Twitter: Promotion via Tweetmeme in WordPress

Howdy! As you may have noticed I’ve installed a Tweetmeme button in the Share section of each post. Basically, it’s just a retweet counter which lets you promote the current post via a retweet on Twitter. More info about Tweetmeme and how it works can be found on their website and the official Tweetmeme WordPress plugin page is here.

Anyways, I found it a little bit nasty having only three options for display in the Tweetmeme configuration (display button before post, after post, before and after post) – that kinda freaked me out cause I couldnt place the button right next to my Sociable share buttons, so I’ve jumped into the plugin code and added a fourth option – Manual. You can now place the Tweetmeme button in any div/span/p/em/.. you like (from within the loop of course).

Interested? Download my version of Tweetmeme for WordPress. The installation process is the same. Then go to plugin settings and pick the manual display mode. Use it in your theme within the loop like this:

if (function_exists('tweetmeme')) echo tweetmeme();

UPD 6.05.2009: It seems that this update was included in the most recent update of the plugin. Thanks so much, Tweetmeme! Lovin’ your service! Keep up the good work.

About the author

Konstantin Kovshenin

WordPress Core Contributor, ex-Automattician, public speaker and consultant, enjoying life in Moscow. I blog about tech, WordPress and DevOps.

16 comments

  • Good one there, K! You should msg the developers and ask them to revise ur version before the upcoming update.

  • This is the solution I might be looking for. I've installed your plugin and have picked the manual display mode. How do I get the button to show up next to my other social media bookmarks though?

    • Kath, in your WordPress admin panel select Appearance, then click Editor. Pick the file(s) you output your social media bookmarks in (probably index.php and single.php) and look for the social media buttons in the code. Then add the following code right next to them:

      if (function_exists('tweetmeme')) echo tweetmeme();

  • The solution has been accepted by the Tweetmeme developers and the most recent update includes this option. Together with the ability to retweet using your own twitter name (unlike the previous versions, where you had to get whitelisted before doing that). Sweet!

    • I have been trying to change Tweetmeme to include my username (tlovvorn), but all of the code I have found seems to be older code than what I'm seeing. Can you help me find where to change the code?

    • Hey Traylor, you don't have to change the code. One of the recent updates of Tweetmeme Button includes an option to tweet the string like this: @yourname post_title link (via @tweetmeme), which is fair enough, so go ahead and use that. No need to change any codes, it's in the button settings page.

    • Wow I wish I had known that yesterday! I have messed up my comments.php page and now comments will not work! Where do you recommend I go to get help with that? I tried uploading comments.php page again and that did not fix the problem.

      site is at http://traylorlovvorn.com.

      Thanks!
      Traylor

    • Well fix your comments by finding and downloading your theme from michael.tyson.id.au/wordpress and about the settings, it's in your WordPress Settings – Tweetmeme Button, not the plugins page. You don't have to edit the plugin code.

      Cheers.

  • Thank you for the easy to understand and implement manual installation instructions regarding the "Tweetmeme" button.

    We were using the most recent version by the "Tweetmeme" developers, however their poorly worded instructions as it relates to manual insertion, brought us to using your version instead.

    Again thank you very much.

  • Hello, Great post. Nice to see tweetmeme picking up the idea.

    I was wondering how you did the Sociable share buttons? Is that a plugin or mod from somewhere or just something you manually created for your site. I really like the style of your share buttons.

    Thank you.

    • Bill, it's a plugin for WordPress and it's called "Sociable" google for it, it's the one and only ;) Oh and yeah tweetmeme picked up the idea, but once they've upgraded their button to work like the Digg one via an iframe I shut down the plugin. It's extremely difficult to modify the plugin's behaviour and it doesn't suit into the theme the way it used to. You cannot manipulate it much via CSS and the iframe size is static. It doesn't align well :( what a bummer.. Meh!

  • Hi! Your post from 2 years ago, has saved my life. I've tried several times to set tweetmeme manual w/ many codes everyone invented anywhere without luck. Just trying this, it has worked, I was getting nuts thinking any other code in my page was overlapping tweetmeme's. I can't believe how comes the latest plugin has no information on how to set the manual button! =) THANKS AGAIN, LOTS OF!!!!!!