I've noticed a bunch of SE sites are using the addthis javascript code. Are your users taking advantage of this to promote your site on facebook, digg, etc?
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Since early December, I've had AddThis buttons installed at Basically Money on the question page, just below the question body. I did turn on the analytics when I signed up at AddThis. I've only seen 4 shares in those two months: 2 tweets, 1 Digg, and 1 Google bookmark. So, I'm not convinced yet it's very useful. However, I did put it in a place where I feel it isn't in the way, and I styled it to fit in with the UI. I'm going to keep it for now and see how it pans out over the longer term. |
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Initially, it probably doesn't hurt to have them up there, but long term they can possibly hurt a little bit, or at least be a distraction. I have Twitter and FB pages for my SE site, but my hope is that I won't need them eventually. Spreading the word is fine, but it also can spread the content away from your site. Say someone shares a great question from your SE site on FB, and then someone comments on the FB post with an answer. Your SE site didn't get that answer. FB did. Plus, having AddThis and the like gives people a way out of your site. Sure, they're promoting your site for you (maybe) but the goal should be to keep visitors there. Or, at least monetize those clicks out. That, and it's a bit of a distraction to have that icon there every place. |
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I didn't turn on the analytics when I added it to moms4mom, but I do notice quite a few referrals from email clients, and the first option in the AddThis button is to share via email. I know a lot of people would like to just email it to their friends, so I think it works a bit. Anything that makes the barrier to sharing lower is good. |
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I have not used add this but have used SharePost which is much the same thing. Very few people have used it, but one or two have. Seeing that it is free to use I don't see that it hurts so have left it there, but don't go expecting miracles from it. |
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