When you’re trying to make your eCommerce store stand out, you’ll usually turn to design as a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. This is not a bad technique. After all, the success of an eCommerce store largely depends on the visual effect that the store has on customers. However, it can get tricky if you decide to customize your social media buttons.
Social media buttons rely on instant recognition to increase the likelihood that your customers will take the time to actually share the page on their social media sites. However, if you decide you want to make your site truly unique, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Keep Core Icons
If you decide to customize your social media buttons, make sure you keep the core icons. People know Twitter because of the little birds they see. Facebook is a big F. These core icons will allow you to expand your button while still retaining that important identity. Removing it will only make things more confusing.
However, the good part is that even if you are trying to make your site stand out, you can change those core icons a lot. Just like you can change almost anything but the frame on a t-shirt website template, you can change everything but the core icon. Be creative. Be expressive. Just keep that core in the middle. Keep in mind that that means you shouldn’t change the text too much for a letter icon like Facebook.
Don’t Use Competitive Colors
People associate social media buttons with platform colors as much as the icons themselves. This may not always be a conscious admission. But if you change everything but the core icon and then use a competing color, you can create confusion. For example, Facebook has a dark blue background with a white F. You can create a new Facebook button that has an F icon, but you shouldn’t use bright blue, Twitter colors, or red, Pinterest colors. Instead, find another color or hue that fits your total design. The only exception to this is if you use a solid color scheme for social media buttons where all social media buttons are the same color. In this case, make sure the icon remains different.
You can customize almost anything in your eCommerce store web design. However, when you come to social media buttons, you don’t want to risk losing the identity of the social media buttons. To prevent this, make sure you keep the core icons intact. It should be clear at a glance what the button is connected to. You should also avoid using competing social media colors so it’s clear which button links to which platform. The only exception is if you use the same color for all social media buttons rather than one color for each button.
