The Social Sharing zone adds easily-recognizable social-media buttons to your message. The buttons enable your message recipients to share the entire message on their own social-media sites.

IMPORTANT: Do not use this zone if you don't want the message, or any information in it, to be shared.

NOTE: This zone is different than the Article zone which gives you the ability to schedule and publish individual email articles to your social-media sites. To learn more, see Message Editor Zone - Article.

Watch the video

Watch a short video that highlights the redesigned Zones iconography and the new, pre-configured Layouts options.

Add the zone to a message

TIP: As you work, click the gear icon in the upper right and click Save Changes. Use the undo and redo buttons to manage your changes.

To add and configure the zone:

1. Click-and-drag the Social Sharing zone to where you want it in the message and "drop" it into place.

The configuration dialog automatically displays with the Basic section expanded; the Novelty section has additional options.

NOTE: The appearance of, and the icons and buttons in, the zone layouts are hard-coded default designs; i.e., you cannot add, remove, or reposition these buttons or icons.

2. Click a radio button in either the Basic or the Novelty section to select a layout.

NOTE: The backgrounds of the Basic options are transparent; they will inherit the background color of the section they are placed in. Refer to Background considerations, below.

3. Accept the default alignment (center) or click the dropdown to choose either left or right.

4. Click Insert.

The zone displays in the message with the layout and alignment that you choose.

TIP: Check out Compare multiple layouts below if you want to insert additional layouts to see which looks best.

Consider how the zone looks with your content (text, images). If you want to change it, use the Edit option as described in Manage the zone, below.

Manage the zone

You can click the zone to access the management options.

TIP: As you work, click the gear icon in the upper right and click Save Changes. Use the undo and redo buttons to manage your changes.

• Click Drag and then drag the icon (no need to click-&-hold) into place and click to release it.
• Click Edit to open the configuration dialog and change your configuration settings.
• Click Copy to automatically replicate the zone immediately below itself.
  • Each copy is an independent zone with these same management options which act uniquely on it.
• Click Delete to remove the zone.
  • This action is immediate; there's no confirmation prompt or cancel option.
    TIP: You can click the undo icon to reverse a deletion.

Compare multiple layouts

You can easily insert multiple layouts to see which best suits your message design and then delete those you don't want.

NOTE: A new button layout will not display on the canvas until you click Insert.

To compare multiple layouts:

1. Copy the zone.
2. Click the copy and choose Edit.
3. Drag the configuration dialog left or right so that you can see the current layout (on the canvas) and the Basic and Novelty options on the dialog.
4. Choose a different layout and/or a different alignment and click Insert.
5. Repeat these steps to add more layouts to compare.
6. Delete any zones you decide not to use.

TIP: When the message is how you want it, click the gear icon in the upper right and click Save Changes.

Background considerations

These examples are provided in order to demonstrate why it's important to consider the background color of the host zone when choosing one of the Basic layout options.

• The image on the left shows the options in the selection dialog.
• The image on the right shows the same options having been inserted in a zone that has a white background.

Note how, due to some of the elements being the same color as the background:

• in the top layout option, the white elements (the border and the words SHARE and MORE...) do not display, and
• none of the icons of the bottom layout display; it's necessary to hover to even see that the zone is there.

NOTE: The experience would be the same for the layout options that have black elements being inserted in a zone that has a black background, and for the blue icons on a similar blue background.

Social icons in a message

This section describes how the social-media icons work in a sent message.

Twitter / X

The legacy Twitter bird icon links to the rebranded social-media site, X (at https://twitter.com/).  There is no loss of functionality or connectivity to those accounts.

NOTE: Higher Logic's Product team is strategizing around updating to the X logo along with its other work on enhancements, functionality, and new features.

All icons

When message recipients click one of the social-media icons:

• If they are not logged in to the site, they are automatically taken to the site's log-in page.
• If they are already logged in to the site, a post is automatically created and the user can choose whether to publish the post.
  • Facebook - a post, with a link to the online version of the message, is created.
  • X - a link, to the online version of the message, is shared; it includes the subject line of the message.
  • LinkedIn - a new post is created. (LinkedIn has removed the ability to share emails, so this new post is blank.)

SHARE and MORE... options

• SHARE is simply a text asking the recipient if they want to share the message.
• MORE... takes the recipient to the online version of the message.

Related articles

• To learn about the features and functions that you can use while working in Message Editor, see Message Editor Overview.
• Message Editor Zones and Layouts offers a high-level look at the various "purpose-built" Zones and links to the dedicated articles that provide instructions for configuring and customizing the Zones.
• To learn about Message Editor Layouts, which have pre-configured designs for quicker message- and template-building, see Message Editor Layouts.