Ever felt like the share buttons on your website just weren’t quite right? Maybe they don’t perfectly match your brand, or perhaps you need them to do something a little bit different than what they offer out of the box. You’re not alone! Customizing the ShareThis Share Buttons plugin can unlock a whole new level of engagement for your website visitors. This article will guide you through the possibilities, showing you how to tailor it to your specific needs and preferences. And the best part? We’ll explore how artificial intelligence is making even complex customizations surprisingly simple.

What is ShareThis Share Buttons?

The plugin is a popular WordPress tool designed to make it incredibly easy for your website visitors to share your content across various social media platforms and other channels. Think of it as a digital word-of-mouth amplifier. Instead of relying solely on organic discovery, you empower your audience to become brand advocates with just a click.

It offers a range of features, including customizable share buttons that can be placed in various locations on your site (floating, inline, etc.), support for numerous social networks, and basic analytics to track sharing activity. With a rating of 3.5/5 stars based on 26 reviews and over 20,000 active installations, it’s clearly a go-to solution for many WordPress users. It handles all the technical heavy lifting, so you don’t have to mess with complex code to get sharing functionality up and running.

For more information about ShareThis Share Buttons, visit the official plugin page on WordPress.org.

Why Customize the plugin?

While the plugin is powerful right out of the box, its default settings may not always align perfectly with your specific brand identity or desired user experience. Think of it like buying a suit off the rack – it might fit okay, but tailoring it will make it look and feel amazing. Customization is about taking something good and making it uniquely yours.

The benefits of customizing this tool are numerous. You can ensure your share buttons perfectly match your website’s color scheme and overall design, creating a more cohesive and professional look. You can also tailor the available sharing options to the platforms most relevant to your audience. For instance, if you run a photography blog, you might prioritize sharing to platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.

Imagine a high-end fashion boutique using the standard default share buttons. They might look out of place and detract from the brand’s sophisticated image. By customizing the buttons to use a minimalist design and a color palette that complements their website, they can create a seamless and elegant sharing experience. On the other hand, a gaming website might want to add a “Share to Discord” button, something not offered by default, to cater to their community.

Ultimately, customization is worthwhile when it allows you to create a more effective and engaging sharing experience for your visitors, leading to increased social reach and brand awareness. It’s about making the plugin work for you, rather than you working around its limitations.

Common Customization Scenarios

Extending Core Functionality

The standard functionality of this tool, while useful, might not always cover every use case. Perhaps you want to add a sharing option for a niche social network, integrate with a specific email marketing service, or trigger a custom event when a user shares your content.

Through customization, you can extend the core functionality to meet these unique requirements. This could involve adding support for new social media platforms, integrating with third-party APIs, or creating custom sharing workflows.

Consider a website that curates and sells handmade crafts. They could customize it to automatically add a unique referral code to each shared link, allowing them to track which shares lead to sales. This level of detailed attribution simply isn’t possible with the default settings. AI assists by generating the necessary code to hook into the plugin’s sharing process and append the referral code dynamically.

Integrating with Third-Party Services

Many websites rely on a suite of third-party services for analytics, marketing automation, and other essential functions. Integrating the sharing tool with these services can unlock powerful new possibilities.

For example, you could integrate with Google Analytics to track which shared content performs best, allowing you to optimize your content strategy. Or, you could connect it to your email marketing platform to automatically add new sharers to your mailing list (with their consent, of course!).

A non-profit organization might integrate it with their CRM system. When someone shares a campaign page, the system could automatically create a record in the CRM, allowing them to track the reach and impact of their social sharing efforts. AI can streamline the process by generating the necessary code to interact with the CRM’s API and map the data fields correctly.

Creating Custom Workflows

The default sharing workflow is fairly straightforward: a user clicks a button, and the content is shared. But what if you want to add extra steps or conditions to the process? Maybe you want to display a thank-you message after someone shares your content, or offer them a special discount code.

By customizing the workflow, you can create a more engaging and personalized experience for your users. This might involve adding custom pop-up messages, triggering specific actions based on sharing activity, or even creating a multi-step sharing process.

A cooking blog could create a custom workflow where users who share a recipe on social media are automatically entered into a monthly giveaway. This incentivizes sharing and helps to build a loyal community. AI can help develop the JavaScript code needed to manage the giveaway entries and track sharing activity.

Building Admin Interface Enhancements

The plugin’s admin interface provides basic settings, but it might not offer all the customization options you need. Perhaps you want to add new settings, reorganize the interface, or create a more user-friendly experience.

Customizing the admin interface allows you to tailor the plugin to your specific needs and preferences. This could involve adding custom fields, creating new settings panels, or even building a completely new interface from scratch.

A marketing agency managing multiple client websites could build an enhanced admin interface that allows them to centrally manage the plugin’s settings across all their sites. This saves time and ensures consistency. AI can assist in generating the PHP code required to extend the admin interface and add custom functionality.

Adding API Endpoints

For advanced users, adding API endpoints can unlock a whole new level of control and flexibility. This allows you to interact with the plugin programmatically, enabling you to automate tasks, integrate with other systems, and build custom applications.

For example, you could create an API endpoint that retrieves sharing statistics for a specific piece of content, allowing you to display this data on your website. Or, you could create an endpoint that programmatically shares content to social media, enabling you to automate your social media marketing efforts.

A news aggregator site could use API endpoints to automatically share newly published articles to various social media platforms. This ensures that their content is always visible to their audience. AI can help design and build the necessary API endpoints, including authentication and data validation.