To install the plugin:

1. Open the site’s Dashboard and go to “Plugins” in the left hand menu.
2. Search for “ShareThumb” in the directory of the plugin in the WordPress.org plugin directory and then hit “Install Now”. (Note that our plugin is still waiting for approval to be listed in the directory, so you can skip down to the next step).
3. Download the plugin here.
4. Click “Upload Plugin” and then “Choose File” and locate the zip file that you just downloaded). 
5. Once the plugin is installed, the click “Activate Plugin”

Now that you have installed the plugin in WordPress, you can start sharing thumbs immediately. No need to register. Our service will generate an OG image automatically as soon as any URL to your site is shared on social media.

You can also view a video of these instructions on our YouTube channel. 

To install ShareThumb on a non-WordPress website, you just need to place the following code snippet in the header of all the pages on your website:

If you would like every page on your site to get a ShareThumb, add only your domain. For example, here is what the snippet would look like if you were installing it on this website:

if you would like all the pages in a specific part of your site to get ShareThumbs, you can specify the directory. Here is that the snippet would look like if you applied it only the ShareThumb pages of our website:

That’s it! ShareThumb will immediately start creating preview images for your site. If you would like to get rid of the 4Site mark on your thumb, all you need to do is register your account and then “claim” your site.

To unlock many of the free features of our app, we require that you create an account:

1. Go to https://app.sharethumb.io/sign-up
2. Enter your email address
3. Create a password
4. Accept our licensing agreement
5. Hit “Sign Up”
6. Check your email inbox and click the “Confirm Your E-mail” button in the email.

Next you will be asked to “Add a Site”…

To maintain security of your account, we require that you verify ownership of your site before you can manage your thumbs in our app:

1. After creating an account and logging, you will be taken to the dashboard where you can “Add Your Site:
2. Give your site a name, and then enter the URL in the “Domain” field.
3. If nobody else has registered your domain, you can “Claim” the site.
4. There are four methods you can use to claim it
   1. Paste a verification code into your WordPress dashboard,
   2. Add a TXT record to your DNS,
   3. Add a Meta Tag to the head of your site, or
   4. Post a Text File to your site
5. We recommend you use the WordPress method by Copying the verification code displayed at the top of the page. 
6. Return to the ShareThumb section of your WordPress dashboard and paste the code into the “Domain Verification Code” field, and then hit “Update” at the bottom of the page. (Note that it may take up to a minute for your submission to be processed by ShareThumb, so please be patient:)
7. Next, return the ShareThumb app verification screen and click “Verify Domain via WordPress” 
8. Go to the “Settings” tab of the ShareThumb app and copy the API key for your site. 
9. Return to the ShareThumb section of your WordPress dashboard and paste the API Key in the field, and once again click “Update”

ShareThumb creates a thumb for your page the first time someone shares a link to that page on social media. In our free plans, we only regenerate that thumb once a month. So if you make any changes to the page, the thumb won’t be updated until our service recreates it in 30 days. 

If you want your thumbs to update every time you update a page, all you need to do is register an account with our app and then verify ownership of the website. Registration is free and it only takes about 60 seconds to verify ownership. 

You can also update your thumbs manually at any time on our app. Again, this requires a registered account and a verified site. In our dashboard and the hit “regenerate.”  

Another thing that may prevent your thumbs from updating is if you are using a caching service on your site to improve performance. After you update your page, try clearing the cache. 

If your website is password protected, a common practice while you are still getting the site ready to be launched, ShareThumb’s bot will not be able to access your page’s metadata, and so ShareThumb won’t be able to generate a thumb.