Reconnecting my website’s social media feed
When I started my business, I knew it would be a good idea for me to add a social media presence to help more clients find me. In addition to the LinkedIn account I already had, I added a business Facebook page. Then on a lark, I also added an Instagram account to give me a place to share images I create. My website, kerryathompson.com, is on Squarespace, a platform that makes it very easy to connect to social media accounts. I can automatically copy blog postings to the social media accounts I connected to Squarespace. I also added an Instagram feed block elements to my website to allow my postings on Instagram to be "fed" automatically to my website.
Squarespace allows me to connect my social media accounts
When Instagram was new to me, I had some challenges creating images that fit correctly in the Instagram feed block that Squarespace provides. Sometimes they were cropped awkwardly and there were a few images I didn’t like after I posted them. It's easy to delete posts I no longer want from Instagram, but I didn't know how to fix my website.
Squarespace doesn't change any Instagram images that are already posted and doesn't remove images that have been deleted from my Instagram account. I was glad to learn that Squarespace offers a way to press the Do-Over button when it comes to social media feed blocks that no longer match the accounts they come from.
The Squarespace Reset Data option updates the social media feed to match the connected account
Reset Data to update an Instagram feed
I opened the Settings panel of my website design in Squarespace and clicked Connected Accounts, where I could see all of the accounts I've connected to Squarespace.
I opened the Instagram setts gs, clicked Reset Data, and then Save.
When I returned to the Instagram feed block, images I had deleted from Instagram no longer showed up on my website.
This technique also works for updating a Twitter feed block after you’ve removed tweets you no longer want.
So with that new knowledge, I became more relaxed about mistakes I make on social media, knowing that I can correct any missteps.
There are many different ways to manage registration and payments for events from your website. Squarespace has its own built-in features or you can connect to a third-party event management system.
There are four different phases in managing an event: Announcing, Registering, Collecting Payments, and Communicating. Each phase offers both easy, intermediate, and advanced ways to accomplish what you want to do. The system you choose depends on your time, your budget, and your comfort with technology.
Adding links to your website gives people a convenient way to learn more about a subject that interests them. Links can be built into text, buttons, or images. Learn more about the guidelines I go by when deciding which type of link to use.
Whether your website is new or has been around a while, decluttering the content to encourage visitors to browse is always a good idea.
Whether you design your website on Squarespace or some other platform, you’ll be making color choices that are unified and compatible across your website, from the text to the buttons to the colors in the images. Designers call these color choices a color palette. Here’s how I simplify color selections for my clients.
Like the receptionist and reception area in an office, the Home page is the greeting area that needs to contain enough cues to reassure visitors that they're in the right place and give them guidance about how to find what they need and what to do now that they're there.
Integrating automatic appointment scheduling with your website frees you from tedious back-and-forth conversations to set up appointments. I’ve tried and tested a number of scheduling programs and have two that I recommend to my website clients.
I recommend starting your business with a Google Workspace Business account so your business email address includes your domain name. But a personal Google account can be useful for many everyday tasks. In this blog post, I cover how the two types of accounts differ.
Squarespace assigns every new website a built-in domain, a Site ID, that ends with “squarespace.com.” I recommend changing the random ID Squarespace assigns to be something you’ll remember.
To stretch and expand the background image to the top of your website, change the site header color style to Adaptive. The site header then becomes transparent so the background image shows behind the navigation text.
The clickable image that shows up on social media posts is called a link preview image. In Squarespace and other website editors, you can designate a specific image to show up when you share a website page on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter/X.
Understanding in advance how your website will support your business will inform your website's design and content.
The aspect ratio of an image is its width relative to its height. Understanding aspect ratio helps you design your pages with images that look attractive and well-matched. Aspect ratio choices can also help with planning and choosing images you’d like to use on your website.
As a Squarespace Circle Member, I bring lots of benefits to my clients’ projects through the supportive professional community I belong to. As my client, you also get direct benefits I pass on to you, like an extended 6-month trial period and 20% off your first annual purchase.
Being able to preview your website live without logging out of Squarespace is a convenience for testing and proofreading before you launch.
You can add a Social Sharing image to Squarespace to be shown as a link preview for your website when you share a URL on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The size of 1200x628 pixels works best for those platforms. You can also set custom images for specific website pages or blog posts to draw extra attention to them.
Squarespace lets you promote your blog post automatically on your connected social media accounts through the Share settings for the post.
Kerry A. Thompson
You don’t need a big agency to get your website done. You just need the one right person. I offer Squarespace website design and content development services for creatives, coaches, and healers. Learn more in a free 30-minute consultation.