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How to Add a “Tweet This” Button to WordPress

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

TwitThis is a free service and WordPress plugin that allows you to add a “Tweet This” button at the end of your WordPress posts/pages. Another plugin would be Tweet This, a WordPress plugin with a bit more features than the TwitThis. I prefer the latter because it helps me to shorten the URLs automatically with 3rd party URL services.

If you don’t wish to use a WordPress plugin, you could follow the “Tweet This” hack from WordPress Hacks.

I wanted more control on how and where I should display my Tweet This button and I decided that I had to use the Tweet This WordPress plugin to achieve the look and function I want.

Step 1: Download, Upload and Active Tweet This

Dowload Tweet This from Richard X. Thripp’s web site. Upload the files into the /wp-content/plugins folder of your WordPress installation and activate the plugin in WordPress.

Step 2: Configure the Tweet This Settings

How to Add a Tweet This Button to WordPress

If you would like to manually display the Tweet This link with your own button, you should uncheck the first 2 automatic options. For this example, I will be using one of the free Twitter buttons I downloaded from MilkAddict.com so I will not need the automatic options. Feel free to select any URL service you wish to use.

Step 3: Download An Alternative Tweet This Icon (Optional)

If you would prefer to use graphics to display the Tweet This link, here’s a list of Twitter buttons you may use for your web site.

Step 4: Add a Tweet This Link to Your Blog Page and/or Post Template

Open the files single.php and page.php in your favourite HTML editor. Add the following code to your template.

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<!-- TWITTER - START -->
<a href="<?php tweet_this_url(); ?>" rel="nofollow"><img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/icon-twitter.png" width="70" height="70" alt="Tweet This" /></a>
<!-- TWITTER - END -->

My assumption was you upload your Twitter button to a folder called “images” within your theme folder.

Preview of My Tweet This Button

How to Add a Tweet This Button to WordPress

I displayed my Tweet This button below each post. Here’s what happens when you click on it….

How to Add a Tweet This Button to WordPress

Hopefully people will use your Tweet This button to submit your interesting blog posts to their Twitter profile. I hope you enjoyed this Twitter/WordPress tutorial. Feel free to send me any questions via the comments or email.

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7 Comments On “How to Add a “Tweet This” Button to WordPress”

On 29th December 2008 7:00 PM, Scrappy Upstart said:

Thanks for this – TwitThis by Chuug just stopped working, so did their support email – this came in handy. Thanks!

On 31st January 2009 5:40 AM, Richard X. Thripp said:

Thank you for the nice article! Check out the new version 1.2 of Tweet This. You can customize the link and tweet text, and a local URL option is available.

On 13th March 2009 10:29 AM, domz said:

Great article, I posted something similar at my blog

On 25th April 2009 3:06 PM, Twitter Loco said:

I’ve been looking for something like this and I have put this one to the test and works excellent.

Excellent Article.

On 8th July 2009 9:28 AM, Akila said:

is there any way to add a tweet this button to free wordpress blog its not allowing scripts

On 17th September 2009 9:40 AM, Juuth said:

Hello, thank you for this helpful post!

I just installed Tweet This v1.6, could anyone please advise me which options to select/deselect and where in single.php to put the code??

Thanks a lot :)

On 18th March 2010 12:10 PM, Mrs Moody@video tutorial blog said:

Nice post and informative, thanks for this!

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