Social media refers to channels, websites, and applications that are built for people to share information in real-time. We can divide social media into 4 types based on the website or application’s nature: Social Community, Social Publishing, Social Commerce, and Social Entertainment.
Now there are over 4.6 billion people using social media around the world, which is a huge number. Simply speaking, social media plays a crucial part in people’s lives.
It doesn’t just help us connect with the world, but also becomes a powerful tool to promote business. Due to an enormous number of users, it has grown into the most potential market for firms to thrive. Businesses will receive countless benefits from social media by taking advantage of its widespread coverage.
If you are an online business owner, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of social media.
There are numerous ways to invite visitors from websites to social media pages and vice versa. One of the most effective ways is to display social media icons on your sites. This article will show you 2 simple methods on how to add social media icons to WordPress.
Reasons for Adding Social Media Icons to WordPress Sites
It goes without denying that social media helps businesses and websites become more popular with audiences. You can get the most out of social media by adding their icons to your WordPress site. The great thing is that these icons take very little space on the page but bring a huge positive effect.
They increase website interaction. Through social media icons, users can follow your social accounts with just one simple click. Or they can share your content to their personal accounts without opening a new tab and manually pasting the URL. This will improve connection and engagement with your users, and create better communication between the two parties.
They raise brand awareness. By connecting visitors with your business’s social media accounts, you will keep them stay updated about the company, products, and services. This is a powerful way to promote your business brand without spending too much money and effort.
They enrich business opportunities. This is because social media icons help your target audiences find your business and website easily. In that way, they boost website traffic and bring potential customers to you. Along with that is an increased chance to get more qualified leads.
Where Should You Add Social Media Icons?
Social media icons don’t take up too much space on your WordPress website. You can put it anywhere you want without affecting your layout.
Normally those icons should be placed in the widget next to the header, the sidebar widgets, the end of article contents, the footer widgets, or the contact page.
But ideally, the best place to position these buttons is generally on the top or left side of a page. This is because of the way we read and view a site. It might seem silly to put them above a post. But research shows that approximately 60% of the content is shared socially before it is even read.
Some Notice When Adding Social Media Icons
Social media icons come as registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Simply put, they are always under the protection of copyright. So before using logos, you should be careful to review the brand guidelines so as to avoid serious legal consequences.
Additionally, social networks sometimes change their logos. As a result, you should also keep updating their design and features. Make sure that you are using up-to-date brand logos instead of outdated icons.
Also, you should select only the social media icons your business is most active on to place on your site. You may have more social networks, but having too many icons may make it hard for the visitors to make decisions.
2 Simple Ways to Add Social Media Icons
You don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to add social media icons to your WordPress site. There are 2 easy ways that help you do that: use a theme or a plugin.
How to Add Social Media Icons to WordPress by a Theme
To add social media icons to your site using a WordPress theme:
- Head over to Themes Showcase
- Choose and establish a theme that provides a ready-made social links menu
Then follow the guide below to activate the social links menu:
- In your WordPress admin dashboard menu, click Appearance → Customize
- Press on Menus → Create New Menu
- Enter your menu’s name
- Enable the Social Links Menu checkbox, and select Next
- Choose Add Items to add the first icon to the menu, and then click the Custom Links section
- Type the address of your social media profile in the URL field
- Check again the information you’ve entered, press on Add to Menu
Rinse and repeat those steps for every social media profile that you want to include in your menu. Once you’ve added all your social media accounts, click Publish. Now, all social media icons will be displayed as part of a new menu on any page of your website.
However, the thing is that each theme supports a specific set of icons, which you cannot customize. If you’re not a fan of your theme’s icons, you’ll either need to change to a different theme or use other alternative methods.
How to Add Social Media Icons to WordPress Using a Plugin
Your theme doesn’t provide a social links menu, and switching to another theme is also not an option. Then you should consider using a plugin.
We recommend applying the Social Icons Widget plugin and the Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons plugin. The Social Icons Widget allows visitors to follow your social accounts. Whereas, the Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons plugin allows visitors to share your content to their personal accounts.
Do the following steps on how to add social media icons to WordPress by the Social Icons Widget:
- Install and activate the Social Icons Widget plugin
- Go to the admin dashboard menu, click Appearance → Customize
- Select Widgets, then determine the widget area where want to display your social icons
- Press on Add a Widget
- Type Social Icons Widget in the Search widgets section, then click on the plugin when it appears
- Enter your title in the Title field, for example, Follow Us
- In the Text Above Icons field, add text that will appear above your social media icons (optional)
- Click Add More to add social network icons
- Enter your social accounts’ URL. Then the plugin will display the correct icon automatically.
- Hit on Apply to finish
To add social media icons by the Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons:
- Install and activate the plugin
- Head to WordPress admin dashboard → Ultimate Social Media Icons
- Select which social media icons you want to show on your site
- Decide what actions your social media icons should perform (follow/share)
- Choose where your social icons will be placed
- Pick design & animation options for your social media buttons
- Press the Save All Settings button to finish
Get the Most of Social Media by Adding Their Icons to WordPress
Adding social media icons to WordPress will encourage visitors to follow and share your content via their personal accounts. Because it saves visitors’ time with just a few clicks instead of manually pasting the URLs.
This article has shown 2 simple yet useful ways how to add social media icons to WordPress sites. So you can easily keep visitors engaged with your business, thereby raising brand awareness and increasing business opportunities.
It’s a piece of cake, isn’t it? Let’s start right away.
In case you want also learn more about WordPress social login, check out our article on how to add social login to WordPress.