Over the last few months I've been looking at websites and blogs a little differently. If I happen to run across something that I like, then I wonder if that author or website is on twitter or some of the other social media sites that I use. The question then becomes do you want people to follow you on twitter?
As I've been reviewing submissions to the blog carnivals published at Systems-Overload the last few months, I've been looking at the websites of those people submitting articles to see if they were on Twitter. I've been surprised at how many websites I've been to that don't provide any buttons or links to their social media profiles. You might have reasons for not wanting the public in general to know what social media or network sites you're using, which is understandable, but if you don't make this information readily available, you might be missing a good chance to market your website or blog and do some networking as well. I'd think that if you go to the trouble of setting up a blog or website that you'd want to be able to interact with your readers. Maybe you've been so busy that the thought didn't occur to you to set this up?
I'm not a web-designer and I get annoyed when I have to play around with html code, so I can understand if you've put off making this change to your website or blog. I did a couple of searches for buttons/badges, first Twitter, then Facebook, and finally social media buttons. Here are a few websites that you can use to make buttons to link to your social media profiles.
- Twitter Buttons
- EasyTwitterButtons.com
- twitter buttons
- SocialMediaButtons- I've seen Twitter and Facebook buttons here
- Social Networking buttons from makeuseof.com
- Buttons Hut- I've seen serveral buttons here including Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, and many more
- There are lots of other sites, so feel free to do your own search!
If you'd prefer not to use buttons or badges, how about simple links to some of your social media/network profiles that you'd like to connect with your readers at? While you can place them anywhere on your website or blog, I'd suggest that you put them near the top your website, in a sidebar, at the bottom of your site, within your "about us/me" or your "contact us/me" sections. Ideally you want this to be something that people see right away or can easily find. Since most people don't feel that they that that much time, if they have to hunt too hard for it, they won't, and they're less likely to find you at Twitter, Facebook, or any other profiles that you might like to connect with people at.
There are probably millions of reasons why people want to be "social" on the web or maybe it boils down to only a few, but why not let the visitors and readers of your website or blog know where they can find you and connect with you online? If you know of a good site for social media buttons or badges feel free to mention it in the comments.
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