Social networking is a great way to stay in touch with your readers. So encourage them to connect with you by making it easy to find your profiles on the various social networks.
Here are some easy to use plugin options:
Follow Me: The “Follow Me” plugin is the one I’m currently using. You can see it in action on the right margin of this page, just click it to see what happens.
Cute Profiles: This one adds a row of icon links to your social networking profiles along the side of your web pages.
But you don’t need a plugin to add your social networking links. Just choose your favorite icon collection and use them to link to each of your profiles.
Super cute social networking icon collections:
Here are 10 of my favorite social networking icon sets.
Polaroid Icon Set: fun set of 16 icons that look like Polaroid photographs.
Hand Drawn by Deviant Art: hand drawn style icons for 18 popular networking sites in various sizes.
Web 2.0 Origami: 15 social networking icons in folded paper style.
Heart v2: 36 social networking icons in a lovey-dovey style.
Sociolego: Building blocks! These are just fun.
Folder Style Icons: These are a bit different and put the icons into a transparent folder.
Socialize Icons 1, 2 & 3: A three-part set of sticker style circle social icons.
Cheers Social Icon Set: 12 social networking icons turned into drinks.
Extreme Grunge Labels: Unique. I can see these working nicely with certain blog themes.
Chrome Icon Set: Ooh, shiny!
Your turn!
Which sets are your favorite? Do you have another set you’d like to share? Or another plugin you recommend for connecting to your social profiles?
Cute, cute, CUTE!! I haven’t seen some of these. They are adorable! With so many choices, how is a girl to choose? LOL
You won’t believe this, but I’ve never tried clicking your “Follow Me” before now. That’s really cool! And I imagine you’re given lots of choices for which social venues you want to include. Pretty neat.
And I’ve seen SO many different social networking icons, it’s incredible to think of how many. But I have to say my favorites are always the ones that appear to be custom-made. Have you seen Ana Hoffman’s? Oh, Michelle, you’d love them. They’re coffee cups. I want those!
I might have to try the cute profiles one and see what happens, Melanie. I know the “Follow Me” doesn’t jump out there as much.
No! I haven’t seen the coffee cups! Off to search… lol
Just found her -> http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/
Those are too cool!
I didn’t know so many of them existed…the Extreme Grunge thing is pretty cool! Might use it next…!
It’s like shopping for a good dress with loads of great choices! Am so confused!
It is, isn’t it? So hard to choose!
Thanks for the information about the plugins. I hadn’t seen them before.
Also thanks for the compilation of the great icons.
I’ve spent errr, invested quite a lot of time looking at these sorts of icon sets.
But all the sets that I liked didn’t have all of the social sites I wanted to display…FB, Twitter, YouTube and Linkedin.
Each set that I really liked were missing on the the icons :-(.
But, much appreciation to the wonderful designers who help us customize our web world.
Hi Michelle! These are so cute. I wan’t aware there were so many available. I’d like to add the plugin for the Hearts V2 (isn’t that just perfect) and I can’t find the plugin. I was able to download a zip file and I don’t know what to do with it. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Hey Rhonda, I just wrote up a post with screenshots to show how to add any set of icons you’d like:
https://michelleshaeffer.com/how-to-add-social-networking-icons-to-your-blog/2011/03/03/
I found a really cute RSS icon to use on my new recipe blog at http://www.thereciperoundup.com click on over and have a look :-)
I love this post. #JustSayin
I’m going to need to make some changes on my blog. Thanks for this post Michelle. :)
I love this. Next question would be, how do you install the Google +1 button on a WP blog? Is there an easy way?
Thankfully, there are smart plugin developers taking care of that challenge for us. :) The one I’m using now is this plugin (I replaced most of my other ones with this, and SexyBookmarks is still at the bottom of my posts): http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/1-click-retweetsharelike/
Where can I find the coffee cup ones you are using on the right sidebar???
You can find them at http://www.thewpchick.com/717/social-media-icon-set/ (and in the comments she says it’s okay for personal or commercial use). :)
Where did you get the “Share the knowledge” one that you use for your blog?
Hi Shelly, that’s the SexyBookmarks plugin from Shareaholic. :)