Do you want to add social media icons to your WordPress menu?
While WordPress doesn’t have a built-in social media section, you can easily add these icons to your navigation menus. This allows you to promote your social media accounts in any widget-ready area.
In this article, we will show you how to add social media icons to WordPress menus.
Why You Should Add Social Media Icons to Menus?
By adding social media icons to your navigation menus, you can encourage people to visit your different social networking profiles. This can get you more followers and engagement across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.
You use third-party plugins to display social media icons in your sidebar. However, it’s also possible to add these social icons using the built-in WordPress features.
This means you don’t have to install and manage a separate WordPress plugin. It’s also an easy way to add social media icons to any widget-ready of your WordPress blog including the sidebar, footer, header, and more.
You can even add social media icons to a menu you’ve already created, and combine the social icons with links to your other posts and pages.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add social media icons to WordPress menus.
Video Tutorial
If you’d prefer written instructions, just keep reading.
Adding Social Media Icons to WordPress Menus
First thing you need to do is to install and activate the Menu Image plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you may want to start by changing the size of the social media icons. To do this, select Menu Image from the left-hand menu and then type new dimensions into any of the boxes on this screen.
After that, click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.
Once that’s done, you’re ready to add social media icons to your menus, by going to Appearance » Menus.
To make a new menu, simply click on the ‘Create a new menu’ link.
Next, give the menu a name by typing into the ‘Menu Name’ field. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.
With that done, click on ‘Create Menu.’
Next, click on ‘Custom Links’ to expand this section.
You can then enter the URL of your social media page, add link text, and click on the ‘Add to Menu’ button.
When that’s done, click the ‘Save Menu’ button.
Now, hover over the custom link and you’ll see an option that says ‘Menu Image’. Simply go ahead and click this option.
After that, a popup will appear with all the settings for your social media icon. To start, you can choose whether to use your own image or a ready-made icon.
If you select ‘Image,’ then you can click on ‘Set image’ and then choose a file from the WordPress media library. After that, you can make the picture bigger or smaller using the ‘Image size’ dropdown.
On the other hand, you can choose from a ready-made library of dashicon or fontawesome icons, by selecting the ‘Icon’ radio button.
After that, simply click on the icon you want to use.
To learn more about these icons, please see our guide on how to easily add icon fonts in your WordPress theme.
By default, the ‘Link Text’ will appear after the social media icon. To change this, simply select any of the other options under ‘Title position.’
If you prefer to hide the link text, then select ‘Hide’ instead.
Once you’re done, click the ‘Save’ button. You can now add more social icons to the menu by repeating the same process described above.
You can also add other posts and pages to the menu, change where the menu appears on your site, and more. For more information, please see our guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.
Now, you can visit your WordPress website to see the social media icons live.
You can also add the social icon menu in your WordPress sidebar.
Simply go to Appearance » Widgets page and drag the ‘Navigation Menu’ widget to the sidebar widget area.
Then, open the ‘Select Menu’ dropdown and choose the social menu you created earlier.
With that done, click on the ‘Save’ button.
Note: The above image is an example. To get the widget to look exactly like that, you’ll need to add custom CSS.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add social media icons to WordPress menus. You may also want to see our guide on how to embed a Facebook video in WordPress, or see our expert pick of the best social media plugins.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Jonas says
Thanks for this article, it helped me a lot!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article was helpful!
Admin
Farhad says
Is there a way to have blog posts submitted to social media sites automatically?
Thank you.
WPBeginner Support says
There are a few different options for that, you would want to start by taking a look at our article below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-automatically-post-to-facebook-from-wordpress/
Admin
Jimmy Ekisa says
Brilliant article!!! You saved me time to create social menus and add them in the NewsPack Theme header, thank you so much.
Shyam says
How to show icons of social profiles in footer?
WPBeginner Support says
If your site has a widget area for your footer you could use one of the plugins from our list below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/best-social-media-plugins-for-wordpress/
Admin
Kerry says
I’ve got the social media icons on my website. How do I link those icons to my social media profiles?
WPBeginner Support says
You would have the menu items be custom URLs
Admin
Vicki says
Thanks for this, I’ve managed to add the Goodreads logo to my Social Menu and chose the Social Menu location too. However when I view the page it shows the magnifying glass next to the new Goodreads logo, rather than just the logo on it’s own – why is this and how do I get rid of it?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to check with your theme’s support to see if this is due to the design of the theme itself.
Admin
Danielle says
I added the social media menu but it’s not showing on my site. What can I do?
WPBeginner Support says
We would first recommend reaching out to the plugin’s support for them to take a look and ensure this isn’t a hiccup with the plugin.
Admin
Lisa Jackson says
Love this, but the icons are displayed in a column rather than next to each other. How can I fix this?
WPBeginner Support says
It would depend on your specific theme, you would first want to check with your theme’s support to ensure it is not an issue with how their menu is styled that could be causing that.
Admin
andi moss says
What? No icons? Find our own?
WPBeginner Support says
We do not have a specific set we would recommend at the moment but there are many different options available depending on the style you’re looking for.
Admin
Bob Wright says
Setting up a social link on my site does not match the images in this article (perhaps our parent organization’s customization blocks that).
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to ensure you are an admin user and the site is on WordPress.org for the most likely reasons. You can see our comparison in our guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/
Admin
Ankit says
Hi,
Once again, a great and helpful tutorial. I’m just facing one issue, though. For the last step, when I try to select the menu location option, I can only see the primary menu option there. How do I get the social menu option as well?
WPBeginner Support says
Your specific theme may not have a social specific menu location. If you reach out to your theme’s support they can clarify and assist.
Admin
Jonathan says
I’m trying to get my head round how to add social media accounts to my WordPress blogsite. Any assistance appreciated. If I’ve skipped an earlier step in setting up the site, my apologies in advance for a stupid comment!
WPBeginner Support says
No worries, it depends on what you’re looking for. For a starting point, we would recommend taking a look at our recommended plugins below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/best-social-media-plugins-for-wordpress/
Admin
Elder Designer says
amazing tutorial keep it up
WPBeginner Support says
Glad you found our guide helpful
Admin
Stephanie Strand says
Thank you! Very clear instructions. Helped this newbie enormously.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Rupali Tripathi says
Thank you so very much for this video.
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Debbie Serjeant says
Icons are appearing without color … wonder what I did wrong?
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to check with the support for your specific theme to ensure there isn’t theme-specific CSS changing your colors.
Admin
Isaac says
Hello, is there a way to space the icons farther apart from one another? Mine seem to be too close to each other…. Thank you
WPBeginner Support says
That would normally require changing CSS, for a starting point you may want to take a look at our article here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/basics-of-inspect-element-with-your-wordpress-site/
Admin
Sam Simson says
I tried to hide the title from being shown on the menu. Seems like that function didn’t work. the title is still visible.
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to check with the support for your specific theme to see if that would be overriding your customizations
Admin
Tracy says
Hi! I tried using this method but I didn’t get the “select image” part. I only get to introduce the URL and Navigation Label… any ideas?
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to ensure the plugin was fully installed and activated for the select image to appear
Admin
Lea says
Thank you! Seems to be a better working solution than with font awesome! Is it allowed though to just use a e.g. facebook icon picture from google pictures then for the image I upload?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to be sure to check the image usage rights if you take an image off of Google but if you are allowed to use it you could upload it to your site.
Admin
Larry Hilton says
I followed the directions for adding social images to my footer area and the Google & Yelp images aren’t visible. I did them the same way as those displayed. This does not appear to be browser related. Any suggestions
WPBeginner Support says
Start by reaching out to the plugin’s support to ensure there aren’t any known issues with those icons or how the menu is being added
Admin
Michele A says
Thank you for this wonderful tutorial!! It has helped me beyond words. Thank you!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide could help
Admin
Muneeb says
Icons are currently on the site but don’t work even link is added. whats the reason?
WPBeginner Support says
If the urls are structured properly then you would want to let the plugin’s support know about your error to take a look if the error is with the plugin itself.
Admin
Mr. Debtsmith says
Hi guys,
Installed the plug in. Added 3 social accounts and clicked “Main Nav” location box. The widget replaced the existing main menu instead of being added to it, and instead of the icons showing, the social account titles show instead. I’m looking forward to the benefits of this plug in. Hope you guys can help.
Thanks!
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to let the plugin’s support know: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/menu-image and they should be able to see if this is an error with the plugin itself.
Admin
ARPIT says
Thank You Very Much for Essential Information that I was Seeking on the Internet.
Highly Appreciated.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article could be helpful to you.
Admin
Dan says
My current theme has social media icons on the main top header in the desktop version, but when switched to mobile version the social icons are gone. how can I get them to stay and possibly my header links also?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Dan,
It seems like your theme hides them on the mobile version. Please contact your theme author and they will be able to help you with this.
Admin
David Cornish says
Thanks for the advice, I use Simple Social Icons now and I like them very much. Any advice on what plugin to use to display a “share on twitter” or “share on facebook” button above and/or below a post, similar to what you have under the title of this article?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi David,
Please see our list of the best social media plugins for WordPress.
Admin
Rob Lilley says
Is there a way to add a target attribute, so the social page opens in a new tab/window?
Editorial Staff says
Yes, you can easily open the links in a new window. If you’re not seeing the option in your Custom Links by default, then you will have to click on the “Screen Options” tab on the top right of the screen and make sure that “Link Target” option is checked.
Admin
Umarbhatti says
Hi,
This plugin looks awesome. Thanks!
Aman Singh says
Hello,
Can I get the custom code for the widget to look similar to what it is on WPbeginner?
I like the widget look for social media icons on WPBeginner so can I get the code.
Thank you.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Aman,
You can just use your browser’s Inspect tool to copy the HTML code and CSS.
Admin