You’d probably expect from a social media website to have every kind of social media icon and share button under the sun on all pages, in the sidebar, footer, top right hand corner, above the fold and so on – you know, everywhere.

For a number of reasons this website has a more subtle approach – let me explain why:

- I believe strongly that if you’re going to do social media, you must do it well (or risk damaging your brand). Like most small businesses, I cannot run personal and business accounts effectively, I would literally need to clone myself to find the time. So you’ll note that with the exception of the LinkedIn company profile, all the social media icons you will eventually stumble across point you to my personal accounts. Therefore I’m not making them so visible to avoid potential confusion.

- I could have renamed most of my personal accounts but ultimately, people trust and buy from people, not companies – ask anyone around Shropshire for a social media advisor and the response (if they know of me!) will normally be ‘Jan’, not ‘The Net Advantage’ – I’m sure there are plenty of branding specialists with some good arguments here, but I am where I am.

- Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting fed up of seeing a plethora of share buttons rammed down my throat at the bottom of every page and blog post, so I asked my web developer to give me a more subtle sliding share button (the ‘Like it? Share it’ button to your left), so wherever you are on the site you can share as you wish, it’s just a little more grown up and inconspicuous.

Would I recommend this to my clients I hear you cry? Most of them ‘no’ as they are much larger, their presence is all corporate/business focused so my advice would differ accordingly. Who they are trying to connect with on which parts of their website and why drives what they need and what they want to be shared. For me, for now, this works – just thought I’d explain it before I get asked by my peers

That said, I think we’ll all see social media icons starting to take a more subtle prominence on websites in the future, as there are now too many icons, which leads to confusion and messy web pages. Often you’re asking visitors to do too much when they visit your website – this is why I only have easily visible icons on my blog and contact pages, as that’s where visitors are mostly likely to connect with me.

What are your thoughts? A step too far or have I given you food for thought for your own website?

Jan

Image courtesy of promotionalplr.com

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