In a couple of days Sindi Lindberg of SindiwithanS and I are going to be doing a Social Media Marketing Workshop 101 at the Seattle Bartending College so we have been on the phone a lot planning and getting ready for the workshop. The other day Sindi asked why I didn’t have a custom favicon for my website. A favicon, according to Wikipedia the final authority on all things I need to look up very fast, says it is short for “favorites icon” and is a 16x16 pixel icon that shows up in the tab and address bar of your web browsers. According to Wikipedia, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5, released in 1999, was the first browser to support favicons.

Of course I was aware of favicons but that was one of those little details that I was just too busy to figure out on my own but Sindi told me how simple it was and how it added that little extra to my website that suggested that I knew what I was doing. I figure if I can make folks think I know what I’m doing that is a good thing. So here is what you do.

1. Go to favicon.cc, a free favicon creator where you can make a favicon
2. Upload your logo or select an icon from their extensive free library of favicons
3. Use the editor to tweak the icon if you need to. Look, there are only 256 pixels, how long can it take?
4. Download the finished favicon to your computer. It should have an .ico extension.
5. Name the file favicon.ico and put it in the root directory of your website.
6. Open your web page and enjoy your new favicon

Now I was having a few problems because my logo is a bunch of circle and how much detail can you get out of a 16x16 pixel image? Sindi suggested that I take my logo, stick it in Photoshop, reduce it to 64 x 64 pixels and up load that file. She also suggested keeping the white background rather than using a transparent background to help maintain a little more of the details. It worked great. Look up at the browser tab and see for yourself.

After our workshop on Sunday I’m taking Sindi out for a glass of wine, or maybe a beer. Have you made your own favicon for your website? How did it turn out? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below. If you would like to know how Image Media Partners can help you with online marketing, or your favicon, sign up for a free analysis of your online marketing plan.