You can find much smaller, less intrusive icons, and I would group them together in one spot. If they're on the far right column, they seem to apply to the whole site as opposed to the article. If you want both (site and article likes), I would integrate the site ones into the top nav, like below the search box. That will avoid confusion. The article icons just need to be tucked under the title more, or you could line them up vertically on the left side.
| New Idea on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/new-salesforcecom-tco-tool/ | |
| 1 | I see three places where three different sets of social media buttons are there. Maybe you could keep just two of them?
Also make them consistent - if you have +1 in one place, have it the other places as well. (Which is part of why it would indeed look cluttered if you have three complete sets of social media links) |
I don't think the buttons themselves look that cluttered :)
Social Media is so ever-present these days, I think most visitors to your blog would be used to seeing multiple sharing links.
But I would get rid of the number burbs next to "tweet" and "+1", just to make it consistent. On ther other hand, you could keep the burbs if you were to put them in the sidebar, like you did for the "like"button on the right.
I would also group them tighter together. (BAD quality picture! But do you sort of see what I mean?) The spaces in-between them look unnecessary. That's what I see often on other blogs/sites as well.
Unique and special is nice, but sometimes 'traditional' design converts better because people recognize them.
You could also go to sharethis.com to get buttons that look like those attached in the pic. They have smaller buttons and slightly different designs too.
| Minor Problem on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/new-salesforcecom-tco-tool/ | |
| 1 | get rid of this, here you can go with popular posts, recent posts, subscribe to our news letter, etc |
| 2 | I don't like the arrangement here, try with the social media to the right, see how it goes and less space between the title and the social media, now it looks like they are not linked together |
| 3 | get rid of the icons, the ones from the title are sufficient. |
| 4 | put the link under the picture |
| Serious Problem on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/new-salesforcecom-tco-tool/ | |
| 1 | put this after "Posted on" |
| 2 | more space between sidebar and main body |
| 3 | make the pictures in your blog the same size as your main content, it will make the blog look much better. |
| Serious Problem on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/ | |
| 1 | if you want to present just a portion of a website and still be able to make the picture as wide as your main content i suggest using Fireshot (Fireshot is an addon for Firefox and Chrome) to mark the portion of the picture, in this case the quick access menu, and then crop the image at the necessary width using Paint, Photoshop, etc. |
| Critical Problem on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/new-salesforcecom-tco-tool/ | |
| 1 | Where is the sign up on your website ? |
Hello William, i agree with Anthony and here is an example http://www.mightydeals.com/ , on this website it is very clear that the social icons in the header are for the hole website and the other ones are from the product, please see my comments.
| Serious Problem on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/new-salesforcecom-tco-tool/ | |
| 1 | some people already mentioned, but the buttons should be grouped tighter together (less whitespace) Also from a usability standpoint users may consider it too much yelling/in-your-face when social buttons appear this high-up. |
| 2 | From a usability standpoint it's really not clear if these social buttons apply side-wide of just for the article. Probably site-wide. If so push them up to your (non-existent) utility navigation (right top above main menu) |
| New Idea on http://www.cloudsuccess.com/blog/new-salesforcecom-tco-tool/ | |
| 1 | This grouping is more like it |
Biggest thing to add to what has already been said is that users may feel that social-buttons placed directly underneath the title is too much 'in-your-face', which can have the adverse effect of coming across as a cheap web-site. There's been a recent article on the ux/perception on social marketing buttons, but I can't seem to find it right now.
Anyway, here's something to think about: When will uses most likely want to share your article? When they like it right? When do they like it, > when they finished it. So place the icons at the BOTTOM of the article. Right above where you would let them subscribe to your newsletter :)
Does feel cluttered to me. Of the 3 areas with icons the one below the title seems the most distracting to normal processing of reading, maybe even slightly annoying... Actually you will share only after having read it - so probably most logical place would be below the article - and those could be bigger with number (as now on top), and also why not some copy with a call to action ie "Found this useful? Help others find it".
I would not be worried about loosing number of shares by having less icons around it. If you are maybe just keep the small orange one "share - all communities" - next to article title