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Nowadays your site is not in fashion if you don't show at least a couple of share buttons like these:

alt text

Is this just fashion, or do people actually get something good out of it?

When I say "something good" I mostly mean something that you could measure, and not just the feeling that was good.

Maybe I can better explain with an example: did you notice (in some way) that many people clicked on those links to share your page/s on those web 2.0 social sites? And in such a case on which social networks did you see they mostly share your pages?

BTW I'm not talking about Google PR, i know all web 2.0 social sites use nofollow everywhere and even hidden links, so they are useless by themselves for PR.

UPDATE:

According to this video, Google's Alter Ego says that they now use in some way data from social sites in ranking. If this is true, it's obvious that the Share on button for FB, Tweet, etc are definitely of some values.

But again my question is more about what you noticed in your real experience to be a direct benefit of adding those type of "Share On" links on your webisite? I.e. did you see more traffic coming in form FB, or some users who bought your products because of FB or Twitter? Or any other benefits?

Thanks

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I don't think it's a case of being fashionable or just doing it because everyone else is. These buttons are an easy way to get word out about your website quickly and for free. If anything, not putting them on your website would be something to question (although there are legitimate reasons not to use them, too).

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  • Well good starting point, could you explain more, i.e. some legitimate reasons not to use them?
    – Marco Demaio
    Nov 25, 2010 at 20:07
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    I work for a small marketing company and our website essentially is an online brochure. There isn't any content on that site that is worth sharing (i.e. articles, resources, blog posts). Putting this buttons on would look silly and contrived. Now if we had a Facebook page and Twitter account putting buttons that link to those pages would be a different story.
    – John Conde ♦
    Nov 26, 2010 at 15:26
  • Just to add something here, having these links encourages the page to be shared because it's incredibly easy to do so. It would be a much longer process if the user copies the link, enters a list of email addresses into their email client and writes an explanation about why it's good.
    – mickburkejnr
    Feb 28, 2012 at 22:02

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