Using Social Sharing Buttons: Facebook Like/Share, Twitter, and Google +1

At the very top of a Hub, right below the Hub's title, you might have noticed three small buttons: Tweet (Twitter), Like (Facebook), and +1 (Google).

After publishing a Hub, you might have also seen a light-blue box show up at the top of your freshly-minted Hub that allows you to easily Share (Facebook) or Tweet (Twitter).

These buttons are ways for you to share a Hub with your social network (Facebook or Twitter), or, in the case of Google +1, let Google know you like something. They are a bit different from one another, so let's go over each.

There are two different types of Facebook buttons. On the top of every Hub on HubPages, you'll see the Like button, and when you publish a new Hub or click the SHARE button at the bottom of a Hub, you'll be able to Share instead. What's the difference?

The reality is there isn't much of a difference nowadays. Share came first, but Facebook has been slowly trying to deprecate the Share button in favor of Like. However, both function, in almost the same way except one thing:

• When you Share, you will be served with a pop-up window that allows you to add a personal comment to the Hub you're sharing that your Facebook friends can see.
• Like is much simpler; clicking it automatically shares your Hub with your Facebook friends, but without the option to add a comment. It will also not bring up a pop-up window.

We encourage the use of Like for casual visitors to your Hub, since clicking the Like button is much simpler and less intrusive (so they're more likely to do it). We encourage Hubbers to Share their own Hubs, because adding an extra explanatory comment makes your Facebook friends more likely to take notice, and you're less likely to think of this step as intrusive than a casual reader of your Hub. However, you can Like your own Hub, and a casual visitor can Share it, so both options are available to everyone.

Should you Like/Share your Hubs? If you think your Facebook friends might like to read it, then by all means! Naturally, you'll want to be judicious in your sharing to not overwhelm your Facebook friends with a lot of Hub links, but sharing Hubs on Facebook does increase the likelihood that they'll be read, and not only by people you know, since really great Hubs can be shared by your friends with other people, too.

If your Hub is Shared, or Liked either via the button on your Hub or in the Facebook story that appears in your Facebook profile, it will increase the number that appears next to the Like box by 1. A Hub with a high Like count can be a signal to an incoming reader that your Hub is popular.

A single 140-character post on Twitter is called a Tweet, and by clicking the Tweet button on a Hub, you can post a Tweet with the title to your Hub and a link to it via your Twitter account. Your Twitter followers will then be notified of your Tweet, and, if they so choose, can share it with their followers through a process called "ReTweeting" (they will usually add RT @yourTwitterhandle at the beginning when they do this). A superb Hub that has broad appeal to a lot of people could then easily "go viral," or continue to be retweeted from person to person to person.

Similar to our advice on Like/Share on Facebook, we suggest not inundating your Twitter followers with a neverending stream of Tweets about your Hubs. This might annoy them!

The +1 button, like Facebook Like/Share buttons and the Twitter Tweet button, shares your +1s with the Google+ network. By clicking the +1 button you share your Hub actively with your followers on Google+. Along with sharing your +s with your followers, when you +1 a webpage, it lets Google know you like that page, and it will show up on your Google Profile. If you have a public Google Profile and have not hidden your +1 tab in your Google Profile, then anyone can see what you've +1'd.

The best way for Google to trust your +1s is to +1 a lot of high quality sites that are very different, but do so over time. If you go on a #1 frenzy all in one day and stop completely, Google may think that you are only promoting your own work, even if you are not! Our best advice is to +1 a variety of very different webpages that genuinely interest you and do it consistently.

Google has also suggested that +1's can also influence the ranking of a page, much like a backlink can. However, we strongly suggest not engaging in self-serving or reciprocal +1'ing, since these measures can backfire. Google does not like it when people "game" their search algorithm, or try to rig better rankings that don't reflect unbiased visitors' opinion on the quality and utility of a page. So, we suggest being very careful about what you +1, especially with respect to your own content and that of your friends. Google will probably be able to figure out if your +1s are attempts to boost your own or your friends' content, and could potentially discount or even penalize this kind of activity.

However, if you genuinely like a Hub, feel free to +1 it, as long as your pattern of +1s makes clear you like plenty of pages across the Web, and not only those on HubPages or your own content.

Just as a side note: If you claim your HubPages authorship through Google, then +1ing your own Hubs might have little or no effect.