It’s no secret that the emergence of social media has made a lot of significant transformations in many aspects of modern life. It has also revolutionized the design world, particularly web design, to the extent that it is nearly impossible to exclude social platforms from the design consideration. Besides, incorporating social channels will result in higher traffic.
With that said, you will need to find a way to connect your web visitors to their preferred social networking channels. This is where social buttons or icon sets come into play. Below we will go through the importance of integrating them into your website.
Introduction to Social Media Buttons
Let’s start off with the definition first—social buttons or icons refer to the clickable icons that appear on particular web pages. These buttons can serve as a link to your business’s social platform, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other media. That way, prospective clients can know how to reach out to you or learn more about what you offer.
Depending on the installation method, there are two kinds of social buttons:
- A plugin that can be integrated into the admin panel without requiring any coding knowledge.
- Icons (PNG, SVG, or other formats) that must be manually installed to a specific area of the website.
To put it simply, social icons are a part of cross-channel marketing with a beneficial impact on an online reputation. These social media buttons can assist you in expanding your business presence on the internet. In addition, the web content you include on your website should also be able to drive and maintain traffic to your website.
The Importance of Social Icons in Web Design
Suppose social networking platform is not an essential part of your business promotional approach. In that case, you may assume social buttons don’t have to be displayed on your website. In actuality, social icons carry a lot of importance to the success of your web-based marketing strategy.
As you probably already know, web traffic is vitally important for an effective website. The higher the traffic you have, the more visitors or prospective customers you will have on the list. This is precisely why your web design should include aesthetically appealing and accessible social buttons.
The presence of social icons provides convenience for your web guests to locate your business’ profiles on various social networking platforms where they could follow you to get to know what you offer and be aware of your company’s latest deals.
Incorporating social icons in the design of the website is also an excellent way to help you connect with your web visitors, as well as to encourage any prospective sales. In addition, your web visitors will have entertaining access to your business. Let alone if you install aesthetically pleasing yet easy-to-locate social media icons.
Obviously, you can’t just attach social buttons to your page. You will need to tell your web guests why following your business profiles is a must thing to do. But make sure not to do it in an annoying kind of way. Your visitors will automatically understand what will happen the moment they click on one of those social icons.
Once you have your visitors follow your active social channels, it’s not impossible for your brand to be your web users’ top of mind. As a result, you will see them return to your website more and, best of all, will do repeat orders.
There are other reasons why you are not advised to exclude social networking icons from your website. These icons play an essential role in giving your web guests the best possible user experience, particularly in the case of customer service.
Social icons can elevate the efficiency of your customer service. People can seek assistance with no hassle by simply visiting your company’s social profiles and leaving any message there. This way, you can provide a response to any query and solution to any issues in a matter of time.
To sum up, here are the reasons why you need to take social buttons into consideration when designing a website:
- New web visitors and followers on your website and social platforms.
- Return of old clients for reordering items or services.
- New prospective customers and possibilities of more sales.
- Convenient direct contact with your previous and new customers.
It’s important to note that when you decide to attach social media buttons to a website, then you will need to regularly monitor your profile. Doing so can enhance your user experience for clients can get immediate help should they have urgent things to question.
Best Platforms to Show as Social Buttons
The social networking sites you can display on your website are immensely varied. However, it’s not always recommended to include all of them since not every platform will work best for your business. To narrow down your option, you will need to:
- Set your goals. Figure out what you wish to achieve through this digital marketing approach. For instance, you wanted to increase sales conversions.
- Understand your target market. Get to know what kind of visitors you have on your web. They are people you want to approach using social sites. Also, identify which platform they favor the most.
- Consider the content type you create. The service or content you promote on your website can be an indicator of picking the right platform. If you run a professional website, LinkedIn may be an ideal option.
By taking into account the three factors above, it will be much more manageable for you to obtain your best option. Below are some of the best options and what makes each one fit your needs.
In the case of the go-to social media platform for digital marketing, Facebook is at the top of the list. With over 2.90 billion monthly active users and a diverse user base, Facebook is a great place to start your promotional approach. Particularly so if your target market is quite broad since you can attract all kinds of people.
You can make the most of using the Facebook Pages feature. Yet, don’t forget to keep it up to date with all stuff related to your business advertising strategy. For instance, you can create weekly video content about your product or service.
YouTube
With more than 2.6 billion active diverse users on a monthly basis, YouTube sure can rival Mark Zuckerberg’s platform. The best thing about this platform is that it’s owned by Google—meaning YouTube can positively impact your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy.
YouTube could make a solid pick for nearly all types of websites. It’s not uncommon for people to use YouTube to watch product reviews, tutorials, or other informational videos prior to purchasing a service or product. If you have an informational-based website, you can create video versions of your written content to boost traffic.
Twitter is considered a fast-paced platform with roughly 300 million active users. The user base consists of 35% of users aged between 18 and 34, and only around 38% of users are aged 35 and above. This platform also has real-time content where the marketing material is created to be relevant to the target market with an event currently trending.
Knowing Twitter’s real-time nature, this platform could be an ideal option for retail, travel, hospitality, and telecommunication businesses. For many of its users, Twitter is a social media that serves as the most updated source of information. Optimize the use of this platform by tweeting about your services, new products, and other relevant real-time content.
Instagram is a visual social platform with around one billion active users under 35. This young user base is people who log into the site on a frequent basis to obtain visual-based exciting new content.
If your business website is about fashion, e-commerce, hospitality, or travel, Instragam could be the most fitted choice. Culinary, photography, and beauty businesses can also benefit a lot from this social platform. To make the most of this platform, you will need to create visual content that is pleasing to the eye.
Pinterest is another visually-rich social platform that could be your most ideal option to include in a website. It has more than 430 million active users aged around 18 to 49, which is also considered unique because they mostly use it to look for creative ideas and inspiration.
Pinterest will benefit industries that are mostly run on a visual basis, such as food, crafts, arts, travel, and hospitality. Fashion and event planning businesses can also take advantage of this visual-based marketing platform. Much like Instagram, you will also need to have high-quality and organic photographs. Thus, avoid using any stock photos for your content.
Best Practices for Using Social Buttons
Displaying social media icons on a website in the right way can enhance a solid online presence. The followings are best practices to follow before employing them.
Avoid Any Alterations
A lot of marketers and companies often lag behind in this area. It’s worth noting that social networking site logos are registered trademarks; therefore, you are not allowed to make any alterations to the symbols.
Do not attach any additional elements and refrain from rotating the icons or even changing the colors. If you think the colors don’t fit the color scheme of your website, you can always consider using icon packs in monochrome.
Select a Strategic Location
The primary objective of adding social buttons on a website is to increase traffic and sales. Therefore, you will need to ensure the icons are placed in a visible location in order to get the desired results. While they have to be located in an accessible place, you need to make sure the placement and visual design do not overshadow your entire web page.
You may consider placing the icons link to your business profiles at the bottom part of a specific page. Also, features the share buttons on the sidebars to accommodate web guests for sharing the content. These two locations make it easy for visitors to find the social media icons while fitting in with the overall web experience.
Keep the Spacing and Size Consistent
Nearly all businesses with websites always have more than one social networking site. In other words, you will also be required to display more than a social button. If you utilize multiple icons, you will need to ensure all the symbols are in the same exact dimensions, like the size and spacing.
In terms of size, be sure to focus more on the width, height, and resolution. Regarding the spacing, there is no one-size-fits-all. Each company implements its own requirements for ensuring a white space between social icons and other web design elements. Keep in mind to follow these guidelines so that each social button is visible and accessible.
In addition to displaying social buttons on your business website, you may also leverage their usage in your other promotional campaign materials. These include newsletters, emails, videos, etc., to elevate the positive impact of those icons.
That way, more and more people will be aware of the online presence of your brand. And there are high possibilities those people will follow you or even purchase your service or product. To get the best impact, position the icons in a prominent area like at the end of the newsletter, along with an encouraging call to action.
To Sum Up
As the influence of social networking sites grows, so does the number of user base on all of the major platforms. This is a trend that you may take the most advantage of to promote the visibility of your brand. That is why social icons are a web design component you should never overlook.
Pick social media icon packs that fits your brand color. The options are innumerable, so you won’t be running out of options. Also, show the most widely used platforms relevant to the business sector you have. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram are those social platforms that are at the top of the list. And be sure to adhere to the best practices of placing those icons to get the best possible results you desire.
