Adding social media links to your website is a way to increase the spread or k-factor of your content. You want to make it easier for people to find the other content platforms you maintain for your business.
- The links make the sharing and linking process more convenient.
- They expand your brand reach and awareness through the users’ networks.
- They help increase the people who subscribe and follow you.
Learn more about Milestone social media analytics.
Should you drive traffic to your social media sites as well as from them? The answer is yes depending on how your customers move through the customer journey and what touchpoints they seek as they go. User-generated social media are important in all B2C categories from makeup to clothes to restaurants to autos.
In B2B, review sites like Trust Radius and G2 are sources people go to for comparison and community feedback and reviews. When you add the G2 link to your site, your G2 average review stars show up on many of your site listings in the SERPs. You can also consider GMB and your Google Posts a platform worth linking to.
The floating social media bar
One popular option is the floating social media icon bar. These are the icon bars you see hugging the side of a site. They provide constant easy access for a user to share the content they are engaged with. They also help solve the problem of placing multiple icons throughout a page and appearing spammy. If you use a floating social media bar, make sure it doesn’t float on top of your content and take away from your page’s readability.
Social media icons in the footer
When users are specifically looking for links to your social networks, they will often scroll to the bottom of a site to find them in the footer. Make sure your social media icons located there link to your social media profiles and are a good, visible size.
Where not to place social buttons
Don’t place social sharing buttons on your conversion pages. These are the pages that include a buy, signup, or book now CTA. Social sharing buttons can take away from the travel booking process flow.
A well placed social sharing button makes it easy for your content to be shared, increasing your reach to new customers and visitors.
Ready to put social media icons on your homepage?
Download the Homepage Optimization Handbook
And find out what you should include on your homepage to motivate visitors to explore the rest of your website.