharing, and larger sharing icons for better visibility.

Second, if you have adopted and installed a current version of our sharing tools (using buttons.js code), we’re proud to announce the release of a brand new feature that lets users spend more time sharing and less time signing in to their favorite services, all without leaving your site — FastShare from ShareThis.

         

LIGHTNING FAST SHARING!

Faster Sharing. Yes, the benefit might seem obvious from the name, but here’s why: FastShare enables sharing in fewer steps and with less disruption for users who have previously signed in with ShareThis using OAuth. Visitors to your site, who have previously logged-in across any of the more than 1 million websites in the ShareThis Publisher Network with their credentials, will automatically see their FastShare options available.

Greater time spent on your site. FastShare keeps these users on your site throughout the sharing process, rather than taking them away from it each time they share. Yeah!

Sharing, at scale. FastShare works across all of the top social networks that currently use OAuth, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Pulse and Google Buzz. Your signed-in users will immediately see the benefits to the new experience as sharing instantly becomes easier.

SEE FASTSHARE IN ACTION

We’ve created a  short video to show you what your visitors will experience. Click on the image to watch it:

HOW DO YOU GET FASTSHARE

As of today, we will begin the FastShare and new design rollout across our network. If you have implemented our current widget (using buttons.js code), you won’t need to do anything to enable FastShare or the new design elements. You should expect to see the redesigned experience within 48 hours. If you have the older version of the ShareThis widget (using sharethis.js code) but would like to take advantage of the new features, simply upgrade to the new version here.

For more information on FastShare, its benefits, and what it means for you, visit ShareThis.com, or our FastShare FAQ.

Happy Sharing!

The ShareThis Team

 

P.S. We’ve mentioned OAuth in the past and the benefits of allowing people to connect to their social networks to increase the opportunity for your content to be more widely distributed (read about it in our blog post). If you have any questions about OAuth or want to learn more, visit http://oauth.net/about

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ShareThis, Inc.
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Copyright (C) 2011 ShareThis, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Making Privacy a Top Priority, from ShareThis

July 20th, 2011
 

There’s certainly no dearth of privacy issues in the news these days. Lawmakers continue to push for greater consumer privacy protections, businesses are under-delivering on their promises to respect their customers’ privacy, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World is scrutinized for its role in a phone hacking scandal so intricate it seems pulled from the pages of a classic crime novel. This is a call to action for our Industry, if ever there was one, to step up for the consumer, for our businesses, for each of us as individuals.

A great turnout at this week’s Evidon Empower 2011 which ShareThis attended was a firm nod in the right direction for the companies that have pledged to uphold consumer privacy. The schedule included a relevant and well-delivered keynote by David Vladeck, the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, examining the myriad of initiatives – both self-regulatory and being proposed by lawmakers – making headlines. A series of panels and breakout sessions expanded on this theme and shed light on the many hurdles ad networks face as they strive to make privacy a top priority. Below are some highlights from the event itself.

We announced our compliance with these online advertising self-regulatory standards earlier this year, but yesterday’s agenda reminded us that these issues are here to stay. For that reason, we’re pleased to share that ShareThis is part of Evidon’s GreenLight certification program, an initiative aimed at educating consumers about the often thorny world of online behavioral advertising. GreenLight allows consumers to better understand which sites are tracking them by branding websites with a series of easy-to-understand icons. The icons direct users to information about how advertisers track consumers’ online activity and past browsing history to deliver them with targeted advertising. Licensed by the Digital Advertising Alliance, the icons promote trust and open the lines of communication between consumers and brands.

It’s just this type of upfront discourse that will help brands establish their integrity and build strong relationships with their customers. I applaud Evidon and the team for bringing together all the players relevant to the compliance discussion: brands, agencies, advertisers, networks, technology platform providers, industry organizations, consumer protection groups like the FTC, Council of Better Business Bureaus, The Center for Democracy and Technology and, yes, even consumers. The team at ShareThis looks forward to being a part of this frank discussion and hope this is just the first of many conversations on this topic.


Themes and Hurdles Addressed at Empower

URGENCY and TIMING: What really struck me about the Evidon Empower event is the viewpoint that the Industry is in some way not coming to the table for a self-regulated solution. I find this belief to be a bit worrisome because it suggests that the progress we’ve made so far isn’t being felt or seen. I personally don’t think it’s a reality when I sit in a room of more than 250 companies, all of whom in some way have made it their pledge to be part of the movement. Through our relationship with Evidon, ShareThis will show the industry icon to more than 85% of all US uniques online (per comScore) on a monthly basis — across our network alone.

That said, we need to do more, and move faster as a collective industry. So how do we do this? Self-regulation is a proactive, industry-wide movement designed to maintain control over our own destiny rather than forcing the government to step in and regulate. It’s the right thing to do. So if you’re asking ‘when do I join the compliance effort?’ it’s almost as if you’re asking “when do I start eating healthy?” It’s your choice – “do you wait until the first heart attack, the second?’” I hope it’s before any of them! Point well taken, Harvey James Anderson of Mozilla!

ADOPTION: If you build it, they will come. Adoption is on the rise for self-regulatory solutions. Just yesterday, Evidon added another ad network -during their event- to its growing list of participants (like ShareThis) in the GreenLight program. With hundreds of companies and brands already signed up, it looks like we are on our way. Still, we have thousands to go. There are many options out there, and one of Evidon’s main goals with Empower was to educate the industry about the options available. Read more at Evidon’s website, or learn more from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies or Association of National Advertisers. They’re all telling the same story. Compliance is here, it’s simple, but you need to get started. Now.

CONSUMER DRIVEN:
A discussion of Do-Not-Track and other consumer choice options made a fantastic point: instead of thinking about targeted advertising from a “Do-Not-Want” point of view, advertisers should ask themselves what consumers want. The reality check at the Empower event was the panel moderated by Doug Weaver from upstream which incorporated those who are affected the most by these industry decisions, the consumer. As one panelist pointed out, it’s not that the consumer is necessarily opposed to tracking and targeting, they simply want to be informed. “No surprises” seemed to be the mantra when it comes to consumer privacy. At ShareThis, we agree.

by Kristen Fergason, CMO, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow Kristen on Twitter: @sharekris

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

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Google +1 and Facebook ‘Like’ for ShareThis!

July 6th, 2011
 

 

Google +1 for ShareThis is here! Give your users the sharing options they crave, all with ShareThis.

Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve incorporated some of the hottest Web sharing options into our industry-leading sharing tools: Google +1, Facebook Like, as well as Drupal and Joomla plug-ins. We’ve received numerous requests from publishers for these, and today they’re available for free with some simple configuration steps that we’ve noted below.

You don’t need individual implementations to make sharing easy for your audience. You just need one – ShareThis. Below you’ll find the simple steps that allow you to incorporate each of these sharing options for your audience, quickly and easily.

Google +1
Now available on the ShareThis platform, +1 is Google’s biggest foot forward into the sharing arena. Your content is more likely to show up in Google’s own search results with +1 annotations when you let your visitors have an opportunity to “+1” your content. To add Google +1 to your sharing tools on your site, simply add one of the following snippets to your existing ShareThis button:

  • 1. Simple Google +1 Button:
  • 2. +1 with a vertical counter:
  • 3. +1 with a horizontal counter:
  • 4. Large +1 button:

 

Facebook Like
You can’t miss the iconic thumbs up when reading articles across the Web. And according to Mark Zuckerberg at a special event today, more than 4 billion ‘things’ are being shared everyday on Facebook. You can take advantage of this active sharing audience too, by allowing them to share your content right from your own site. Simply add one of the following snippets to your existing ShareThis button code to enable Facebook Like as part of your site’s sharing option:

  • 1. Simple Facebook Like button:
  • 2. Facebook Like with a vertical counter:
  • 3. Like with indication of friends that liked the same page:

NEW PLUGINS FOR OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
Today we’re releasing two new plug-ins for our friends working with open source communities, available using the links below.
Drupal
ShareThis has been available for the Drupal community since 2008 when Rob Loach created a plugin for the community. We are now offering an upgraded plugin, developed by our own engineers, so that the tools available are on par with our most current platform.

Begin the Drupal download process here: http://drupal.org/project/sharethis

Joomla
ShareThis is now fully launched on the Joomla Extension Directory, and is called ‘ShareThis (Official)’. You can differentiate the most current version from older versions developed by volunteers by ensuring the word ‘Official’ appears in parentheses after ShareThis in the directory.

Download the extension called “ShareThis (Official)” from the Joomla Extension Directory here:

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/content-sharing/articles-sharing/17085

Got a cool implementation of the ShareThis widget that you want to share with us? Share it with us and we will consider adding it to our API gallery. Just email support@sharethis.com.

By, Tom Spano, Social Media Manager, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow us on Twitter: @ShareThis @TomSpano

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New Buttons! New Twitter! More Social!

August 12th, 2010
 

As everyone has most likely heard by now, the Tweet Button launched today and we’re happy to be part of the excitement by integrating it in to our sharing buttons.

The new Tweet Button is essentially Twitter’s iteration of the Facebook “Like” button. It allows users to easily share information on Twitter, and gives publishers a one-click way for their readers to share content and get it noticed in the viral loop.  This is a fantastic move for Twitter and – like the “Like” button – opens up a whole new world of data and sharing for the company.

New Share Buttons

Working with Twitter, we’ve taken the Tweet Button and folded it in to a new set of sharing buttons for our publishers to use on their sites. These buttons are for publishers who still want a one-stop shop for all their sharing needs, and want to see all their sharing analytics rolled into one place.


As you can see the look and feel of the Tweet Button is maintained, but we’ve added it alongside the Facebook Share button as well as options to share via e-mail and more than 40 other sharing networks.

With six new, customizable styles, the ShareThis buttons give publishers several options for display. They also show the social activity of each piece of content on a website, giving publishers a far more comprehensive picture of their content’s sharing and social performance than either the Facebook Share button or Tweet Button – or both – can provide.

So what’s next?

While we love the new look of Twitter’s buttons, we see a big shift coming to the sharing button movement… Counters and sexy icons are here to stay. But we believe people will begin to showcase and optimize their content based on its full social impact (such as incoming social traffic & engagement, not just outbound sharing).  More on that soon from our analytics geeks!

Overall, we’re thrilled to be one of the first partners to work with Twitter on their new button and also to be at the forefront of the conversation around sharing and helping publishers understand the value of their social traffic. Look for more to come in the near future, but for now, be sure to grab our new buttons here:  http://www.sharethis.com/publishers/get-sharing-button.

-Steve R

@steverb

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