Should You Add Social Media Icons To Your Homepage?

by Kaitlan Whitteberry on August 28, 2015
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Most facilities managers know that social media is important to your company’s brand awareness and Social media icons for your FM websiteinteractions with your tenants. However, are you giving them all the information they need to connect with you? Studies show that the easier it is to find your social pages the better and people give up looking earlier than you would think. The entire purpose of social is to communicate with your current and prospective customers. Yet, how can you connect with them, if they can’t find you? 

Deciding if you should include social icons on your website isn’t really a huge decision, it’s more about if you have the authority to do so. Below we’ll walk through the steps of adding these useful little buttons to your site, or if you can’t, how you can spread your social reach in other ways.

Should You Add Icons? Yes or No

The answer to this question largely depends on what type of facilities management work you do, or who you work for. If you own your own FM company and have the reigns on your company website, by all means go for it! They really don’t take up much room, and they’ll help your current customers engage with you even more. They’ll also prove to prospective clients that you encourage interaction and are up-to-date with the industry standard.

If you’re the facilities manager at a pharmaceutical, technology, financial institution or another mid to large corporate office, your building website may already have social icons. To help spread the word about your iOffice email signature example awesome company, try adding them into your email signature or sharing your social pages on your personal profiles. If there is a separate facilities page that you have control of, be sure to add them there too!

If you are the FM or property manager for a government building or university this may not be for you. Restrictions on social media and its connection with these organizations are much more regulated than others. However, that usually doesn’t mean that you can’t share pages on your personal profile! Refer to your company’s social media policy if you have any questions.

What (sites you should consider)

If you’ve read through this blog and you’re not sure what we’re referring to, take a look at our top left section of our dashboard. The little symbols that look like Twitter and Facebook’s logos go directly to our social media accounts, so visitors know they’re accessing the correct profile. It’s a great way to connect with your customers and encourages them to follow you.

Adding the platforms you’re already actively participating on and getting customer feedback from is a good starting point. There really isn’t any harm in adding all of them, as they don’t take up much room on your page. You can also place buttons that lead to your company blog or to an email account that addresses “contact us” requests.

In addition to selecting which sites to feature, there are many ways you can direct people to your profiles. For instance, if you want to promote your Facebook page, you could have just a link to your profile, or a “like us” button or even a “share this” on Facebook button. 

Where (they should go)

Most companies have social icons on the very top or very bottom of their homepage. If you make it difficult to find them, you probably won’t reach many people. When they’re on the front page it’s much more likely that someone will click.

iOffice social media buttons

We also include ours at the bottom of our homepage near our headquarters address and contact information. And that’s not the only place they appear, we include them on our blog posts and near the about us section of our page. Remember, the easier you make it to find them the more clicks you’ll get.

How (you find them)

There are hundreds of icons out there to choose from. Many are free, but you’re limited by color and design to what’s available. This could be a good option if you’re a small facilities management company without a large budget. Try these free icons to see if any of them match your website.

Although there are free options out there, it might be better long term investment to pay a small fee to use really high quality graphics. Try visiting Etsy or even consider hiring someone through Upwork for a list of freelance designers. If you’re not sure what color to choose, try sticking to your company’s branding, choosing a color that will show up well against your website background. Be sure your icons are all similar so they go together.

Once you have your coded designs, adding them to your website is where it gets a little trickier. If you have control over your FM website, it’s best to talk to your marketing team about coding these icons into your homepage. They should be able to “embed” the code so the icons appear where you want them to. Talk about placement with your design team so there’s no confusion. Also be sure they’re connecting the buttons to the correct corresponding social page. It’s best to give too much information than to go back and make corrections later. 

Will you be adding social buttons to your facilities management homepage? Let us know why or why not in the comments below! Want more social media advice? Be sure to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kaitlan Whitteberry

Kaitlan Whitteberry is a Magna Cum Laude graduate from the University of Missouri's journalism program, and currently focuses on iOFFICE press releases, software updates and related news.

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