Social links in the footer

Appearance → Customize → Footer → Display the social links in the footer. On by default.

Where the links come from

The Social menu location — one menu, shown in up to three places. Build it once; see Social menu, which also lists every network that gets an icon.

Three places, two switches

The header and the mobile panel share a switch because the panel is where the bar’s icons go once the bar collapses on a phone. The footer is genuinely separate, so it gets its own.

The arrangement worth considering

Footer only. Turn the header’s social links off and leave the footer’s on.

• The header stays clean, with room for the menu, the search icon and a call-to-action that you would rather people clicked.
• The links are where a reader lands when they finish reading, which is when “where else can I find this person” is actually a question they have.

The reverse — header only — makes sense if the accounts are the point of the site.

Where they sit

Beside or under the footer menu, depending on the footer layout: centred in a column on Stacked, grouped with the menu on the right half on Inline.

If the footer menu is absent, the social links take that spot alone. If both are absent, the wrapper is not printed and the footer closes up.

Styling

The icons take the footer’s text colour, from the footer skin or the pickers under it. On the dark skin they are light without you doing anything.

Turning this off does not unassign the menu — the Social menu location keeps its menu and the header copy is unaffected.