Adding Social Network Buttons to your Artist Website

Social networking buttons at artist websites function by the shares of people who like your art enough to spread it with online friends.

The person sharing is essential saying “Hey, you should check out this great artist’s artwork I just found”. People tend to trust the opinions of their friends than someone they do not know, and are more inclined to visit.

By having the buttons at your website, you are providing a way for fans to promote your art, thereby growing your audience to include some of theirs.

Now that you know the value of adding social networking buttons to an artist website, we will explain how you can include them at your own portfolio site.

 

Build an Art Website Series

Part1: Naming a Website with Google Keyword Tool

Part2: Fix Pictures in Photoshop - Reduce Image Size - SEO Tips - Watermark Photos

Part3: How to Make a Full Page HTML5 Slideshow with Wix

Part4: How to Build a Keyword List for an Artist Website

Part5: Adding Social Network Buttons to your Artist Website

Part6: Coming Soon!

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Adding Social Networking Buttons to your Website

The main rules to follow for social networking buttons is to have a consistent size and color scheme which matches your website. Depending on your website host, there is probably a way of adding them. If there isn’t a way, social networks have their own code snippet for including the icon directly in your website. Here is a list of the major social networks, and where you can find that snippet of code to directly add to the HTML of your art portfolio site.

1. Facebook like button – Fill out the form as it is at the right. Enter your website name, deselect the Send button, choose button count as the layout style, adjust the width if needed, deselect Show Faces, and adjust the color scheme to match your website. Then, click Get Code, and copy the code inside a HTML widget or directly in the HTML of your website.
   
   The other social networks work in much the same way, so there is no need of further explanation.
   
   
2. Twitter
   
   
3. Pinterest
   
   
4. Google +1
   
   
5. Linkedin Share

 

The other methods of installing Social network buttons to your online artist portfolio is to use built in icons inside a website builder.

The template we are using for our Build an Artist Website Series is the Artist Painter Template from Wix, displayed at the right. To begin building your website right away using this template, click it to be taken directly to the HTML5 website builder.

We also have two lists of portfolio templates, if you prefer to use a different one:

1. Portfolio Website Templates
   
2. Website Example Templates

 

 

How to Add Social Networking Icons to your Wix Website

First of all, you will notice that two social networking icons for Facebook and Twitter already exist at the bottom of each page of this template. These are very small and barely noticeable, so I will show you how to enlarge this set of social networking icons, and also include more.

Click the icons at the bottom of the page, then hit Settings in the popup Social Bar menu, to reveal a new larger menu. The icon size is set to 18, but I will adjust it to 25. The rest of the settings, I will keep the same.

Next, click the big blue Organize Icons button. The Twitter and Facebook icons are displayed there already. Hi Add Social Icon to reveal another popup menu with a variety of icons to choose from, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Blogger, Youtube, Tumblr and Linkedin, RSS, Flickr and Vimeo.

There are 7 pages of icons here. Go to the second page to view the current grey icon set. I will add Google+ and Linkedin. Do this by clicking the icon once to outline it in blue, and then click OK. Then, click Add Social Icon again, and return to the same icon set to include another.

Now that your buttons are added, it is time to link them with your social profiles. Click the link box for each social network, and insert your full social profile URL.

When completed, return to the website builder, and test the social networking buttons. Click Preview at the top and click on each respectively to see if they open your social networking profiles.

If all is OK, Save your work so far.

Stay tuned for the next article in this artist website builder series. If you have any specific questions dealing with artist portfolios, please leave them below, and I will answer them in future articles.