How to Add a Tweet Button With YOUR Twitter Handle On A WordPress.com Hosted Blog

You may have noticed since mid-August when you click the ‘Tweet’ button below my posts it would pop up the usual Twitter box which said the post’s title, had a link to the post and said that the post came “via @wordpressdotcom” and not “via @TheDanLevy” as it used to say.

This confused me to no end until I found the blog post linked below by a fellow named Waqas Ali who you can find on Twitter under the handle @WaqasADay.

How to Add a Tweet Button With Your Twitter Username into WordPress.com « Waqas A Day.

Since I implemented this change you will also notice that the actual share button has changed.

The above image is what the share button used to look like using the WordPress option to add in the ‘official’ share button. This button was cool because beyond popping up the share box you see below it also kept count of how many times a link was shared via Twitter. To be honest I don’t even know if this number was 100% accurate but then again I couldn’t tell because I wasn’t seeing the @mentions because they were mentioning @WordPressDotCom not @TheDanLevy.

Now that I have implemented the change my Twitter share button looks like the button below – you can also obviously see it at the bottom of every one of my posts. Unfortunately, a drawback of this new unofficial share button is that it doesn’t keep track of the number of times something has been shared like the old, official button does. But, on the very bright side, this share button actually has my Twitter handle in it so I will take that as a massive win.

The pop up box in of itself also looks and acts slightly differently. Aside from the obvious – it has my Twitter handle in it! – the way it presents itself is different. Instead of popping up in its own window as the original, official box does it instead acts however you have told your browser to handle the opening of new links. In my case it opens up in Chrome in a new tab. Beyond that, you can tell that it is structurally and aesthetically different but I am not complaining just commenting.

If you are a blogger who is also hosting their blog on WordPress.com – as opposed to your own domain – I highly recommend checking out this fix/workaround. I am really happy to have found it. Thanks to all the folks in this WordPress Help Forum thread http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/change-via-wordpressdotcom-to-own-twitter-handle which is where I was linked to Waqas Ali’s blog post with the workaround details.

Hope you are all having a superb Labor Day Weekend!