I was hired to create a Facebook like function for the Zen Cart product page back in 2010. I hated what happened. First of all, the like button takes longer to load that anything else on the page disrupting the loading and making the site look clunky. Then reality hit. All these social media folks just love making changes. I quickly decided never to do any social media mods again. I had one Twitter box get wiped out quickly; the like button was a constant source of aggravation for several reasons as I tried to support it on ZenCart.com.

I did just recently create a social media sidebox to make putting those icons on sites easier and in a way that I thought was best for design. I'm offering it in my Zen Cart Ready-To-Go template and use it when setting up websites because it's a really easy way to do this. The colors can be changed with only a CSS edit – eliminating the need for graphic work and images. 

Even still, I'm running into cart owners who think those icons are so important that they ignore my recommendations and want them larger or more prominent than I believe is good.

And Then, A Blog Post Appeared in my Inbox

It was about Social Media icons and e-commerce conversions. The question is does social media share buttons increase conversions – do they sell?

The answer is a resounding no. In fact, they can even hurt sales – especially if you don't have many shares or followers. They can also be a distraction:  "A case study from Visual Website Optimizer, a website conversion and testing platform, of Finnish ecommerce retailer Taloon.com found that removing social sharing buttons from product pages resulted in an 11.9 percent higher conversion rate than pages that contained them."

My Social Media Recommendations:

• Remove that Facebook like feature from your product info pages.
• Have the share buttons show up on the product success page – after the sale, not on the product pages. 
• Don't have large, in-your-face social media icons. Don't have them bouncing around on the page – such as pinned to the left side and moving with the scroll as some free templates do.
• Only have a Facebook icon if that's really the only thing you fool with. Consider getting rid of all social media if you do little or no posting.
• Install the facebook auto post so that when your products change or you add new products, it gets posted to your facebook page. If you change products regularly, this is not a bad idea!

 
WizTech Business Decisions

I removed the Facebook like button on the product info pages as soon as I read that report. I'm making decisions now about the rest. I auto post to the Facebook page so it doesn't look totally inactive but it still isn't optimum and I have very few followers. I post occasionally to all the social media sites I belong to, using HooteSuite when I have something to say and that's sporadic. So I need to decide which social media sites to keep. I got almost nothing on YouTube and never even check Google +. I tweet rarely – much less than I used to and don't miss it at all.

My conclusion? I'm really not active enough to warrant those social media icons. My plans? Make a decision to keep, alter, or get rid of the icons within the month. Stay tuned!