Social sharing buttons are everywhere. If you visit any website or a blog, you cannot escape without noticing a handful of them.
Although the most popular ones are Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and so on, there are some bloggers who jump in with excitement and throw away every possible sharing button.
Now, in this post by “social sharing buttons” I mean both social sharing buttons and social profile buttons.
- Social sharing buttons are those which are meant to share that particular page/post on a particular social media upon pressing the corresponding button.
- On the other hand profile buttons are those that lead to the blogger/website owners social profile page, so that you can follow/friend/fan him/her.
Now, we bloggers and internet marketers can’t live without social networking buttons. That’s an undeniable fact.
Social sharing buttons are solely responsible for creating so much buzz about our blog posts, contests or whatever we want to promote. It is also easy for people to just click the mouse two times to share your stuff to their friends/followers (unlike typing things out).
But there’s a problem which I’m recently seeing these days. The too much syndrome.
As with everything, the too much syndrome has also spread over to providing social sharing buttons.
I just said when I opened this post that some bloggers show all possible sharing buttons out of excitement. I take that back partially because even though there are some excited bloggers around, some throw in those social sharing buttons that work for them.
For instance Twitter may not be the one for everybody. I’ve seen some of the popular blogs (of my dear friends) that get very less number of tweets per post but get a lot of Stumbles, for instance. Some get huge number of Diggs, while they don’t get any +1s.
So how a blog’s social sharing buttons are used mostly depends on how the blogger uses those social media sites. If a blogger is an active stumbler, no doubt his/her stumble button will get pushed a lot.
Similarly if one is actively engaging on Google plus, they will get a lot of +1s. So it all depends.
What if the blogger is active (or hyperactive) in about 10 social media? Does it mean that he/she can throw 10 social sharing buttons on the sharebar? Nope!
It also depends on what the readers like to push.
One reader could be tweeter while the other could be a stumbler or otherwise. So it also depends on how your readers are mixed in this category. If you have a lot tweeters reading your blog then naturally your Twitter button gets pushed a lot.
How do I find the right social sharing buttons?
That’s a pretty reasonable question, since its not just up to you but also up to your reader’s preference it can be quite hard to decide the kind of social sharing buttons that you’d want to put on your blog.
The only solution is to “play around” or “split test”. In order to find which buttons get more shares you need to put them on a rotation basis for a particular amount of time (depending on your traffic). If you get a lot of traffic per day, you can spot the social sharing button that is used a lot, in say a week or lesser. Or you can also test them on a monthly basis.
No matter how many social sharing buttons you try out, the key is this: Don’t put more than 5 social sharing buttons in a sharebar. Why, because of the following reasons:
- A lot of clutter
- Readers are confused
- Readers are driven away!
You know, the internet is a scary place full of distractions, and if you throw away a lot of social sharing buttons in your sharebar, your readers can easily be distracted.
But….5 Social sharing buttons is not enough!
I totally understand! 5 is such a little number when it comes to social sharing button options, given that there are literally lots of places to share your content.
Well, you can put in more social sharing buttons given that you do it in a way that doesn’t distract, and more importantly, annoy your readers.
Sure, you can put up to 10 social sharing buttons on any page given that you distribute them in such a way that they are not crowded at one place and that they don’t confuse your readers.
If you see this page for instance, I’ve put 5 social sharing buttons on my sidebar. 3 buttons on the top of the post (next to the post title), 5 buttons at the bottom of the post. Those 5 social sharing buttons at the bottom of the post are spread into 2 and 3 in different boxes (in the box that carries the “related posts” information).
Yes, the most common social sharing buttons like Twitter, Facebook and Google plus are repeated, but I have put them in such a way that there’s not too much to look at in one place.
I interchange the positions of the buttons once in a while to see which of the social sharing buttons get more shares at which of the positions.
Takeaway
Social sharing buttons play a highly crucial role on deciding the amount of exposure your blog gets. I have been to many blogs that write great content yet, limit themselves to one or two social sharing buttons making it hard for me to share it with my community.
Surely, your readers would prefer pressing a button rather than taking the pain of going to a social media site and typing out (or copy-pasting) out the information from your post to share it.
So social sharing buttons are vital, agreed. The point is how much is too much.
There isn’t a strict number (even the number “5” I mention in this post is the maximum number on the safe side). It depends on how you spread them around so that you don’t confuse, annoy or drive away your readers.
I would like to know your thoughts about using social sharing buttons in the comments. And please, press the most convenient social sharing buttons you see at this page so that I learn my lesson too!
Grady Pruitt says
I try to keep mine down to a minimum because I agree that it does look very distracting and cluttered. I like having at least some variety because not every reader will be interested in sharing the same way I might.
Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts Grady! Indeed you won’t have similar interests as that of your readers.
Couldn’t agree with you here Jane!
It sure does get confusing for me when I visit other blogs that are over crowded with these buttons, though a single person visiting the blog would normally just press one button at a time. I guess the three main buttons for Facebook, Twitter and G+ are the ones mainly needed, while the others can be placed in other places- as you mentioned- on your post or under it. I do the same on both my blogs as well.
Thanks for sharing
Harleena, true. Although the three main ones are important, we should also give our readers some choice.
I’ve noticed that so….some website has hundreds of stumbleupons while others have thousands of tweets. I guess it depends on the niche of the website and demographics that you attract. I would like to test out some more button, thanks for the tips!
Guess what I’m about to do…add more social networking buttons. I knew I couldn’t resist, lol.
LOL Dianne, well split testing is always good. You will come to know what works for you. More power to you and your readers
I decide to add the StumbleUpon button. I’m trying to figure out if I want to add retweet buttons also….might as well go crazy.
Sure, let me know how it goes
Ray says
Sometimes people have them in a post or article, and they have the same ones in a sidebar, footer, widget, or other gizmo/gadget thing. Basically doubling the buttons on a page. The more buttons you have on a page the more things that need to load, which can slow you page load time down. On top of that if one of the buttons/sites you add to a page is down or having issues it can make your page hang and appear not to load, and this happens fairly often. For instance if twitter is messing up or having problems and you have the button on your page it can make your page hang like crazy waiting for a response from twitter. It will eventually give up and load the rest of the page, but it can take a few. I hate it when that happens. When it does it irritates me and I tell myself maybe I shouldn’t use them. The more you have the more likely you will have this happen at some point. It usually doesn’t last too long though. I think you should probably only add or use a handful of buttons per page, and choose wisely.
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agreed Ray. More buttons usually contribute to slow loading times if something is wrong in their servers.
Herbert says
IMO, it depends on the number of social bookmarking buttons found at your blog, if its quiet a lot and the icons are bigger then they are a distraction.
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Agreed Herbert! Thanks for your comment.
Herbert says
In my opinion, it depends on the number of social bookmarking buttons found at your blog, if its quiet a lot and the icons are bigger then they are a distraction.In my personal experience and seeing other blogs, they are just placing the basic and most used bookmarking buttons
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Sure, bigger icons are quite a distraction
I hate them actually!
Kristina L. says
Hi, Jane!
Like in minimalism sometimes less is more, and that is the case with all the social buttons. Yes, it’s a fact that they are very important for spreading quickly and viral articles, but they can also drive people away since, sometimes, the same information is repeated over and over.
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Kristina thanks for your views. I’m not surprised that we think alike 😉
Hi Jane. Social buttons are indeed very important but one should know the proper way of using it. Like you said, too much can annoy the readers and 5 sounds about just right, which is actually the amount I am using currently. Also, If I may add, the placement is equally important. They should be prominent but not annoying. I really hate those social sharing buttons that pop up on your face when you accidentally hover on them. Bad enough, it gives you like several choices.. Good one
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Oh you mean the hover effect. Yes many blogs use it in a bad way! Using too much of those effects will also reduce site loading times; this is unnecessary server load for just a sharing button!
Ricardus says
I think the right number of social button is really important. Too many indirectly gives a bad impression that the blogger is in desperate as if like telling us to share his/her articles which it doesn’t work as i still believe content is the king for every blogger.
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Exactly, too much sounds desperate! Thanks for the addition Ric
But what if I am desperate? It’s hard out there for a new blogger….
LOL
Dianne, I perfectly understand LOL.
However, when you’re a newbie and not getting much traffic there’s no point in putting too many buttons, since there won’t be much turn over anyway (sorry about that!).
Plus when your blog is new, you need to be extra careful in adding clutter at any point/place. You should not drive away your visitors coz, every single one is worth million dollars, especially when you have only a handful of them.
You get what I mean?
So true, right now I have 4 social/bookmarking buttons on one and 3 on the other. It’s just tempting to put more.
I agree, having too many social buttons can turn off a visitor; it doesn’t make you look very professional either. If people still feel they need to have more than 5, then perhaps they can split them up on the page, have a group of 5 at the top, and a different group of 5 at the foot, that way it doesn’t completely overwhelm the reader.
Lionel, you got it. That’s the point I’m trying to make here. Thanks for your comment.
Rajesh Namase says
I agree that it does look very distracting and cluttered if you use many Social Media Buttons. I’m using 8 buttons at the bottom of post, I made design so it’ll not look distracting and cluttered.
But some people are using many buttons because they hire some people for doing SMO. Now a days SMO is business.
Audrey says
Sharing thru social media is the best way to market a post. However, there are times that these social buttons can cause distraction on the readers part. I’ve noticed for some blogs that they are using those social media buttons that are moving just like what you have here on the right side of the page. Unfortunately, some placed it at the left side where it can cover the commenting box. So adding new comments can be irritating because you find it hard to type in your comment there.
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Social sharing buttons are very important especially now that social signals are one of the top strategies when it comes to marketing your website. Social sharing buttons will help your visitor share your site or blog easier because all they need to do is click it and share it.
I was looking on where do you put your Social Media button and I didn’t find anywhere around the article. Did you remove your social button?