Social Share Buttons: Configuring Share Counters (Previous Versions)

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To show share counters with your buttons on site you need at first to set the feature to show counters. This happens inside the style settings (global for site or for each personalized settings). Learn everything about style settings and activation of share counter to selected design here. All settings related to social share counters you can find in Social Sharing -> Share Counters Setup.

Counter Update

Counter update section holds all options about share counter update and a few for controlling the counter display.

Counter update interval

Choose how your counters will update. Real-time share counter will update on each page load and usage on production site can produce extreme load over admin-ajax WordPress component – use it with caution. We strongly recommend using updated on interval counters. They will update once on chosen interval and ensure your site will work fast and smooth (if you use cache plugin and they do not update frequently you can activate in advanced options cache compatible update mode). For most sites recommended update counter value is 3 or 6 hours.

Avoid Negative Social Proof

The avoid negative social proof allows if active to hide the share counter unless a specific value is set. If you wish to use it set the option to Yes and you will have the chance to setup value for total counter and/or single button counter.

Advanced Counter Update Options

Cache server/plugin update mode – Activation of this option will start a second check after each page load to check if share counters should update or not. This will be done on background and it will ensure that share values will be up-to-date when site cache is updated (usually once/twice per day for most cache solutions). Warning! This option may produce slow down if you use too frequent counter update or when you have high traffic on site (and if site is not fully optimized for that)
Speed up process of counter update – This option will activate asynchronous counter update mode which is up to 5 times faster than regular update. Option requires to have PHP 5.4 or newer. Warning! This option may not be supported on all hosts (or not active by default). If you see an issue immediately deactivate it.
Increase update period for older posts – Use this option to increase progressive update counter interval for older posts of your site. This will make less calls to social APIs and make counters update faster. Recommended for usage on sites
Force save new shares – Plugin comes with share counter protection. This protection will avoid saving share counter values if they are lower than the past update. That is made to protect the social privacy. Very rear it may be required to avoid that protection. Set the option to Yes temporary to save any of the saved share values.
Client side Facebook counter update – Use client side Facebook counter update to eliminate Facebook rate policy for number of connection you can send. The client side update will ensure your counters will frequently update. Option is compatible with share recovery. It is recommended for usage on sites to ensure a proper Facebook share counter update. The option will executed the share counter update inside client browser (not on server level) – see note at the end of the article.
Client side Pinterest counter update – Pinterest apply restrictions when you are using few hosts that avoid Pinterest counter extraction. In such case please activate this option to avoid missing Pinterest counters. Due to Pinterest rate limitations this option cannot work with share recovery.

Share Counter Recovery

Share counter recovery allows you restore back shares once you make a permalink change (including installing a SSL certificate). Share recovery will show back shares only if they are present for both versions of URL (before and after change). We have a detailed article explaining work of share recovery that you can pay attention here.

Single Button Counter Settings

The single button share counter section holds additional options for individual share counters. Those options are set globally and you does not need to change them regularly unless a social API change is presented.

Twitter share counter – Twitter does not have official share counter. As of this inside plugin you can choose between showing internal counter, external service counter or leave the button like the network standard – without share counter. Please be aware that if you select external service you should visit its site and complete all the requirements they have (otherwise counter value will not appear).
Facebook access token key – To avoid missing Facebook share counter due to rate limits we recommend to fill access token key. Access token generation of counter can work only when you do not use real time counters. To generate your access token key please visit http://tools.creoworx.com/facebook/ and follow instructions to generate application based token
Facebook counter update API – the API endpoint represent a different approach of reading the share counters. Default is the #1 end point. The setting for endpoint and token are not required to make selection if you will use a client side Facebook update option
LinkedIn share counter – LinkedIn recenly announced that they are removing share counters from their button and API. The API may still return data for your site but it is adviced to switch to internal counters.
Google+ share counter – Google+ recenly announced that they are removing share counters from their button and API. When that become globally you can switch to internal counter.
Activate internal counters for all networks that do not support API count – Not all networks has official share counter. With share counter activation those networks that does not support will appear without value. If you wish to show share counter value for them too you can activate Internal Share Counter feature. This will generate a share counter based on click over the selected button (and value will increase with each button click)
Deactivate counters for Mail & Print – Enable this option if you wish to deactivate internal counters for mail & print buttons. That buttons are in the list of default social networks that support counters. Deactivating them will lower down request to internal WordPress AJAX event.
Fully deactivate internal share counter tracking – Even when you do not display share counters on site at this moment plugin tracks internal counter with each button click. This is made to provide a share counter value when you decide to show or use share counters. Activation of this option will completely remove the execution and work of code for all internal tracked share counters – if you have any existing internal counter values they will stop increase and for all others it will not add a value. Hint: Rember that major networks like LinkedIn and Google+ removed share counters and there is no alternative of counter value at this time rather than internal counter.
Share counter format – Choose how you wish to present your share counter value – short number of full number. This option will not work if you use real time share counters – in this mode you will always see short number format.
Animate Numbers – Enable this option to apply nice animation of counters on appear.

Total Counter Settings

The total counter section contains additional options about total counter display.

Change total text – This option allows you to change text Total that appear when left/right position of total counter is selected.
Append text to total counter when big number styles are active – This option allows you to add custom text below counter when big number styles are active. For example you can add text shares.
Change total counter text when before/after styles are active – Customize the text that is displayed in before/after share buttons display method. To display the total share number use the string {TOTAL} in text. Example: {TOTAL} users share us
Total counter icon – Choose icon displayed on total counter when position with such is selected
Total counter format – Choose how you wish to present your share counter value – short number of full number. This option will not work if you use real time share counters – in this mode you will always see short number format
Always generate total counter based on all social networks – Enable this option if you wish to see total counter generated based on all installed in plugin social networks no matter of ones you have active. Default plugin setup is made to show total counter based on active for display social networks only and using different social networks on different locations may cause to have difference in total counter. Use this option to make it always be the same.
Animate Numbers – Enable this option to apply nice animation of counters on appear.

Note. The client site update methods are executed with a call inside visitor browser to a related service (not on server side). The services imposes a connection rate limit that each site can use per hour. With the help of this option you can eliminate those rates. Another possible method that you can use is to increase the update period of your share counters and keep them running on the server side only. Use these option on your risk. By setting this option to Yes you understand that a counter update will be executed on the front of your site using a javascript functional call (instead on server level).

Troubleshooting Share Counter Problems

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Last Updated: 2 years ago in Share Counters, Social Share Buttons