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John Rothra
6,711 PointsHow many social media icons is too many?
I've scoured the web on this and haven't found any real thoughts on the matter (okay, "scoured" is too strong... more like 15 minutes on Google).
It's a given to have links to your social media profiles on your website. However, is there a general rule on how many to show? If so, does that number change for placing them in a full-width section vs the sidebar vs the footer?
I have 8 that'd I'd use. Is that too many? I'm currently completely redesigning my site from scratch and, once it's coded, I'll convert it manually to WordPress. More tedious and time consuming than tinkering a downloaded theme (my current site's design), but the new design will be all mine.
1 Answer
John Rothra
6,711 PointsRebecca --
Thank you for the insight, but as I stated, my question was regarding links to my social profile, not share buttons.
Rebecca Riley
Courses Plus Student 2,265 PointsI was referring to social profiles as well though the "share" comment was referring to share buttons, but not to the answer overall. I was envisioning icons at the top (like this theme does: https://wordpress.org/themes/business-park/) or in the sidebar for those rather than actual links . There are WordPress plugins that will convert links to icons as well - that link to your profiles and are not used for sharing content. Whether it's links to social profiles or share buttons, the advice still applies - it depends on the purpose of your site and your audience. If you're really active on all 8 and engage with your visitors or peers on all 8, then link to all 8. Especially if you're a developer and have a profile on github, codepen, etc. I'd still recommend icons if you use all 8 and you're planning to show them on every page, if in a sidebar on a blog for example, but hyperlinks wouldn't be an issue if used on a single page layout.
Rebecca Riley
Courses Plus Student 2,265 PointsRebecca Riley
Courses Plus Student 2,265 PointsIt probably depends on your industry/site purpose, but I'd probably say 8 is too many - at least to show all at once - unless you see an equal amount of traffic from all 8. If you're just trying to get more shares, go with the most popular ones and choose up to 5 that your audience typically interacts with or where you get the most traffic from. Usually this is twitter, facebook, youtube (if you do videos), pinterest (if you do photography/food), and instagram, google+, tumblr, reddit, etc for the fifth - again whatever connects most with your audience. If you really are very active on all 8, then as long as you don't cover up or clutter your content with social icons everywhere and place them at the bottom or sidebar then it should be fine as well. I don't think I've ever thought "this site has too many social icons", but I have been annoyed if it constantly has prompts to share or if they block content.
Wordpress does have some pretty good, some lighter weight than others, plugins that cover all social media needs for any icon you want to offer - and many are responsive as well so they'll adjust to screen size - which is important because you don't want a bunch of icons covering up your content or preventing scrolling.