Social Tools

Likes

The Like button is an easy way to show appreciation for a post.

Like Button

Click the Like button on any post or page, and your Gravatar will appear next to it.

Click the Like button again to unlike.  Every WordPress.com blog includes the Like system, although you can control whether Likes display on your site.

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How to Like a Post

The Like Button

Let’s say you’ve found a particularly awesome post on WordPress.com. You’d like to show your appreciation to the author and give them credit. At the bottom of the post, you see the Like button.

Click it, and the button changes to show that you’ve liked the post. Your Gravatar appears as a visual indicator of your appreciation.

Visitors must be logged into WordPress.com in order to use the Like button. An alternative for non-WordPress.com visitors is to use the Ratings system.

Your Gravatar is clickable and linked to your Gravatar Profile. If you haven’t configured or updated your Gravatar Profile, you can do that by visiting Me → My Profile in your WordPress.com account.

Over time, as the post grows in popularity, the number of Likes will increase. One row of Likes will be shown:

bloggers-liked-this

To see the rest of the Likes, click on the total count, and the rest of the Likes will display in a scrollable pop-up:

scroll-bloggers

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How to Unlike a Post

If you need to remove the Like from a post (i.e. “unlike” the post), click the Like button again. Clicking the button will toggle the status of your Like to off.


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Reviewing Posts You Like

To review all the WordPress.com posts you’ve liked, visit your Reader and then visit the My Likes section:

My Likes in Reader

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Turn Likes On/Off Across Your Site

By default, all WordPress.com blogs display the Like button (and the gallery of Gravatars for bragging rights) under each post.

To turn Likes on or off:

  1. Go to My Site(s).
  2. Click on Tools → Marketing.
  3. Click on Sharing Buttons.
  4. Check the box next to Show like button.
  5. Click Save Changes.
Configure Likes in Sharing
Show Like Button

When you make a change to whether Likes show or not, this applies to new posts only. In addition, the Like button will still appear in readers’ toolbars and in the WordPress.com reader. It will also show in notification emails (for sites without plugins only.)

You can also choose for Likes (and other sharing buttons) to display on your pages, your media files, and/or on the front page, archive pages, and search results of your site.

To configure where the Likes button shows:

  1. Go to My Site(s).
  2. Click on Tools → Marketing.
  3. Click on Sharing Buttons.
  4. Check the box next to the pages you want the Like button to appear on.
  5. Click Save Changes.
Show Like Buttons On...
Where to display the Like button

Choosing “Front Page, Archive Pages, and Search Results” means that the Like button will show on your blog’s front page below each post, rather than only if a reader clicks through to the individual post.


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Turn Likes On/Off on Specific Posts or Pages

Posts and page likes will default to the settings in Marketing → Sharing buttons, but you can turn on or off Likes for specific posts and pages through the page editor.

You must have Likes enabled at Tools → Marketing to be able to use this option.

  1. Under My Site(s) → Site select Pages or Posts to load the list of pages/posts you’ve created.
  2. Click on the Page or Post you want to edit the visibility of the Like button for.
  3. On the right side, click Document Settings or the Jetpack Icon.
    Jetpack Icon.png
  4. Check, or uncheck, the Show likes option.
  5. Click Update to save your changes to the live page or post.
Likes through Jetpack
Click the Jetpack Icon, or…
Document Settings
Likes and Shares

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Turn Likes On/Off on Specific Media Files

Note: The instructions from this guide are referring to the WP Admin dashboard. You can get to this dashboard by adding /wp-admin to the end of your site’s url (e.g.: example.wordpress.com/wp-admin)

To show or hide Likes for individual media files, find the file in your WP Admin Media Library and click on edit for a specific media file.

Edit Image in WP Admin
WP Admin → Media Library → Edit

On the Edit Media screen that opens, find the Likes and Shares module (you might have to scroll down to find it):

WP Admin Likes and Shares
WP Admin → Media Library → Edit Image → Likes and Shares

Check or uncheck the appropriate option, and click on Update to save your changes.

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