How many social media icons should you have on your site?
Wednesday, Apr 30th, 2014Social media icons are like assholes. If you have more than one, something is wrong.
Yes, you heard that right, one. Not eleven, not one hundred: ONE.
Because this … this this this despicable practice of molesting my eyeballs with icons everytime I scroll down a page has got to stop.
This has got to stop:
I mean did you really think your news article about the upcoming gubernatorial election was going to be a smash hit on pinterest?
Do facebook friends need to know about your visitor’s anti-fungal cream purchase?
Is your company about us page, however provocative, really going to take twitter by storm?
And Porn Sites! Ahhhhh! Social media icons on porn sites!! Ahhhhh! Okay let me preface this by saying I’ve never personally visited a porn site (of course not, that would be perverted). But I know a guy who visited one once and he told me all about the abundance of social media icons there.
On. Porn. Sites.
Really?
I must ask: Is such content shareable with family, friends, coworkers? My friend who visits porn sites (actually not my friend, but a friend of a friend) told me that he freaks out every time he sees a facebook share button on a porn site. He’s terrified by the prospect of accidentally clicking the share button and exposing his 82-year-old grandmother to “xxx hardcore latino milf doggy style.”
“But if I don’t have the share buttons, my content won’t get shared!”
Come on, if your visitors lack the motivation to copy and paste the url into the address bar, your content isn’t that great. If your content really is God’s gift to the internet, I assure you, people will find a way to share it. If you’re unhappy with how much your website is being shared, publish better shit.
Social media icons aren’t achievements. They’re not badges or flair. You don’t get internet street cred or extra points for having them. They add noise and clutter. They’re distractions. The more options you present to visitors, the more you cripple their ability to make decisions and the more you detract from user experience. And for anyone that does websites for a living, user experience is God. Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
So get with it people … Less social media icons, better content!
Amen, Chris. I could not agree more. Well stated. In fact you make such a cogent argument I have decided to post a link to this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus, Digg, Reddit, LinkedIn…….
I recented googled ‘Are Reeses getting smaller?’ Your investigative report on the subject proved to be very informative. I wanted to share this news with my friends on twitter. I have to admit, I was a little bummed to not find the twitter icon on your website. But I went ahead and copied and pasted the article. It took a few extra seconds but I knew it was worth my time. After posting the article, I read this one. So obviously I also agree with this article.
I also googled Reese cup size and your post on cup size came up. So I started reading more of your posts. I don’t normally comment on stuff I find on the internet but this blog is really funny and well written. It’s unfortunate that there is nothing more recent. Thanks for making my day.
Ha! I also found this site following a frustrated 3am Reese’s peanut butter cup experience. 6 degrees of shrinking candy bars!