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I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

ankursethi.com

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Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#91

Post by 6510 »

readthenotes1 wrote: post #11
iLoveOncall wrote: post #4

0.2% can be an OK conversion rate for some things.

Sounds about like the number of times I accidentally clicked the link

I also use it like that, last time it filled whatsapp with an entire story about the greatness of the company and the wonderfulness of the product. I tried to remove everything not part of the giant link made from tracking info which is done though an UI so annoying it seems like you are not suppose to. Overall it made a memorable experience worth not repeating.

I'm writing this so that others don't have to repeat my mistake.

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#92

Post by smcin »

elpocko wrote: post #26

I remember back when Wordle was popular, people said the "Share result" feature was so effective, it was the reason for the game's viral success. I can't think of any other example though.

Well, that combined with the expectation that the recipient would also try that daily challenge, then presumably respond with comment/message/reshare comparing how they did.

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#94

Post by echelon »

afavour wrote: post #14
raincole wrote: post #10

> The share buttons got clicked 14,078 times. That’s a 0.21% usage rate, which works out to about 1 in 476 visitors. In other words, people not only click share buttons, but do it quite often?

Yeah I think the author needs a dose of reality about how many users do anything on a site. Something that 1 in 476 visitors do isn't that bad. Especially when there's no real ongoing cost to doing so.

Share buttons got a 5-7% CTR on the last social media project I built and were responsible for a huge number of inbound referrals. Lots of long tail SEO too.

If the trillion dollar tech companies have them, there's a reason.

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#96

Post by mgiampapa »

Zak wrote: post #22
mgiampapa wrote: post #9

I use share buttons all the time on social platforms, and apps like Amazon that don't have any other way of deep linking. Lot's of people use apps that don't expose a link, share buttons are great and even better when they use standards like your OS's share functionality.

The article is discussing "share on [Facebook,Twitter,etc...]" type buttons on websites, not share via [OS functionality or other native app] buttons inside native apps. That said, I'm curious as to why someone with enough technical sophistication to be posting on HN browses Amazon with a native mobile app instead of a web browser.

Because using Amazon, one of the most popular e-commerce sites and an example of an app that doesn't expose a URL of content makes a great example of a wide class of applications and conveys the message I was trying to express.

Why do you, as someone with enough technical sophistication to be posting on HN, not understand the words? This is sarcasm, you don't need to answer.

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#97

Post by dlcarrier »

blitzar wrote: post #32
raincole wrote: post #10

> The share buttons got clicked 14,078 times. That’s a 0.21% usage rate, which works out to about 1 in 476 visitors. In other words, people not only click share buttons, but do it quite often?

> Visitors were twelve times more likely to click an advertisement. I would have guessed clicking on ads was rare

It depends on whether or not the page finishes loading, and rearranges everything, right as you're trying to click on a link.

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#98

Post by dlcarrier »

nkrisc wrote: post #30
raincole wrote: post #10

> The share buttons got clicked 14,078 times. That’s a 0.21% usage rate, which works out to about 1 in 476 visitors. In other words, people not only click share buttons, but do it quite often?

At that rate I think you can assume most clicks were accidental.

I'm pretty confident that my accidental click rate is much higher than one in 476, especially on touch screens, although you'd need to divide that by the total number of links on the page, to get the probability of accidentally clicking on any specific link.

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#99

Post by hogwasher »

ingvay7 wrote: post #77
jatora wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in digital marketing and I am continually shocked by the amount of people that click my disgusting ads. (nearly all advertisements are morally disgusting)

Im always surprised when i see the significant opens in the promotions tab of the gmail inbox. Looks like a lot of folks want those ads.

I think they want discount codes from "sign up to our mailing list!" emails. If it's in the promotions tab, they probably never have to look at it otherwise or get bugged with notifications, but they could still have it there to check when they happen to be making a purchase anyway.

Depending on the email program, you have to open them to unsubscribe, too. But maybe your stats tool would discount opens immediately followed by unsubscribes?

Re: I've always wondered if anyone used sharing buttons on news sites and blogs

#100

Post by hogwasher »

theturtletalks wrote: post #74
spockz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s even weirder now. When you share a video through the button (which is the only way in the app) and another person opens the link while logged in you will now be linked in YouTube and you can share “directly” to the other’s YouTube. …

Google Maps share button is filled with tracking too, now I just copy the address and send it. I fear it’s all futile because even if we are privacy focused, if our friends and families are sharing links like this, Google knows how all of us are connected to each other in the real world.

You can copy a shared link and use the browser url bar to open it in a private window, or delete the extra crap at the end of the url (anything after the ? in a lot of cases).

Granted, that doesn't help for the service you're using to communicate with people (phone provider, real time chat service, email provider, whatever) and/or store your contacts. Especially if you're talking to someone who, say, hasn't turned all the creepy Gemini stuff off in their Google account and it's scanning all their emails and learning the names and emails of everyone they talk to.

Or any app that has location permission and can detect that you're in the same place as someone else.

I'd think they can probably figure it out by time too, after enough shared videos. Like, see that when x account opens a video, then y account also opens that same video within such-and-such an amount of time, or vice versa.

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