Custom Social Media icons: Good or bad?

[jid]

Hi guys,

In our never-ending search for better SEO strategies and results, our journey has led us to question the idea of creating custom social media icons for our site.  We are wondering if anyone has had experience, either negative or positive, by using these icons, or if there is no difference at all?

I would like to make it clear that we are only thinking about customizing the icons that lead to our Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel, etc.  NOT the like/share/tweet/etc buttons.  We understand the negative effects in changing those icons, but are interested in knowing if creating general icons that match our design will be a good or bad thing.

Any replies are appreciated, thanks!

[RyanKent]

Stylistic changes, such as your social media icons, can be good or bad depending on how your visitors perceive them.

If you had a Star Trek theme site, you could stylize your icons to look like Star Trek badges. If your users fall in love with the look, that could lead to your site being mentioned and linked to from other related sites, and even graphic design sites. Your users may like the look so much they decide to click on them more often.

Alternatively, if your visitors disliked the icons they could be used less.

This design decision really isn't much different then any other design decision you could make for your site. At the highest end, you can create a design that is so loved, others either pay you to use your design, or you share it free and receive links based on the design.

[kennyrowe]

Besides what Ryan said, I'd also add that they still need to clearly convey that they're links to those social media sites. I've seen some customized icons that have gone too far on the stylistic side and they were impossible to tell what they were for.