Welcome to the JapanSoc Toolbox, a page full of resources to help you get the most out of Japan’s fastest growing social bookmarking site for the foreign community.
I’ve listed them in order of release, with new additions added as they become available. Please let me know if any of them are broken.
The JapanSoc Bookmarklet – Submit while you surf
The bookmarklet is added to either your browser’s bookmarks or links bar. You can submit a page to JapanSoc just by clicking this button, saving time and encouraging you to submit more articles! Find the bookmarklet on your JapanSoc profile page and read the instructions for the browser you use. Note: As an alternative, consider the Nipponster Toolbar described below.
JapanSoc Social Bookmarking Button
This handy little button can be added to the foot of your blog posts, allowing your readers to submit your articles to JapanSoc. If you’d like to include a JapanSoc button on your site, grab the code and buttons from How can people soc my articles? on the JapanSoc FAQ.
JapanSoc FeedBurner FeedFlare
What you see in that image above are links at the foot of a FeedBurner RSS feed. Clicking the JapanSoc link allows you to submit an article directly from the feed, which is incredibly useful if you use a feed reader such as Google Reader. The JapanSoc FeedFlare was created by Ken from WhatJapanThinks.com and can be used by anyone who has burned their feed with Feedburner. If you’re confused, watch the introduction to FeedBurner video in this DailyJ post, and then read Ken’s article so you can implement the JapanSoc FeedFlare into your own feed.
JapanSoc Voting Button
The JapanSoc Voting Button is the best way to encourage your readers to submit and soc your posts. It’s the most visual button and screams to be clicked! Although I’ve only tested the plugin for WordPress.org blogs, there is code you can copy and paste into your site to make it work on non-Wordpress blogs. If you’re looking for interactivity with your readers, more socs and more exposure, then this is the tool for you! Read more about the voting button.
Update: The WordPress plugin for the JapanSoc it! button is now available directly from WordPress. Read about the updates here: New JapanSoc it! Button. April 14th, 2009.
Nipponster Toolbar with JapanSoc It! Button
This toolbar is unique in that it is designed for people like us. You’ve got a Japan-specific search engine, English-Japanese and Japanese-English translation tools, other useful links and gadgets, and of course, there’s a JapanSoc It! button, so you can submit articles while you surf. You can download the toolbar here.
JapanSoc Widget for Mac OS X
This flash-looking widget was designed by RockingInHakata author, Deas Richardson. About this tool, he says:
I whipped up an OS X widget to display the five most recent top stories AND allow me to submit new stories to JapanSoc directly from my Dashboard. I tried to keep the colors consistent with the actual site as well. If you are a JapanSoc member, or looking to be one, maybe you’ll find some use for it?
I’d love to try it, but since I don’t have a Mac, I have to settle for the video of the widget in action on Deas’ JapanSoc OS X Widget post. Incidentally, he has also made a Nipponster widget for the above mentioned, Japan-specific search engine.
JapanSoc RSS Web Widgets
These two web widgets are an alternative to using the FeedList plugin above if you don’t have a WordPress blog. They can be embedded in sites such as iGoogle, Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and WordPress, too. Each widget represents a different JapanSoc feed; the orange one is for the main Top Stories feed, while the blue one is for Upcoming Stories. You can even customize their appearance by changing the colors and showing summaries of each story.
Stay up-to-date and keep you readers informed of the latest headlines from JapanSoc with the JapanSoc Web Widgets!
Additional Resources
Check out and bookmark this blog’s JapanSoc Info page. It has become the home for all things “JapanSoc”.
If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. I'd love to hear from you!
Interesting Nick. It doesn’t look too terribly difficult to install but I’m such a novice with this stuff so don’t know how easy it will be for me. Hopefully I can get it figured out! I’m sure this is going to help take JSOC to the next level!
Hi Nick,
Is the JapanSoc Social Bookmarking Button working for you?
I tried it in a test post and it did not work properly.
Are you working on screen capture videos? I have already started on some because I need to make some for DailyJ/Nipponster too.
So far I have one for the bookmarklet and am almost do with one for the voting button wordpress plugin.
I’ll send them your way when they’re done
Hi Tori, yes it’s workng, but you have to put it in your template not in a post. You’re using WordPress so open up single.php and paste the code after the line that reads “php the_content”. Do the same on the index.php file.
I look forward to seeing the videos! I haven’t started on any myself yet.