Social Media icons are a web designer’s favorite. First, everybody uses a social media site or two; hence, a social media icon will undoubtedly be present on his website; and second, social media icons are one of the many little details on a website that could give it a more original and distinguished look. Social Media icons are also pretty easy to install and customize. You can either create your own, ask someone else to make a unique group for your website or download a free set off of various web designers; and voila! Your website can get the make-over it deserves—starting off with these little guys.

A lot of bloggers have also said that social media icons help in attracting followers and friends—the cuter, the better. Twitter’s twittering blue bird itself has been rendered into different forms, colors and shapes. The blue FaceBook logo has been parodied, re-drawn, and re-rendered into attractive icons that invite visitors into clicking on them. Just think of it as how the internet applies make-up.

If you are still sporting the old, static, and common social media icon on your website or if you have none on your website at all, you are definitely at loss! Give your website the make-over it deserves by starting off with the social media icons. Below are 5 of the best sources for social media icons which you can use for free on your website:

Heart: Free Social Icon Set

Social Media Icon Set

If you love your social media sites and you know it, show it off by downloading these heart shaped icons. These 22-icon set includes .PNG, transparent background icons for Twitter, your RSS feed, FaceBook, Flickr, Furl, and dZone, among others. The icons come in 64×64, 32×32, and 16×16 sizes.

SiahDesign’s Animated Twitter GIFs

Social Media Icon Set

Siah Design’s main designer and webmaster, Josiah Jost, has come up with a unique and dynamic set of Twitter icons for your website. There are 21 icons all in all, 3 pairs of which are animated.

The Cutest Freebies: Twitter Bird Icons and Illustration

Social Media Icon Set

If the original Twitter bird started smiling, he would look like Darkmotion’s Twitter bird. This set offers three Twitter icons, all with transparent backgrounds, and in the following sizes: 345×345, 48×48, framed and unframed.

Origami Social Media and Desktop Icons

Social Media Icon Set

Give your website an oriental twist with these origami-inspired social media and desktop icons. There are 15 icons in this set all in all; some of which are for social media sites such as StumbleUpon, your RSS feed, Twitter, and Flickr, while the rest are desktop renders for Mozilla, Skype, Opera and others.

Chrome: Free Social Media Icons

Social Media Icon Set

Sleek and simple, Chris Wallace’s set icons resemble buttons that look good on formal and informal websites. There are 20 social media icons all in all, and they come in 70×70 and 39×40 sizes.

These are five places where you can get FREE and PROFESSIONALLY MADE icons. Download your set now while you have the chance!

A percentage of the people you meet online and offline might not have Twitter accounts, but just because they’re not on Twitter doesn’t mean they haven’t heard of these eight micro-blogging websites that look and “feel” like Twitter. It’s like this: your friend might not have a Twitter account, but he could be an active Plurker.

It’s a no-brainer that a lot of people are hooked on Twitter, but these eight websites are getting the spotlight due to their amazing features. It won’t be long before people hear about these websites too. Remember when Myspace was the in-thing until people found out about Facebook? Hey, it could happen again.

Facebook — Who hasn’t heard of Facebook? About 300 million people around the globe have Facebook accounts and 120 million people from that group are active users; hence, it’s easy to be seen and heard on this site. The social networking site boasts a Twitter-like micro-blogging tool that allows more than 140 characters, commonly referred to as Status Updates. Like Twitter, you can post a phrase or quote, a photo, a link, or a video, which your friends will be able to see, and just like the famed micro-blogging site, you can update your page through your mobile phone.

Unlike Twitter; however, micro-blogging or posting daily messages isn’t the only way to get friends. You can build Facebook pages, make a group about a certain cause, or if you are into more technical activities, you can build an application. The chances of going viral are easier compared to Twitter.

Tumblr — Tumblr looks pretty much like Twitter due to the speech bubble interface, but it gives you freedom to post not just links, videos, and photos, you can attach audio files as well, making Tumblr an optional location to post your podcasts. On Tumblr, you can “Like” a certain post made by your friend—this function makes it easier for you to track what kind of information is favored by your followers. Another helpful function is the “Re-blog” option which makes it easier for users to repost their blog for the day onto another tumble-log.

Plurk – If you’re into an organized form of micro-blogging, Plurk is one of the most famous social media websites that makes use of a timeline interface. Plurk can be connected with other social networking sites such as Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Friendster and Multiply, and will automatically update these websites whenever you post something new on your Plurk. Plurk, like Twitter, allows 140 characters for each post. If you would like to post a video or a photo, simply type in the link of the photo and Plurk will automatically change them into thumbnails. The use of Karma points is a unique feature found on Plurk—whenever you update your profile, add and invite friends, and simply, interact with other Plurkers, you gain more Karma points. These Karma points can be used for using emoticons within Plurk—another feature not found on Twitter.

Jaiku — If you’re into microblogging but don’t want the world to see what you’ve been up to lately, Jaiku gives you the option to either set your profile to private or to let other people see your stream. On Jaiku, you can also set an icon accompanying your post—if you can’t say it, show it. Jaiku’s features are somewhat similar to Twitter, so it might seem it isn’t much of a threat to the other website; however, Jaiku has been attracting millions of people who just can’t stand the little blue bird.

Glue — Glued to a certain TV show, movie, or song, music album, band or basically just anything worth getting glued to? Glue is a place where you can tell people whether you “Like” or “Dislike” a certain movie, song, album, or anything that has been getting a lot of press coverage. Glue helps in keeping you track of what’s hip and what’s hot on the internet.

GupShup — Love “tweeting” through your mobile phone? A new SMS-based social networking service is giving you the chance to shout out whatever you have in your head straight to all your friends’ mobile phones for FREE—but, you will have to be in India to utilize this function. Gupshup is a famous micro-blogging, social networking site in India that lets users share their thoughts using their cell-phones without any cost. Users may also opt to send their quotes to the website, but the SMS method is highly preferred by users.

Hictu — Anything to declare?—that’s the tagline of this invitation-only website. Although the Hictuans might not outnumber the Twitter legion due to this restricted feature, Hictu is actually getting a lot of members thanks to user-sent invites and its tempting features. Hictu is a microblogging service that not only lets you post quotes and statements, you can also stream audio, videos, and photos on your very own micro-blog.

Ping.fm — If you spend majority of your time blogging, surfing the internet, and trying out apps on your favorite social networking sites, you are officially a social network addict—and as a social network addict, Ping.fm is one of the best social networking tools for you. Ping.fm lets you link to the most famous social networks on the internet and whenever you are in the mood for a little updating, simply update your Ping account and the magical elves behind Ping.fm updates your social networks automatically. How convenient is that?

Next time you hear the phrase, “No, I don’t Tweet,” why don’t you try asking if they have accounts in these 8 powerful micro-blogging websites that might, emphasis on the MIGHT, overshadow Twitter because of their versatility and wide range of features that Twitter does not have.