While social media buttons are added to your website via the Page Builder, the Discoverability page is where you add and update the specific URLs for each of those buttons. This provides one easy-to-manage location for social media so that whenever you add a social media button to your website, it will automatically populate with the correct URL for your profile on that platform.
This makes it so that you don't need to manually add your social media URL every time you build a social media button into your website, and can instead simply select the correct one from a dropdown list. It also ensures that you are adding the correct URL every time, instead of manually typing it each time and introducing more possibility for error.
How to Add a Social Media Link
Links to your social media profiles live on the Discoverability page, which you can find in the left-side main menu of your Bookshelf dashboard.
If you have not yet added any links, this page will be blank when you first click into it. To add your first social media link, just click the blue "+Add link" button in the middle of the screen, or you can also click the "+Add link" link in the upper right corner:
The Bookshelf has a pre-set list of the most common social media platforms authors use for their books and business for you to select from. The icons associated with each platform—which will appear on your website when you add a social media button to it—have also been specifically designed to adhere to best platform policies and requirements when it comes to using their branding.
To add a new social media link to your account, click "+Add Link," then open the "Add a platform" list. You can either search for a platform manually, or scroll through the alphabetical list of options available:
Once you've selected a platform, copy and past the URL from your profile on that platform directly into the link input area. Though you can add any link for that platform you would prefer here, we recommend using the link that will direct visitors to your main page or profile on that platform. This is why, for example, the link for Amazon is specifically labeled as "Amazon Author Central"—because this is the universal landing page on Amazon where visitors can see all your books in one place, and not just a single book.
Once you've selected your platform and added your link, click the "Add" button. You can add as many social media profile links to your Bookshelf account as there are available from the dropdown list. Just note that you can only add one link per platform; once you've added that platform to your account, it will be removed as an option from the list.
To test that the link you pasted in leads to the right page, click the open icon (a square with an arrow) located to the far right of that specific social media profile:
Adding a link here does not automatically add it as a button anywhere on your website pages themselves; you must first add the link on this page to then be able to add its corresponding social media button to your website, which we'll cover in a later section.
Updating or Removing Links
If you would like to update the link for a social media profile after you've added it, navigate back to the Discoverability page and click on the full bar for the social media selection you would like to change. This will bring up the "Edit social link" window for that profile, where you can change the associated link as needed, then click the "Save" button. Updating a link here will automatically update it anywhere an associated social media button has already been placed across your website.
To delete a link from your account entirely, click on the trash can icon located to the far right of that specific social media profile, then click the "Remove" button to confirm you'd like to delete it. You can always re-add any social media profile after it's been removed.
Note that removing a social media link from the Discoverability page will also remove it from wherever an associated social media button may have been placed across your website.
Adding Social Media Buttons
To make the social media links you've just added to your account appear for visitors on your website, you'll need to add the associated social media buttons to your site itself. To do this, open your website in the Page Builder, and navigate to a section of your website where you'd like to place social media buttons. If you're using a template some sections may already have buttons included, most often found in About sections or pages, as well as the Header or Footer.
If any such buttons are already included in the template you're editing, the associated social media profile links you added on the Discoverability page will already be linked to those buttons. If you'd like to delete, replace, or reorganize the social media platforms that are included, just click on the element in the viewer, and your adjustment in the left-hand editor:
Clicking "+Add item" will populate only the social media links you've added to your Discoverability page. If you'd like to add a social media button that you have not added to Discoverability, you'll need to head back to that page and add it there first.
If you would like to add social media buttons to a section of your website where none already exist, first navigate to the section where you'd like to place them. Then click the Build tool in the left-side menu, open the Actions category, and click and drag the Social Media element from the menu and into the space where you'd like to place it. From there, the same edit options will appear so you can add any linked social media profiles you would like.
Note that social media buttons will always be laid out side-by-side within the section. They cannot be stacked vertically unless you add multiple Social Media elements on top of each other within a single section.
While you can adjust some simple settings like button size and icon alignment from within each individual social media element, every social media button's overall design is controlled within your Style settings. To learn more about Style settings, visit this support article.
Questions about social media links or buttons? Email our team directly at support@thebookshelf.io. Or, if you have a social media platform that you'd like to add to your author website, but don't see it listed in Discoverability, let our team know and we'll see what we can do.