Are You Positioning Your Social Media Icons Properly?

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Are You Positioning Your Social Media Icons Properly?

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I know: everyone should have proper placement of their social media icons already. But, unfortunately, they don’t. I have visited quite a few websites lately, and I haven’t been able to find the site’s social media assets.

I can’t find a Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram – nothing.

But when I search for the site’s social media accounts on Google, they show up. No one should have to go to this level of research to find your social media assets. When you visit a website, you should be able to easily locate social media icons and pages.

If not, you need to rethink your site’s design and put a focus on social media placement.

1. Social Share Buttons on Top or Bottom of Posts – It Doesn’t Matter

A lot of sites put their social share buttons on the bottom of the page. Some place them at the top of a page, and others don’t take any risk and put them in both positions. Will anyone share a post if the share button is on top of the page?

Yes.

A lot of site owners are under the assumption that the reader will need to read the entire post, find the share buttons on the bottom and share the content. But the truth is, great content will be shared just as much if the share button is in either position.

It goes even deeper than this.

The Verge reports that posts are shared even when they’re not read. Catchy titles often lead people to share content before they even read it.

2. Wait. Floating or In-Line Buttons May Work Better

You can place your social media icons on the bottom or top of a post, but there’s another option: in-line or floating bars. These options are great because they allow you to add share buttons to a page without competing with other page elements.

When you place social media share buttons on the bottom of the page, you’ll start competing with your:

• Comments
• Recommended posts
• Adverts

The bottom of a post or page has turned into prime real estate, and when this real estate becomes too cluttered, you may be missing shares.

Another tip: larger buttons receive more shares.

3. Make Your Social Media Assets Easily Findable

I’m not sure when the trend of hiding social media assets started happening, but it seems to be more annoying than ever before. No one should have to hunt down your social media accounts if you’re trying to build social media assets that can lead to engagement, brand recognition and brand building.

Yet, here we are.

A general rule of thumb is to place links to your social media assets:

• At the top right of the page
• To the right of the navigation
• In the footer of the site

You can also opt to put the social share buttons on the sidebar.

If you take a look at Rave Reviews, you’ll notice that on the page linked they have their Facebook page linked in the sidebar. But, if you go to most other pages, there is no link to their social media accounts.

Why?

I am not sure, but it makes it very difficult to follow the site’s social medias pages and help them build their followers.

Always add links to your social media assets on every page, especially informative pages, and use the placement recommendations above.

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August 10, 2018 at 08:24AM