Do you want to know how to get your Twitter share counts back?
It’s been a few years since I had an issue with the Tweet share counts on the blog here. Since that time, I also switched my share buttons to Social Warfare. They had a lot of extra’s included with their Social Warfare WordPress pro plugin.
Now, my favorite feature from Social Warfare is their click to tweet options. SO, you can do 2 things with just ONE plugin. If you remember, I don’t like using a lot of plugins here! (The pro account is still only $29 per year!)
Table of Contents
Get Your Twitter Share Counts Back Is Now Easy!
Then a few months ago my Tweet share counts suddenly disappeared again. ☹ These wonderful tweet counters were no longer showing at the bottom of my blog posts.
I didn’t fret at first. I was too busy doing work for clients since I started full-time with my business here.
Then, Janice Wald from Mostly Blogging got me inspired to dig deeper to find out why. She emailed me and wanted to know what to do about it.
Of course, I contacted my dear techie Mayura to help us out.
Looking to get your Twitter share count back now? Read more here on how you can easily get your counts back on your blog or website today!
Now, my favorite feature from Social Warfare is their click to tweet options. #Twittertips #socialwarfare Click To TweetHow to Get Your Twitter Share Counts Back on Your Blog or Website
Twitter stopped the coveted counts from being seen on third-party applications, etc. via their API on blogs and websites. The share count numbers were no longer visible to website visitors.
You could check your own traffic from Google Analytics but that takes time and effort to do on a regular basis. Who has the time today to deal with that process?
Another option is to use Buzz Sumo but it will not show the share counts on your website. You would only be able to check them on your Buzz Sumo account. (Which costs money! If you invest for other reasons like SEO then it is a great investment!)
They do offer a cool browser extension where you see the numbers of any website or Twitter user. Another tool on my 2019 bucket list to invest in. ?
Your Social Share Count Numbers
Seeing the numbers visible on each post and page of your website makes it much easier to feel validation. It also gives you social proof on your blog or website.
(Whether or not this social proof is of utmost importance is highly debatable!) Sam Hurley gave me his feedback a few years ago about this one below:
Evidence from others that a brand is trusted! ? Psychology sells … 90% of consumers are influenced to buy as a result of positive reviews! pic.twitter.com/10wNnGicrk
— Sam Hurley ??? ? Kindness Enthusiast ? (@Sam___Hurley) June 4, 2017
Some claim that if you have no shares others may not share or comment on your post. It’s part of social media psychology that more is better. Not only do we like to see more shares but we can be addicted to tweeting.
Imagine “The pull of dopamine is so strong that studies have shown TWEETING is harder for people to resist than cigarettes and alcohol!” from Social Media Today.
Imagine 'The pull of dopamine is so strong that studies have shown TWEETING is harder for people to resist than cigarettes and alcohol!' from Social Media Today. #Twitter Click To TweetThe IFTTT Option
You could revert to using an IFTTT recipe to learn your Twitter count. This helps you to find a specific URL that has been shared on Twitter.
(IFTTT will give a total count, # of times a specific URL has been shared.) Then, the social media share count will be sent to a Google Spreadsheet.
Hence, it can be monitored but will be hard to share unless it is converted to some form of an image count.
The Magic TwitCount Service That Works NOW
TwitCount is the service available where you can get your Twitter share count back now. After you add the TwitCount widget on your website they will start doing API calls to the official API in order to count the URL mentions on the fly.
You need to connect your Twitter account to allow TwitCount to do the calls. This is also a FREE service. It can take anywhere from one hour to 24 hours for this to happen.
You can see the app connected to your Twitter account. (Under settings and then apps in your Twitter account.)
If you have social warfare plugin for your social share counts you do NOT have to add the code to your site. It will happen automatically. Another reason to get the social warfare plugin for your blog or website today!
⇒Do be sure to turn your tweet counts on in your social warfare plugin and hit SAVE. Easy!
If you have social warfare plugin for your social share counts you do NOT have to add the code to your site. It will happen automatically. #socialwarfare #sharecounts Click To Tweet
What other share counts are missing?
LinkedIn is another one as well whose share count disappeared in early 2018.
(LinkedIn is NOT going away! I don’t want to start any rumors like that here!)
Bonus Tip on How to Get Your Twitter Share Counts Back
If this does not work for you, we have a bonus tip: Try it on an incognito browser. For some reason, this seems to make it work wonders to get that share counts back on your website.
Thank you, Mayura!
LinkedIn Share Counts Gone, Is Facebook Share Counts Next?
As I was doing more research for this post I found that Facebook may be soon getting rid of their share counts as well according to Inc.com. Facebook shows counts on their own buttons but has shut down the 3rd party apps to show their share counts. Will they take it a step further as well?
Finally, I’m wondering if like LinkedIn they want you to spend more time on each of the social networking sites themselves instead of sharing from other websites and apps. It may change how we develop, refine and show social proof in the coming year.
As you may know, Instagram is testing getting rid of likes on their social media platform. (November, 2019).
Facebook may be soon getting rid of their share counts as well. #socialmedia Click To TweetYour Turn on How to Get Your Twitter Share Counts Back
Have you tried to get your social media share button counts back recently?
I’d love to know if you have and what you did to get your Tweet sharing count back up and running.
Would you be upset if FACEBOOK got rid of their share counts too?
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 11 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
You can purchase her eBook about Twitter on Amazon.
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Hi Lisa; I remember when Twitter originally got rid of share counts and it was thanks to you we could all get them back. Nice to know there’s a new way, now. I don’t really worry about stuff like that anymore, but will pass the word along.
Hi Debbie, yes, that was a few years back 🙂 I don’t know how many more years new ways will be available to do this as I think share counts may go away on all the social networks. They seem to be very expensive to maintain. Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful day Debbie!
I was about to skip by this, thinking it was an old post of yours because you’d tackled the topic before. Then I went to look at my blogs and… well… shocked! I knew Twitter had talked about diminishing follow numbers, but didn’t know they’d attacked share counts also; weasels!
I’ll have to think about this a bit more; irksome to be sure, but how do we know Twitter won’t mess with things again? Sigh…
Hi Mitch, no, really? You would skip by it? 🙂 Yes Twitter did get rid of those share counts but with the help of Mayura we can get them back 🙂 We don’t know if they will Mitch. I also read Facebook may ditch their share counts. Thanks for reminder for me to set up a Google alert on this topic. Thanks for coming by and have a great day Mitch. It looks like some snow is heading in our direction….
Meanwhile, I’m looking into this, and of course it’s not compatible with the program I’ve been using; sigh… Now I have to figure out how to get it onto my blog and in the right place; double sigh! lol
Hi Mitch, do you have social warfare? What are you using for your shares on the blog? Let me know and email me – maybe I can help you with that one. I think if you don’t you have to add it to your header in the WordPress editor.
I don’t have social warfare. I use a plugin called Simple Share, which worked when I was having trouble with other plugins.
Hi Mitch, then you would have to put the code in from TwitCount. It would go in your editor and in heading area. That’s all you would have to do 🙂 I hope you are able to.
Hi Lisa,
I had moved my old blog from http to https and I had lost my twitter share numbers. And at that time I was not aware of such plugins. And then decided to move on with https and forget old share counts. I hope, I had come across this article at that time.
A nice in-depth guide. Thank you.
Hi Veer, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Oh yes, I did that once as well. I hope you can follow this and get your Twitter share counts back. Let me know how you make out with it. You are most welcome 🙂 Have a great day.
Nice guide. I will sure follow the steps to get my Twitter counts on my blog.
Thanks for sharing
Thank you Joseph, Welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Let us know how you make out with that. Have a great day!
Hi Lisa,
I wouldn’t say much, but only to point out that getting your share count back is great because your social counts show visitors that your articles are getting much engagement which is good or your brand. It helps you get more shares as well. Sometimes a reader might not feel.compelled to share your post, but see g the numbers will move him to share it
Hi Moss, isn’t that interesting that having numbers there can compel others to share as well? What’s up with that? Validation? I hear the share counts may all be disappearing in the future. It cost a lot of money for the social networks to have them. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out in the coming year Moss. Thanks for coming by and I hope your year is starting off great!
Showing the share count increases chances of sharing. Its been proved that showing twitter share counts, facebook share counts keeps your post more engaged.
Google Plus is retiring and thats bad.. and thanks, you are not spreading rumors of linkedin retiring 🙂
Hi Atul, I wonder why that is, the pscyhology behind that Atul? You got me thinking. Yes, I’m debating about removing those G+ buttons soon. I will be adding reddit I believe. Thanks for coming by on this one Atul. Have a great day and weekend ahead.
Hey Lisa. Fab post as always! I may be the only one but I found that the share count was a bit of a distraction. It made me focus on how “little” my content was being shared and, quite frankly, disappointed me. However, as many pro bloggers like yourself, I can see how you could value those counts. I wish “the powers above” would quit messing with our tools and just let them be. Why do they like causing drama in our world? 🙂
Thanks for the read. At least there are options still out there and especially Social Warfare!
B
Hi Bren, nice to see you back 🙂
Yes, it can do that for any of us from time to time. I believe they may disappear in 2019 altogether as the social networks don’t want to have them anymore, it’s a cost factor too. The technology to get it right is very expensive. I wonder what will then be the next “social proof” factors. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out Bren. Thanks for coming by and have a great day – It’s FRIDAY 🙂
Thanks for the useful notes on getting back the twitter counts mam, it’s great that Social media warfare plugin shows the counts without any extra coding and it’s nice to see the uniformed sharing buttons as added on this blog post.
Visited for the first time here at inspiretothrive and loved it mam, Keep inspiring ?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for mentioning me. I’m glad I could inspire you. Not only did you help me, but you also helped others that need the share counts back. Why do I say “need”? I agree with Sam Hurley– social proof.
Janice
Hi Lisa,
In fact, I did not give much attention to this, but now I found the importance and the connected plugin and its uses. Thanks for sharing this information with us.
May you have a great and blessed New Year 2019.
Best Regards
~ Philip
You are most welcome Philip 🙂 And you as well with 2019! Do give the plugin a look 🙂
I’ve known for a bit about Twitter no longer showing share counts on sites but personally, I didn’t sweat it, although you’re correct that seemingly the psychology of seeing shares does prompt others to share too.
But as you alluded to, I agree that soon all the big social media platforms will stop showing counts. Everyone is trying to keep people on their platform and is doing everything possible to ensure that.
Great tips on how to get twitter shares back though, Lisa.
As they say, the only thing that is constant is change, right?
Hi Amanda, I didn’t sweat it at first until Janice asked me. Then I got curious and really liked being able to showcase those share counts off as I get work from abroad because of them on my blog 🙂
I also read more today and learned the cost to keep those share buttons working correctly is quite expensive – so add to the list of why the social networks may ditch them. It will be really interesting to see if Facebook gets rid of it’s share counts this year.
You got that right Amanda, and that was my quote in the high school yearbook. “The only thing that is constant is change.”
Thank you for coming by and I hope you have a terrific 2019 Amanda 🙂
Nice piece of content, Lisa.
I have never really given that Twitter count a thought even though I know it is a good form of social proof.
I want to know… Do these social media platforms (Twitter and LinkedIn) have any reason for disallowing it?
This is a good morale booster and I think they need to bring it back.
Happy new year.
Emenike
Hi Emenike, Thank you. I believe their reason is to keep us on their social network platforms longer. They prefer us there than on our blogs or websites. If I share from someone’s blog I don’t necessarily go back on their social network.
But a bigger reason I believe is the cost for the technology. And the more each network eliminates them, the easier it will be for the rest to follow suit and save some money. It will be interesting to see if Facebook does the same thing this year.
Thanks for coming by Emenike and I hope you have a wonderful 2019!
Hey Lisa,
A few years back, I moved my blog to https protocol and those counts instantly all disappeared. My blog suddenly became a social ghost town. I bought Social Warfare and the problem was resolved. I didn’t renew the plugin licence because of a Paypal payment issue (which is still a big problem here). My theme though has the social share plus button counts as a useful free addition too.
I don’t understand why these social giants and dancing with the button counts. Maybe there’s a technical issue we are not told as these counts (to me) is a huge social proof factor.
I found out you could buy fake likes and tweets from platform like Fiverr. I may have to run a search to find out if that’s still possible. But it’s something I’m NEVER going to encourage any authentic marketer to do.
Thanks for tweaking this old post and making it fresh. My best wishes and prayers for you this year my dear friend.
~ Happy New Year
Hi Enstine, Oh yes, that was another reason many lost their share counts too! I hope your Paypal issue in your country does get resolved. That’s a shame that it is not available everywhere.
I hear you on that one, why do they want the share numbers to go away? Maybe because they just want us on their social networks and not on our own websites and blogs. For example Facebook has their own shop features where you can shop right from there. Not a bad idea on their part, right?
I do not recommend buying those fake followers either Enstine. Real followers are the BEST.
You are most welcome and thanks for coming by here in another year Enstine. I hope you have a fabulous 2019 🙂
Formidable! I installed the Shareaholic plugin and followed the other instructions to the letter. Worked like a charm. Thanks, Lisa.
Hi Mansoor, I’m so glad it worked easily for you. Thanks for commenting to let me know 🙂 Have a great rest of the week.
Hello Lisa,
Your post is really informative. I have tried to signup on Opensharecount but i did not get it done. I am using sumome social sharing plugin on my wordpress. Do you know anyone who using same plugin and get their twitter share count live again. Please help me with this
Thanks for sharing great
Hi Anant, I do not offhand but I will check with to see what we can find out. Thanks for coming by and I’ll be in touch.
Hi Lisa,
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even pay attention to this being an option. I use the Twitter API in my sidebar that shows the number of followers on my page which I thought was really cool. Especially since my organic growth has been really good the last three or four months.
I am going to look into the share count more because my shares are really, really good and it would be nice to show it.
Thanks for enlightening me and Happy New Year Lisa!!!!
~ Don Purdum
Hi Don, there are only so many things we can pay attention to on any given day or week. We can’t all be experts in everything 🙂 You are most welcome and let me know if you have any other questions Don. I hope you have a fantastic 2016.
Thanks for this list of resources, Lisa. I notice you are using Shareaholic buttons and they show the Twitter counts. Maybe I should try those? I’m using the standard Jetpack sharing buttons now and they don’t show Twitter or Google counts.
Awesome! I installed the Shareaholic plugin and followed the other instructions to the letter. Worked like a charm. Thanks, Lisa! 😎
Hi Debbie, I am so glad to hear that. Awesome! You are most welcome and have a great rest of the weekend.
Hi Debbie, yes, only certain ones work with it. Do give them a try. Thanks for coming by!
Hi, Lisa!
Thank you very much for writing such a great recommendation for NewShareCounts! We are happy to serve you and all other website owners, and it’s great that you found it easy to implement for your site.
Best wishes for this New Year!
You are welcome and I am so glad such a service exists that we can use Artur. Have a great 2016.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing these great resources for keeping track of our Twitter share count. That is a feature I’m missing and I also heard in the news this morning Twitter is thinking about expanding the character count to 10k, not sure how that will sit with folks. I personally would like at least a 200 character count to keep tweets short and sweet.
Anyway, you’ve given me some homework to do this weekend. I’ve save your post so I can take a closer look at these resources. Like you, I prefer a simple coding, nothing too complicated.
Thanks again for sharing this Lisa. I hope you had a great holiday season. Happy New Year!
Cori
Hi Corina, you are welcome. Oh yes, I have read about that and not sure how that may work. I like short and sweet as you know Corina. I hope this helps you over the weekend and if you have any questions do let me know. You too, Happy New Year!
Hi Lisa,
Its good to know there is a way to see the twitter counts. Thanks for sharing. Will try it on one of my sites.
Hi Umapathy, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Yes, there is more than one way to see them now. I’m sure more will be coming on board too. Stay tuned! Thanks for coming by.
Hi Lisa,
I have elsewhere that one of the alternatives is to use Buzz Sumo Chrome extension. This advise is confirmed in this post. The other alternatives shared are new and it would be cool to implement them. However, I just hope that I will not need to do too much coding! 😉
Hi Sunday, I am with you on that one! A little coding here and there is fine. But a lot can be overwhelming if you are not sure. This one was easy to implement. I hope it helps you. Thanks for coming by and Happy New Year Sunday!
Hi Lisa,
Its an awesome post. I use “add this” plugin on my blog for sharing purpose but the only thing is that sometimes it does’t work properly or give proper results so i was looking for some external sources.
And i got buzzsumo through your post.
thanks for sharing the post.
Hi Robin, Thank you. I don’t think that one (add this plugin) works yet with New Share Counts. Maybe in the future it will. Do check back. Thanks for coming by on this one and have a great rest of the week Robin.
Hey Lisa,
I did sign up with that service but I had bought the Warfare plugin and it’s not integrating the numbers with that one. So I installed SumoMe to see and although some are showing I know they’re not right. I really don’t like that plugin though so I’m not quite sure what I’ll do.
I prefer showing my Twitter shares of course because that’s the site that my content is shared on the most. It’s only logical since the stream moves so quickly.
I appreciate you though sharing all these new things with us. I had read Adrian’s post and implemented what he had shared so I’ll continue playing with it and make my decision. Just wish everyone could get something like this integrated, wouldn’t that be awesome.
Thanks for researching this for us, you’re the best.
Happy New Year!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Oh yes I don’t believe it works with that one (plugin) yet. I’m sure if you hang tight they may be more services coming up the road quicker than we can imagine. I bet that will eventually happen – having everything integrated. You are welcome Adrienne and I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this open as it is sure to change. You too, Happy New Year Adrienne. Thank you for coming by on this one!
Nice, I am glad that so many companies decided to do the dev work to bring back share counts. I am wondering if there is still access via the API or if you need to pay for the information. I’ve been meaning to try some of the methods I’ve used in the past to grab the share count number as text in WordPress so that I could style my own buttons. Which would be a free method for getting the information. I’ll gladly share with everyone if it still works.
Hi Susan, how have you been? From what I’ve read you have to pay – starting at $500 a month. Let us know, that would sure be quite cool. You could probably charge for it (a small fee). Thanks for coming by Susan and I hope all is well your way.
Hi, Susan!
There is no access to Twitter’s own API, but you can use NewShareCounts’ API to get share counts for your website. After you sign-up and add your website, you’ll see instructions on how to access the API, and it is totally free.
Best wishes!
Hi Artur, correct and thank you for coming by on this post. Welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Have a great weekend.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing this with us! I was upset when the Twitter Share Count went away, however, I’ve found other ways now to “validate” my existence. 🙂 Instead of showing individual share counts on my site, I’m just showing total share counts. Works well for me.
The above are some fabulous ways to get your counts back! Thank you for doing the research and to Adrian for always being on top of things!
Happy Sunday!
B
Hi Brenda, you are welcome. Yes, that was an alternative to show the TOTAL share counts. I like seeing the individual ones though as it shows where your time should or could be spent more wisely. Do you think you’ll go back to it or do you like the simpicity of the total share count? Thanks for coming by Brenda and hope you are enjoying the first weekend of the new year!
Thank you for the mention, Lisa 🙂
Brenda: The “total” share count is just a visual trick 🙂 Actually it’s not a “total” share count unless you use an additional service for counting the Twitter shares (like the ones mentioned in the article).
Hi Adrian, you are welcome. So glad to have the count back though it does take a little time for it to count them. Excellent point on the total share count. Hope you having a great start to the New Year! Thanks again for sharing how to add this new share count with us!
No, I won’t be going back. I’m using Google Analytics more to find out where my traffic is coming from so I really don’t see the need anymore. It can be distracting and a big sad to only see a couple share counts there for Twitter. 😆
Hi Brenda, that is one thing – it can be distracting and take away time from being productive 🙂