About Grow!

Have you ever been moved, inspired or encouraged by a certain website?
Grow! is a web service which enables you to both support the creators of special content and share it with your friends. Also, if you are a publisher, you can get your content recognized across several social networks, and get paid for the content through the click of a button.
When you see someone do something well or create something good for others give them your support. Let’s Grow! together!

Follow other users

You can follow other users by clicking the ‘follow button’ on each user’s page.
After deciding to follow others their posts will appear in your stream. So follow users whose content you would like to watch Grow!

Search for your friends and follow them

Don’t you want to know whether or not your friends from Facebook or followers on Twitter use Grow!?
You can easily search for them using our ‘Search Friend’ page.
1. First, select which social networks you want to search.
2. Next, log into the service (if you are not yet logged in).
3. After a few seconds the results will be shown, and you can connect with your friends through Grow!.

Watch the stream

What is the “stream”?

The stream appears in the center of your screen, and displays posts by users you are following. You can also see content recommended for you and responses to your Twitter posts here. That means you can check out what content is popular right now just by watching the stream.

Change the view styles

You can decide what appears in the stream by clicking its’ header button.
You can select “Grow!” or “Share” on the home page. “Grow!” shows only the posts from Grow!, “Share” shows all posts.
You can select “Grow!”, “Grow!ed”, or “Share” on your profile or user page. “Grow!” shows only the posts posted when you Grow!ed something. “Grow!ed” shows only the posts posted when you were Grow!ed by others. “Share” shows the same as “Share” on the home page.

Make a comment on a friend’s post

You can make a comment on any post by entering your ideas in the comment box at the end of a post and clicking “Comment.”

Grow! it

What does “Grow!” mean

If the Grow! Button is embedded on your favorite content try clicking it.
After the pop-up menu is shown, select the amount of Grow! points you want to send, enter a message if appropriate, and click “Grow!”.
Three things will happen when you Grow! something.
1. The amount of points you selected will be sent to the publisher.
2. The fact that you Grow!ed the site will be posted to the stream.
3. You will receive a Thank You Message from the publisher, which may include special content.

Purchase Grow! Points

You have to purchase Grow! Points before you can Grow! something. One Grow! Point (1G!) is equal to one dollar ($1). Deposited funds will automatically disappear if not redeemed after 6 months.

Sharing Content

What does “Share” mean?

Use Share when you want to share something special without sending any Grow!.
Simply select ‘Share only’ in the pop-up menu where you would normally select the amount of Grow! to send.

Get the Grow! Button

What is the “Grow! Button”?

By embedding a Grow! Button onto your web site, users will have a clickable means by which to support you. You can add a Grow! Button to your site by either embedding the HTML source code directly or by using our WordPress plug-in.

Import your content from the other web services

Import your content already on the other web sites to Grow! and attach Grow! Button to them.

Follow these steps;
1. Click “▼” at the upper right on Grow! and access to “Setting > Social Networks”.
2. Click “Connect” of the web service you want to import content from in ”Additional Networks”.
3. Move automatically to the web service page and authorize Grow! app there.
4. Done! Your content uploaded on the web service is added to the list of your content on Grow!.

We currently support web services below.
・YouTube (Video)
・Instagram (Photo)
・SoundCloud (Music)

Get the HTML source code for your site

You can get a HTML source code for the Grow! Button from the “Get Grow! Button” page.
Follow the steps below.

1. Enter the URL of the site you want to add a button to and register it.
2. Click “Get.”
3. Select the shape style of the button.
4. Copy-and-paste the generated HTML code into the source code of your web site.
*You cannot use the same HTML code for two different web sites.

Set two more buttons on one web page

If you want to set two more buttons on one web page, follow these steps;

1. Enter “&insert=false” at the end of “apiley” in a source code.

i.g.) <script src=”http://growbutton.com/javascripts/button.js?apikey=xxxxxx&insert=false” type=”text/javascript”></script>

2. Add the code noted above to the right above </body>
3. Add the code below to where a button should be placed.

 <span itemscope="" itemref="[Shape]" itemtype="http://growbutton.com/ns#button">
   <span itemprop="url">[URL]</span>
   <span itemprop="title">[Title]</span>
   <span itemprop="image">[Image]</span>
   <span itemprop="apikey">[ApiKey]</span>
 </span>
 
[Shape] : square or rectangle, Shape of the Grow! button
[URL]   : URL of the content page
[Title] : Title of the content page
[Image] : Image of the content page (Option)
[ApiKey]: ApiKey of the this site domain (Option)

Get Open Graph Tags (Optional)

The contents of a Post by Grow! or Share, for instance a title or a thumbnail, would be depended on its Open Graph Protocol. You should appropriately edit it in advance so that you spread the information as you like. How to edit? Visit the link below.
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraphprotocol/

Embed the Grow! Button Using a WordPress plug-in

You can embed a Grow! button with this plug-in if your web site is built with WordPress.
“WP Social Bookmarking Light” is for users who want to add several social bookmarking buttons at once. “WP Grow Button” is for users who want to add only a Grow! Button.
WP Social Bookmarking Light
WP Grow Button

Exchanging points

・For Users located outside of Japan.
At the moment, you cannot withdraw your revenue from Grow! but we are working very hard to make it possible and you should be able to do so by April 2012. We will notify you via our blog as soon as it is allowed so please subscribe to our RSS feed and wait for that information.
・For Users located inside of Japan.
You can exchange Grow! points that you have received for Amazon Gift Cards by going to “Settings > Exchanging points.” The exchange rate is 10G! for a 600yen Amazon Gift Card, 30G! for a 1800yen Amazon Gift Card, 50G! for a 3000yen Amazon Gift Card and 100G! for a 6000yen Amazon Gift Card.

Edit your Account Information

Edit your Basic Information

You can edit your Basic Information at “Settings > Basic Information”

Login ID：
You need to enter this ID to login. It should consist of alphabetical characters, the numbers 0-9, and _. You cannot register an ID that is already in use by another user.
Screen name：
All activities in Grow! will be done under the name of it.
E-mail address：
All notifications from Grow! will be sent to this e-mail address.
Password：
You need to enter this password to login. It should be more than 4 letters and consist of alphabetical characters, the numbers 0-9, and _.
Confirm password：
Please confirm your password.
Language：
Select your language.

Edit your Profile

You can edit your profile by going to “Settings > Edit your profile”

Profile picture：
You can upload an image file for your Grow! profile picture or (if connected) use the one from your Twitter or Facebook account.
URL：
This URL will be appear on your profile page. Enter your own website or weblog.
Description：
Please provide details about yourself.

Add Twitter or Facebook accounts

You can connect your Twitter or Facebook accounts to Grow! at “Settings > Social Networks”
Please click “Connect” to be connected with either service and click “Disconnect” to be disconnected from them.
Please check “Post to Twitter” or “Post to Facebook” if you want to post to Twitter or Facebook automatically when you post to Grow!.

Edit Notifications settings

You can edit notification settings at “Settings > Notifications”

Grow!：
Please check if you want to be sent email when you are Grow!ed by others.
Follow:
Please check if you want to be sent email when others follow you.
Messages:
Please check if you want to be sent email when you receive messages from others.
Comment：
Please check if you want to be sent email when others comment on a post of yours.

Edit original Thank You Message

You can edit the Thank You Message, which will be sent to users who Grow!ed your content, in “Settings > Thank You Message.”
You can also include the username of whomever Grow!ed your content in the thank you message. To do this enter ‘%{name}’ where you want to insert the name into the thank you message.

Delete your account

You can delete your account by going to the link below.
Withdrawal: http://growbutton.com/leave/