How to install social media icon buttons.

To be honest, I had no idea what an "icon button" was but after seeing them on other blogs I knew that they take you from the blog page to other social media accounts. Having a blog that I want to grow, I knew I needed to figure out which ones to use and how to get them onto my page.  Sounded easy enough! 
You can Google the answer to find page after page.  There are also tons of videos online on how to do this but I am going to keep it as simple as possible. 

What you need:
You will need a Photobucket account and a way to search for buttons/icons, unless you have already made your own or bought them. A blog that you are going to add the buttons to. (If you are using free ones try to link back to that page and give credit to the owners.)


Lets get started! 

1. Find the buttons or icons you want to use. I found mine online, here. I originally found mine by searching Google for "Free Social Media Icon Buttons." SIMPLE! Download (and extract) the buttons. 

2. Sign in and upload the buttons to Photobucket. Go to "Your Bucket" and make sure all the social media you want to link is included. I ended up having to download a few different sets because I didn't pay attention to which were included. {oops}
This is what I choose --->  Scribble Icons

3. Sign into Blogger and click on the link to your blog. Go down to "Layout" on the bottom right. Click "Add Gadget" and it will take you to a list to choose what you are adding. Go to "HTML/Java Script." You don't have add a 'Title' but it is up to you. The title in the open window does not show on your blog but it does show on your layout. It makes it little easier if you want to go back and change things later on. You don't have to fumble around and click on other boxes to try to find your social media buttons. 

4. You are going to next customize the following codes to fit your links and your buttons. I just copied and pasted the same code over and over for each button and changed the links when I came to it.  You will add all the buttons in the same open window you have. For example if you have Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram to add you will have 3 codes showing in the HTML/Java Script before you save it to your blog layout. 

COPY this code and you will customize it with a Photobucket code and your social media link. 

<a href="http://www.SocialMediaLink.com"><img src="http://www.PhotobucketDIRECTLink.com/test1.jpg" /></a> 

5. Go to Photobucket. Click on the first button you want to add from Your Bucket: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc. On the right side, towards the bottom there are different links you can use (email & IM, Direct, HTML, and IMG). You are going to choose "DIRECT."

6. Take the direct code and replace the code from above with that information. You can simply highlight and paste. Then you go to your social media account, copy your link, and replace the "socialmedialink" with your link.  {you are doing all this in your open HTML/Java Script window.) 

Repeat the code and steps 6 and 7 until you are done adding your accounts. Click SAVE and you are 

*Just a disclaimer, I am not a coder and do not know how to use direct HTML or coding but you can email/contact if you have any questions or see that I missed something.*
done.