There is no list of social profiles to fill in. Social icons are a menu: you add Custom Links, and the theme reads each URL and prints the matching icon.
Setting it up
- Appearance → Menus → Create a new menu, name it
Social. - Open Custom Links on the left.
- For each profile: paste the full URL, and put anything you like in Link Text — it becomes the accessible label, so use the network name (
Instagram,Mastodon). - Add, repeat, then tick Social menu under Menu Settings and save.
Order the items by dragging. Depth is ignored — social links are one flat row.
Networks with an icon
The icon is matched from the domain in the URL:
amazon · behance · bluesky · codepen · deviantart · dribbble · etsy · facebook · flickr · foursquare · github · goodreads · google · instagram · last.fm · linkedin · mastodon · medium · meetup · paypal · pinterest · pocket · reddit · skype · snapchat · soundcloud · spotify · substack · telegram · threads · tiktok · tumblr · twitch · twitter · vimeo · vk · weibo · whatsapp · wordpress · x · yelp · youtube
Two special cases:
- Email — use a
mailto:[email protected]link and you get a mail icon. - RSS — a link ending in
/feedgets the feed icon.
A URL that matches nothing renders as a plain text link rather than an icon. Mastodon matches the common instances; a self-hosted instance will not be detected, and a child theme can extend the map with the rural_blog_social_icons_map filter — see Hooks and filters.
Where the icons appear
The same menu is printed in up to three places, each with its own switch:
| Place | Switch |
|---|---|
| Header bar | Header → Display the social links |
| Mobile panel | the same switch |
| Footer | Footer → Display the social links in the footer |
Switching a copy off does not unassign the menu.
Practical notes
Keep it short. Six icons is a row; twelve is a toolbar. Link the accounts you actually post to.
Use full URLs, including https://. A bare instagram.com/you is treated as a relative link by WordPress and will 404.
The icons take the surrounding text colour — the header’s on the bar, the footer’s in the footer — so they follow your skin without any styling of their own.