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Do You Have Your Social Media Buttons?
Written By: June Bachman ~ 1/12/2013 9:00:00 AM

Social Media Buttons, are the little icons on your website that when clicked direct your visitors to your social media sites.  Your visitors are looking for these buttons.  Do you have them on your site?  Are you getting all of the benefit from your social media buttons?  Today's blog offters a few tips for how to get the most out of your social media icon buttons.

Make Your Buttons Easy to Find!
Most visitors recognize the most popular social media buttons.  We know what we’re looking for when we want to go to your Facebook, Twitter or Google+ pages.  Using the traditional icons or unique, but familiar versions will help users easily see your buttons on the website page.  Often times these buttons are located near the main navigation menu, or by the links to the contact page.  Always try to incorporate your social media buttons into the overall design of your page.  Don’t burry these links within a drop down navigation menu … they may never been seen.

Be Clear About the Function of Each Social Media Button
You can have icons that link directly to your social media page.  But some social media buttons can also have specific functions.  For example, with Facebook you can have a link to your Facebook page, a link to share content, and a link to like your Facebook page.  Use additional text to explain the differences, and different icons when the buttons have specific action that you would like your visitors to take.

Be Selective
It is easy to be tempted to put every possible social media icon you can on your site.  Don’t clutter up your site with unnecessary social media buttons.  Instead, choose the top two or three social media platforms that you work regularly, and add those to your site.  We suggest having a like button for your Facebook page, a follow button if you use Twitter, a Google+ button is also important and will help with your search engine optimization as well.  On your blog page, always have a button for your visitors to be able to share the content.  A good guide is to ask yourself if the button is helping your social media marketing … or just taking up space.

Always Keep Your Visitors on YOUR Site
First and foremost, when creating a link to your social media page, always make the page load in a new window when the visitor clicks on the link.  This way, when the visitor is done interacting on your social media site and they close the window, your website is still there for them to continue viewing.

Additionally, you may wish to consider adding social media badges to some of your pages.  For example, we include our Facebook badges on our blog pages.  A badge actually pulls some of the activity and content from your social media page into your website page.  This way the user can view what’s interesting on your social media page without ever leaving your website.

All in all, social media buttons are an important part of your website design and should be included.  If it’s been a while since you’ve taken a look at your website design, you may want to contact your website designer and chat with them about the best way to integrate your social media marketing strategy with your website design.

Which social media icons do you use on your website? 
Post a comment and let us know which platforms work best for your business! 
Our readers would love to hear what’s working for you.



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