Social media is one of the most effective ways to promote your website or blog. It is an easy way to get publicity, enhance your online visibility and drive traffic to your blog or your company’s website.  For best results, you not only need to promote your own content on social media, but also encourage others to share and promote your content.

There are several tactics you can use to encourage users to share your content. One of the simplest ways to do this is to use well designed social media buttons placed prominently on your website. This encourages sharing and boosts conversions, resulting in more sales and leads for your business.

In this post, we take a look at 10 examples of websites that use simple yet effective social sharing.

1. Huffington Post

Huffington post is the perfect example of multiple placement of social bookmarking buttons to improve usability and boost conversions.  The site uses simple button design at the right places in the content including sidebar, next to the page title as well as within the body of the content.

See image below:

2. Adverblog

Digital advertising and marketing blog Adverblog, uses large creative social media icons that stand out and creates a lasting impression. The button design is unique and perfectly suited for a creative organisation.

3. SlideShare

Floating Social Bar is very common and used by tons of websites and blogs. There are many social media plugins that provide this facility. It is very usable as the buttons are displayed prominently on typically on the left of right of the website and effective for encouraging conversions. I have listed SlideShare as one of the examples below however there are several others. It is one of the most widely used layouts available via many third-party website plugins.

4. Tigi

Tigi Hair Products’ website, Twitter feed occupies a large space in the centre of the homepage. A large custom icon with an eye-pleasing Twitter activity box creates maximum impact and cycles through their most recent tweets, one at a time. It can prove effective for attracting new followers and generating ReTweets.

5. Pepsi

Pepsi uses unique and highly engaging social media integration on its website. It has an active social media campaign on Twitter with  “Live For Now” hashtag which it uses to bring latest conversations from its Twitter profile directly on to its website in a visual and engaging manner. Latest Tweets are displayed it in the grid layout of the homepage in rotation with other graphics.

6. Sife USA

SIFE USA, an organisation founded in 1975 to promote a sustainable world through business, uses user-friendly tabs on its homepage to show the latest activity from several social channels including Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Myspace.  Tabs offer good use of space and usability. Visitors can access or join conversations across several networks.

7. Nike

Nike uses its website footer to attract visitors to join its social networks.

“Follow” buttons for Nike’s various social profiles are featured prominently in the footer throughout the website.

8. Hey Indy

New media and animations company Hey Indy, is another example of simple yet effective use of Social media icons in website footer. Large icons are displayed prominently in the footer of the website alongside the contact form.

See example below.

9. Moovents

Moovents is a social media agency from UK.  The site uses simple but effectively designed social media buttons placed prominently in the website header. It is simple yet noticeable.

10. Flint Boutique

The wedding invitation design specialists Flint Boutique, uses of an oversized “Facebook Like” button placed in the centre of the homepage. Large size and central placement helps to grab the attention of visitors and can prove effective for driving new likes. Furthermore, custom icon design is used to create a handmade look and feel just like their invitations.

Bonus:

Content Marketing Institute

And last but not the least, take a look at the social media follow buttons on Content Marketing Institute’s website below.

Conclusion:

Encouraging social bookmarking and sharing of your content is an effective way to leverage social media for your business. Well designed social media “follow” and share buttons on your website can boost conversions and improve sharing. The websites features in this article are good examples of sites that do this effectively. You can use these for inspiration or to learn how you can improve sharing on your own website.

Have you come across other websites that display simple yet effective social sharing? Please add your response by leaving a comment below.