Why not a 'like' button instead of a 'share' button?

A 'like' button would show people how many 'likes' something has.

In this case, I can share a photo with others and ask how many 'likes' a particular post has.

A 'share' does just that: it shares a post with the user's followers.

So when someone wants to share a post with her followers, the 'like' count is hidden from her.

And this is probably the reason why most people still share links with their followers in Twitter.

The 'like' count makes it more fun to share a post. It lets others know how many 'likes' a post has. The more likes a post has, the more likely others will be interested in the post.

For example, when someone posts a photo with an awesome scenery, others will know how many likes it has. This is a great way to promote the post.

The only downside I can think of is that a 'like' count can be easily manipulated.

You can post a lot of 'likes' for your own posts and have your posts 'share' more often than other posts with less likes.

For example, you can set up a program to automatically 'like' your own posts. This is not