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New Ning Like Buttons Coming Soon! Beta Available Now.

Ning Network Creators:

How ya “like” me now? Like buttons now available in beta for all Ning Network Creators.

JenSocial has joined the Beta.

If you are a Ning Network Creator, and would like to join the Beta on your Ning Network, go to My Network and look under "Ning Announcements" to read about the new "Like Buttons". To join the Beta, look under Settings/Beta. Follow the instructions from there.

A few of the details, according to Ning:

Here's something you might like — we've just added Like Buttons to photos, videos, and blog posts. With the site Like Button, everything that you like gets added to your "My Likes" page. You can also Like something right from the Main Page. And with the Facebook Like button, now anyone with a Facebook account can like what they see and share it with their friends. Hope you enjoy this new feature! Get Liking!

Ning's Official Announcement: (Original Discussion)

Today, we’ve rolled out the beta for our Ning Like Button and the Facebook Like Buttons, two features that enhance the Ning Engagement System. “Liking” is a lightweight interaction that has proved to be incredibly powerful. Now, you can bring that power to your Ning Network with either a customized Like Button, a Facebook Like Button, or both. Try them out today by going to your Beta Page.

If you enable the Ning Like button, members can “Like” photos, videos, and blog posts right from the Main Page, in addition to detail pages...

Additionally, anything your members Like gets added to a brand-new My Likes page, which is a handy way to archive interesting stuff:

According to Ning:

The Ning Like button comes with a ton of customization options. You can choose the default icon, as well as the default name for the feature, on the Like Button Settings page. This is also where you can re-enable “Rating” and “Favorite” if you want to hang on to those features.

If you enable the Facebook Like button, it will behave just like other Facebook Like buttons you’ve seen elsewhere. Unlike the Ning Like button, you don’t have to be a member to like something on Facebook. So the Facebook Like button is a great option if you want the maximum number of people to Like network content and make it go viral.

One awesome addition is that we hooked Facebook up to your network’s engagement system too. This means that if your content gets a ton of Facebook “Likes,” it will still rise to the top of the Leaderboards and other popularity sortings.

Naturally, you can enable the Ning Like Button, the Facebook Like Button, both, or neither. It’s up to you!

Go to Ning's Creator Site to read Original Discussion and Network Creators Responses.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by The Hutterite Social Network on February 3, 2011 at 2:18pm

This is COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL

Two Questions though...

Why don't I see this on the most important part of my site? The discussions? :( (Of course I know this is a NING thing lol... so pardon the abrupt question...)

Also does this just work on actual Content... A Photo, A Blog Post?? But not on an actual comment to any of these.. Example... My network is driven by lively discussions and many many times I want to LIKE a post someone left on a discussion... instead of replying to it...

Thanks for sharing this... I would have missed it as I don't always visit my dashboard..

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on February 3, 2011 at 2:43pm

Hi Jerry,

It's so new, even to me, I'm not really sure. It'll take a while to see that bugs don't exist, and how it all works. This is what Ning states:

If you enable the Ning Like button, members can “Like” photos, videos, and blog posts right from the Main Page, in addition to detail pages...

Best Regards,

Jen

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Permalink Reply by The Hutterite Social Network on February 3, 2011 at 2:51pm

Yeah I saw that... but it does not make much sense to me if they do not enable this on every part of the site...

"Let's go all the way if we go halfway" - Wipfism

haha

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on February 3, 2011 at 11:31pm

LOL, agree, and should be able to say where the buttons are added...

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Permalink Reply by Lex Smith on February 3, 2011 at 2:48pm

We will be able to opt out of this if we don't want it?

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on February 3, 2011 at 11:31pm

Hi Lex, Yes, and if I'm not mistaken, it will be turned off by default.

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Permalink Reply by Chloe Alison Prince on February 3, 2011 at 3:03pm

When I enabled the Facebook LIKE button, my other Facebook feature is no longer available so that members can cross post photos and blogs to Facebook like they used to do. Is the LIKE button supposed to do this, cause its not working like that on my network.

I enabled the facebook option long ago and it works fine, but like I said, when the FB Like button option is on, you can no longer cross post content. Thats a deal breaker for me, because our memebrs love to share photos from our network up onto their facebook pages.

I hope NING will fix this so that your Facebook content will cross post to your FB page when someone clicks the like button, or atleast put the option back in next to the like button. The share button doesn't cross post things to Facebook correctly either. I tried to cross post a FB blog using the SHARE feature and it just trys to share the URL with a pic on my network to my FB Wall. Maybe I am not explaining myself well???

I like the NING Like button - but would like for the option to be able to put in my OWN custom button I make. Also, i would like to see more control to the net work owner as to where it will apear on thing, in blog rolls, etc. They need to have it on forum posts, and also to be able to LIKE members comments on blogs, photos and forum posts.

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Permalink Reply by The Hutterite Social Network on February 3, 2011 at 3:28pm

Chloe Alison Prince... I totally agree..

I had my FaceBook sharing like set up (prior to this release) so that when I FaceBook something as the site owner it posts to my Network FaceBook page .. It does this in complete Context like the screenshot below..

With the New FaceBook beta like... it does not do that... Instead it goes to my personal page PLUS it does not share it correctly... it just says "Jerry likes Hutterite Social Network" and then the link goes to my Network HOME page which is no good.. as my site is completly private..

So basically this new FaceBook like kills our ability to share certain content which links EXACTLY to the page we shared, (screenshot above) instead of the Home page.. I hope that makes sense..

So NO... I will not be using the new FaceBook like as the old one is way more sophisticated.. But the NING like is way cool...

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Permalink Reply by The Hutterite Social Network on February 3, 2011 at 3:30pm

I hope NING will fix this so that your Facebook content will cross post to your FB page when someone clicks the like button, or atleast put the option back in next to the like button.

There is really nothing to fix... just don't enable that new FaceBook option... :)

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Permalink Reply by Haitians United for Haiti on February 3, 2011 at 6:43pm

I agree, the new facebook button is not specific to what it is you liked and it just indicated that you like the "network" not the photo, video or blog post. Thank you ( see screen shot below)

this is what I liked on my network, a blog post:

This is what is indicated on FB:

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on February 3, 2011 at 11:38pm

Jerry and Haitians United for Haiti - - Thank you for the screen shots, most helpful!

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on February 3, 2011 at 11:37pm

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, I should disable the new FB like button? Thanks everyone for discovering this! I do hope everyone sends this feedback to Ning. :-)