Multiple social buttons with a fast loading? [closed]

Question

I have pages like this with a lot of social buttons. A lot means more than 50 buttons because each posts on that page has its own buttons.

So maybe I'll make the page smaller, with less posts but this is not the main reason and not what I am looking for.

I want to know how can I make the buttons faster..

Use XFBML? Iframe? HTML5?
How can I make all of them run from one script and not duplicate?
Do you recommend loading the rest of the buttons just when the user scrolls down?
Do you recommend using a service like AddThis or Sharrre?
How can I make all my JS load asynchronously?
Other tips?

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is a solution that came up recently that is growingly popular especially in the German speaking part of the net called the two-click-method.

It loads the buttons only after the user has clicked a grayed out image of the button. This has the advantage of saving the privacy of your users as facebook and twitter are known for transmitting sensitive user data even if the user has not clicked the button yet and even if the users are not logged in.

The other advantage is of course a reduction of scripts to load initially.

When you care about your users privacy and want to reduce loading times you can kill two birds with one stone this way.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any documentation in English but the code examples and some help of Google Translate should help for this: http://www.heise.de/extras/socialshareprivacy/

Answer 2

An alternative for the script mentioned above is http://socialitejs.com/, they also have a WordPress plugin.

You can also choose to only load the buttons when they come in the users viewport. jQuery WayPoints can be useful for that.

But in your case, I´d start with tracking the effect of the social buttons. In my experience social buttons are only effective when placed in an article,not so much on archive/category pages. Social Interaction Analytics from GA can give you better insight on where it make sense toplace those buttons.

Answer 3

You can try this plugin rtSocial. It uses it's own JavaScript and image sprite and doesn't block the page load for getting the counts, which makes it very fast. But it has only the main 5 services: FB Share, Twitter, Pinterest, G+ Share and LinkedIn Share. Check this link to see the plugin in action.