The official Tweet Button has arrived; and while it’s as simple as a single click to use for the vast majority of end users, it brings scores of questions for casual and professional bloggers and other publishers.
How can I put a tweet button on my WordPress.com blog posts? How can I check the stats for my tweet button links? How do these buttons work with Blogger?
Here are a few quick pointers for how to use the official Tweet Buttons for fun and profit. If you have questions about how to integrate the buttons with a specific platform, be sure to let us know in the comments; the Mashable staff and community would love to help you out!
The Basic Code
First of all, Tweet Buttons work with a little bit of HTML and a little bit of JavaScript. If you go to Twitter’s page on the buttons, you’ll get an auto-generated snippet of code to pop into your site’s HTML wherever you’d like the button to appear. Alternatively, you can use an iFrame, remembering to use query string parameters to customize the button’s behavior. You can choose one of three design styles, as well.
If you’re relatively code-savvy and you feel like getting fancy, you can also build your own dang Tweet Button using this link (that’s twitter.com/share) and customizing the styling and behavior of the button itself any way you choose. Alternatively, if you’re not terribly code savvy or you’re using a platform that won’t let you edit too much of the code yourself, you can always use the same URL to create a text link that mimics the behavior of a Tweet Button:
Integrating With Your CMS
The cut-and-paste JavaScript method should work just fine for many mini-blog platforms. On Tumblr, just navigate to the customization interface, select the Theme tag, and edit the HTML, inserting Twitter’s code in any block where you want the Tweet Button to appear.
If you use Posterous, head to the Look and Feel section of your dashboard, click the Edit Theme button, then click the Advanced tab. From there, you should be able to click the link that reads “Enable advanced theming.” This will open up a different interface that will allow you to edit the code for your blog; again, just past the Tweet Button code anywhere you’d like the button to appear.
However, if you run a blog on WordPress.com, you probably already know that JavaScript doesn’t play very nicely with your content management system, and you might not be interested in building your own button from scratch. We’re happy to report that there’s a simple, built-in way to add Tweet Buttons to all your posts automatically. Simply open your Appearances menu, click Extras, and select the option that reads “Show a Twitter Tweet Button on my posts.” Many thanks to The Next Web for passing on this handy tip!
If your blog is on the Blogger platform, there’s a different little trick for you to try. Once you login to your Blogger Dashboard, you’ll need to navigate to the Design section, then select the option Edit HTML. Then, check the box reading “Expand Widget Templates.” Once you’re there, you’ll be able to paste in a code snippet, which will put a Tweet Button on all your blog posts. To grab the code and get details on how to edit some of the button’s parameters, head over to Blogger Plugins.
Extras: Browser Plugin and Stats
And if you’d like to have a Tweet Button with you at all times as you browse the web for great content from your fellow bloggers, here’s a handy Chrome extension that just might become a favorite. It functions just like Twitter’s official Tweet Button, being built on the same code, and it shows you the tweet count for each page as you navigate around the Internet.
Sadly, for the time being, there’s no real way to check the stats on tweets for your posts — not yet, anyhow. At Chirp, Twitter’s developer conference earlier this year, execs hinted that some interesting analytics packages were in the works. We’re speculating that taking control of retweets is a first step toward competing with companies like Bit.ly in offering stats and metrics on Twitter sharing of posts and pages. Perhaps there will be a free or inexpensive stats package for casual bloggers, small businesses and others who want more than just a tweet count, too.
Any Other Tips?
What have your experiences with the Tweet Button been so far as a content publisher? Have you run into — or better yet, have you worked around — any bugs with various CMSes? Let us know any tips or tricks you have in the comments, and if you have any lingering questions, be sure to post them here, as well.
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