Social Media buttons are must for any website today to let visitors engage with your website using their Social Media accounts. It is also good for website owners as Social Media buttons enable visitors to share and increase your audience. There are many ways to add Social Media buttons on websites either by directly using Facebook Social Plugins code or using plugins available for the type of website platforms such as WordPress, Drupal etc.
AddThis is one of the most popular Social Media sharing tools service provider. Most of their tools are for free. In this post, we shall see to show classic Facebook Like, Tweet and Google + buttons using AddThis?
While setting up Social Media Sharing buttons in AddThis, Facebook Like is not available in services. We might think Facebook Like is removed by AddThis. That is not the case. By default, AddThis chooses "Modern Responsive" style as the Design. And in "Modern Responsive" style, Facebook Like is not included in the services.
For this example, the environment is a WordPress website with AddThis plugin installed. However, the process may be similar for other platforms.
The following steps are assumed completed for this example:
1) A working WordPress Website
2) AddThis plugin installed and activated
If not, login to WordPress and then navigate to Plugins > Add New > search for "AddThis" and install "Share Buttons by AddThis".
Setting up Social Media Buttons using AddThis
After the installation and activation of the AddThis WordPress plugin, there should be an "AddThis" menu in the left WordPress sidebar when logged in as Admin. Click on the AddThis menu.
- Click on Share Tool
- Choose the services to include
By default, AddThis chooses "Modern Responsive" style as the Design. And in "Modern Responsive" style, Facebook Like is not included in the services.
- Scroll down the the bottom and click on "Design"
- Choose "Original" as the style.
- Scroll Up and you will see that the services have changed.
If Facebook Like is not included, search for it and add.
Likewise add - Tweet, Google +1 etc. whatever is desired
- Set other parameters such as position, hide on home page etc. as desired.
- Click publish when ready.
- Check your website.
You should be able to see the classic social sharing buttons with Facebook Like, Tweet and Google +1 buttons.
If you are setting up the AddThis social share buttons from AddThis.com, and not from the AddThis plugin in WordPress, then you can also set design to "Original" in Design section.
Facebook Like Code Manually
If you want to include Facebook Like manually, then go to "https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/like-button#configurator". Use the button generator to up the buttons and the click on "Get Code". Follow instructions mentioned. The generated code would be required to be added to website files.