How to Add Social Media Icons to WordPress Menus (Easy Way)

Adding custom social media icons to your WordPress navigation menus is a great way to promote your social profiles and increase engagement across networks. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll compare methods to add icons and share insider tips for maximizing exposure.

Why You Should Add Social Icons to Menus

Before diving into the how-to, let me share key reasons site owners should consider adding social icons directly in WordPress menus:

1. Increased profile visits and followers

According to HubSpot [1], social media menu icons can drive 196% more visits to your social profiles from site traffic. And Sprout Social‘s 2022 data found [2]:

• 79% of internet users have a social media profile
• 60% are active on social platforms daily

With billions actively using social networks, promoting your profiles directly from main site navigation clearly boosts followers.

2. Greater awareness and engagement

Once visitors follow you on social platforms from your site‘s icons, making them aware of new content drives more reactions and shares over time.

Plus, profiles linked in the menu receive prime visibility from all site visitors navigating your header or footer menus.

Table 1: Increase in Social Engagement from Menu Links

3. Brand recognition in navigation menus

Social media iconography has become ubiquitous online with unique logo designs. By adding familiar Facebook, Twitter, YouTube icons and more directly alongside menu links, users instantly recognize each social platform at a glance.

This brand recognition lets you promote numerous profiles without cluttering menus with extraneous text links.

Now that the benefits are clear, let‘s explore methods to add icons.

Method 1: Using the Menu Image Plugin (Recommended)

The Menu Image plugin allows adding any custom image in navigation menus, providing full flexibility…

Method 2: Using Social Icons Block

For WordPress sites using block themes, the Social Icons block adds predefined icons to templates and template parts…

And there you have two solid techniques for adding social media icons to WordPress menus, tailored to your theme and goals. Feel free to reach out in comments with any questions!