"Tell a Friend" widget - is it worth it?

[Mister_L]

Hi,

I have a few websites designed to sell certain types of products.I'm thinking about developing a "tell a friend" widget on the product page, but I'm not sure how many people will actually use it...Do you think it's worth the time?

Thanks.

[bhukkel]

Why not try a free "tell a friend" or sharing widget? Most off them generate nice statistics with #clicks and #shares. Then you can decide to build your own.

I get daily clicks from my sharing widget..

[martinibuster]

What are the pros and cons of developing your own social widget versus using a free social widget?

Pro development:
Leaner code?
Privacy (commercial widget data is shared)
Faster load time
Total control over integration with your layout

Any other pros and cons?

[Planet13]

The con could be that, unless it is developed correctly, it could be susceptible to spammers using it to email a bunch of people.

So make sure that if you DO decide to use your own, that it is secure and adheres to an of the canspam acts.

[Mister_L]

Any free sharing widgets you'd like to recommend?

[bhukkel]

A major con of your own widget is the support of different social media platforms. The free ones support around 200 platforms. In my sharing stats i see social media sites i never heard of.

[incrediBILL]

Total waste of time.

Implemented them many years ago, many customers had them, very few people used them.

[lucy24]

The question isn't really how many people would use it, total. The question is how many people would use a widget who would not otherwise mention your site on their own initiative, whether in direct email ("You said you were looking for a place to buy small purple widgets") or by posting to social media ("Let me take a moment to sing the praises of smallpurplewidgets dot com").

People who want to recommend a page on facebook certainly don't seem to have any trouble doing so without further hand-holding from me.