Comments on: How Many Social Media Icons Is Too Many?

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:00:06 +0000

Thanks Ryan.

I agree that a half dozen starts to get excessive. I’m not really sure how many or even if people use the icons to submit content. I find some like the Sphinn and Digg buttons an easy way to submit or vote, but otherwise I’ll just use whatever I normally use.

I do think the icons can be a nice reminder to people and just in case someone does want to use the icons I’ve added the drop down. I’m sure it needs updating this point.

Balance is a good concept to follow. A few is good, but too many detracts more than anything. And when choosing the few you should probably base it on sites where you do well and your content is a good match.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:58:54 +0000

I enjoyed your article, Steven, and you’ve prompted me to add my own 2 cent’s worth (see http://is.gd/hYu2). You’ll notice that I referenced and quoted your article.

To answer your question, I think more than half a dozen social media icons is starting to get a bit excessive. I would probably Google the Top 5 most popular ones, though I would think twice about any that I wasn’t familiar with.

Incidentally, I’d probably shy away from MySpace (for example), simply because it doesn’t match my target demographic.

Having said that, I actually use AddThis (http://www.addthis.com) as a catch-all icon. It allows me to provide access to dozens of popular social media sites without having to list each and every one up front. (No, I don’t get commission from AddThis!)

All up, I’d say what is required is a balance: Yes, use social media icons because they’re useful, but don’t pollute your site with too many of them.

By: Iconoclasm 2.0 « E-Learning in the Corporate Sector

Iconoclasm 2.0 « E-Learning in the Corporate Sector — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:41:31 +0000

[...] not everyone shares my view. Steven Bradley provides an enjoyable review of some of the negative sentiment out there that’s brooding over social media icons. Like most things in life, this new [...]

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:41:34 +0000

I noticed the SEOmoz blog using a drop down too and thought it looked nice. I’ll have to consider that. Do you know the name of the plugin? Feel free to link to it.

What’s your experience so far with the plugin? Are you finding it gets used? Are you seeing any more traffic? I know you use the icons on Pro-SEO. Do you know how often the icons are used on the Pro-SEO site?

By: Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:36:54 +0000

Too many buttons could definately have a detrimental effect. I use a plugin for wordpress on the kbox blog which has the option to use a dropdown box instead of buttons or links.
The dropdown box means you are able to include a lot of bookmarking services but not clutter the page with icons.