Why Was The Twitter Button Removed From Hubs?

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   Rock_njposted 7 years ago

   Did HubPages provide an explanation regarding why you can no longer easily share a Hub on Twitter using a button on the Hub?  Why did they replace it with Flipboard?

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      calculus-geometryposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Probably just trying to find the balance between button clutter and social media sites that work. Perhaps their data show Flipboard is more effective than Twitter.  They also removed the button to share a hub with your followers internally on HubPages.   
      
      I'm surprised the email button made the cut over Twitter.  By the way, when you click the email button does anything happen on  your screen?  I have tested it several times on different browsers, different niche sites, and nothing happens.  It's a dud for me.

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         sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, it opens giving one a choice of sending the email from your own email addresses.

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            calculus-geometryposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks Sally.  I wonder why nothing happens when I click it.  Oh well, I never email HP links anyway.

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               sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               It seems to me that you don't have that choice anymore. The email will go direct from your own email account/s though perhaps you can still send one via the fan mail button.  I will have to take a look.

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               tsmogposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Mine opens to Microsoft Outlook. All the email queues I have ever used always have. So, I don't know what that means if one does not have Outlook.

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                  calculus-geometryposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks tsmog and Glenn, that's the explanation.  I don't use an email client.

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               Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Do you have an email program on your computer? Some people just use web-based emailing. If you don't have an email client (program) then the button won't be able to do anything.
               
               It opens your email with the title of the hub in the subject and the content pre-filled with "I thought you might enjoy this article" followed by the link to the hub.
               
               I'm guessing that the button doesn't work with web-based email. I don't see how it can.

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         Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         My email button is not working either.  I never email Hubs (kind of the old way of sharing info compared to social media).  I used the Twitter share button quite a lot.  Not sure why they felt the need to make it harder to share Hubs via Twitter.  Another head scratcher from the HubPages staff.

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            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            They dropped the Twitter button because it historically brought less traffic than the other sharing options. In addition, they noticed that Flipboard was bringing much more traffic than Twitter. That's why they made the change.
            
            See Christy's post on that at http://hubpages.com/forum/post/2858647

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               Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Glenn.  I am still trying to get up to speed using Flipboard.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Did you see my Flipboard tutorial? Maybe it will help.

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                     Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     No, but I will check it out.  Thanks.
                     
                     I found out about Flipboard a few months ago when a Hub of mine was getting huge traffic (1,000s of hits per day).  Someone had posted it on a popular Flipboard page that was relevant to the topic.

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               Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Dropping the Twitter link from Hubs seems short-sighted to me.  Twitter has a certain amount of presence on the Internet that having Hubs from HubPages tweeted and retweeted provides value to the HubPages brand that could bring in additional viewers and writers.  I know if I start seeing the same site being tweeted on Twitter or cited elsewhere on mainstream Internet sites, such as Facebook, I take notice and start looking at the site more closely.  In fact, I joined HubPages all those years ago because I came across a Hub that someone had posted on Facebook.  I think removing the Twitter link is a good example of the poor marketing prowess of those who run HubPages.

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               MartieCoetserposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               They have also removed Flipboard!!

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                  sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Really, I had not even noticed.  I have done nothing with it for ages but would love Twitter back.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  This forum thread is six months old. Flipboard was also removed after I left that comment because too few people were using the button. The overhead of share buttons was not worth it. Speed of page loads is more important for SEO. You can still tweet and flip hubs directly or with their browser add on.

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                     MartieCoetserposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Thank you!

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   melbelposted 7 years ago

   An auto-tweet from the HubPages site contains no more than a link and a title. If people actually care to engage with the Twitter community, they'll go through the process of using Twitter itself or an app to upload a nice image, a relevant hashtag, and a attention grabbing title, instead of just dumping a link on Twitter like a spammer and having little else to do with Twitter.
   
   Honestly, if someone just dumps their links on Twitter and doesn't interact with their followers in any other way, I'll block the person.

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      Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      A decent explanation, but like I said short-sighted.  Seeing articles show up in people's Twitter feeds gives a site a certain level of credibility and draws in new viewers. 
      
      Kind of odd timing too, since Twitter is becoming such an important part of discourse these days with very high-profile public figures using the social media site to put out their views.  Twitter is going from irrelevant to something that people are paying more attention to and hearing about every day.  What is HubPages doing to expand their presence on this hot social networking and newsfeed site?  Apparently running in the opposite direction, by making it less convenient for its writers to post links on Twitter.

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         melbelposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Hubbers really shouldn't be sharing their hubs on Twitter, Pinterest unless they fully understand the dynamics of those social media sites. In fact, I believe at some point HubPages staff came out and said they discourage it.
         
         A link here and there is okay, but a hubber whose Twitter feed only contains links to their hubs is a spammer. This hurts HubPages way more than it helps it.

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            Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I agree with you there.  Personally, I use Twitter for just about everything except sharing Hubs.  Mainly, I use it to follow weather developments, as you can get a lot of inside info that you can't get elsewhere from mainstream weather sources.  But, from a marketing perspective, I'd want a presence on Twitter, if I was HubPages.  Becoming a known commodity on a site like Twitter has some upside benefits.

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      Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You have 26,700 Twitter followers melbel?  That's quite impressive.  Much more than I usually see, unless it's some celebrity of some sort.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   To amplify what Glenn said:   I noticed when I added Share buttons to my blog, the load time dropped drastically.  Investigating, I discovered that each button adds a piece of code, and each extra bit of code slows the load time of the page a bit more.
   
   One of the criteria Google uses to rank a website is load time - so it's very important to get your site loading as fast as possible.  Share buttons are worth the penalty if your readers like them and use them - if they're not, then they're slowing your site down for no reason, and it's best to get rid of them.
   
   The other point - if readers really like an article, they will share it anyway, with or without the buttons.  The buttons are a convenient way for writers to share their own Hubs BUT that's another reason not to have them.  HubPages regularly gets banned from sites like Pinterest because too many Hubbers mindlessly over-share their own Hubs.

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      melbelposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for sharing this point (it's a pet peeve of mine.)

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      Rock_njposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If the share buttons increase the load time significantly, then it makes sense to remove them.  Thanks for the info.

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