Is social media your cup of tea, but you don’t know how to add social media buttons to your WordPress blog? Even if you aren’t that crazy about social media, you should have at least one social site that you’re active in, and also linked to your blog, if you want your blog to succeed. Choose one or two social media sites that fit your niche and your audience. I’ll show you in this post how to invite your blog readers to your social sites.

I have two ways to add social media icon buttons to a WordPress.com blog. The second method will allow you to add more social sites than WordPress supplies through their Social Media Icons widget. I’ll post part two on Thursday.

The Easy Answer for Social Media Buttons

The quick-and-easy answer is to use WordPress.com’s widget, Social Media Icons. In this screenshot of the widget, you see the social media sites you’ll be able to add: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, GitHub, YouTube, and Vimeo. 

Here’s your how-to steps:

1. Go to Appearance/Customize/Widgets.
2. Choose the sidebar or footer location where you want your social media icons.
   • (You also have the option of putting the icons in your After Post.)
3. Click the “Add a Widget” button on the bottom.
4. Choose the “Social Media Icons” widget.
5. Optionally, rename or erase the title, depending on your preference.
6. Paste your social media profile URLs into each of the username boxes.
7. Optionally, use the Visibility button to control where you want the widget to appear. The default is on every page and post.
8. Collapse the widget box with the arrow in the upper right to more easily drag the location of this widget where you’d like it with the other widgets on this sidebar or footer.

What if you have more than one account for one of these sites or you want to direct your followers to different sites, like GooglePlus, FourSquare, Flickr, Vine, et cetera? Read part two on Thursday.

NOTE: The coffee cup icons are available free at Land-of-Web. If you’d like to make an eye-catching website, you could consider these free social media icons, from vintage-look to books to sports to iPhones and more at Find Your Perfect Match: Collection of Free Thematic Social Icons Sets. You’ll need to read part two of this post.