There are several ways to add links to social media on websites, blogs, and forums. In this guide, you’ll learn how to add eye-catching social media icons to WordPress menus. They’re important as they interconnect your project across the most commonly accessed social platforms. Current high-profile examples are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, etc.
Why Social Media Marketing Matters
The popular social media platforms are free to use and have millions of active users. It’s an excellent way to engage people from outside and invite them to your website. Social media buttons on WP posts and pages encourage visitors to share content they like. When done well, clickable icons are a free way to promote your site and build a fan base.
The 4 significant benefits of social media sharing are:
- Generates free traffic to your WordPress website, blog, or e-store
- Helps to build your social media following
- Generates free leads and extra sales for monetised sites
- Builds trust and brand recognition
Best Place to Add Social Media Icons
You can add a social media icon anywhere on a visible webpage. That includes the header areas, footers, sidebars (using WP widgets), and within the main content. This guide focuses on the navigation menus because the visitor’s eyes naturally draw to these spaces. Which menu you choose depends on your site’s layout, personal preference (at first), and results.
Move the social icons to another menu if you get plenty of traffic but few clicks. There are no coding skills or complicated configuration needed to do to this.
Meet the WP Menu Image Plugin
The Menu Image Plugin by Rui Guerreiro is a great tool for adding eye-catching, customisable social media icons. There’s nothing new about SM plugins, but this one is super simple with its drag-n-drop interface. You can place the icons in any of the WP menu areas, at any position, and customise how they look, so they fit perfectly.
Getting Started with WP Menu Image Plugin
In only a few minutes from now, you’ll have social media icons in your WP menus. This guide assumes you’re familiar with how to install and activate plugins from your Admin area. If not, please read How to Install New Plugins in WordPress before continuing.
Install and Activate the WP Menu Image Plugin.
Now we need to create a new menu for the social media icons.
Go to Appearance => Menus from the WP Dashboard.
You’re now at the Menus Screen.
- Click the Edit Menus tab if it’s not already selected
- Add a Name for your new menu in the Menu Structure section
- Click Save Menu
The Menu Structure form is self-explanatory (see next image).
You can now create custom links for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. (no code needed). Enter the URLs into the fields for each social media account and add icons of your choosing.
Click Save Menu when you’re done and visit the live site to test.
Our social media vertical dropdown menu looks like this.
Horizontal icon-only display (no text titles)
Select the Hide radio button from the Custom Link options in the Edit Menu Screen if you want an icon-only menu.
The SM icons now display horizontally above or below the header image without their font icons.
Your menus may show differently depending on the theme in use.
