While I’ve routinely bashed social media for being a poor conversion tactic for subscription sites, there are reasons to still engage on social media. One reason is that it can help drive new traffic to your site. It’s also a great referral tool.That’s why this test from The Huffington Post is so interesting. Data editor Andrei Scheinkman and programmer/journalist Aaron Bycoffe recently tested which version of Twitter and Facebook share buttons work best: big, brand-colored ones (left) or grey icons (right).

They were surprised to find that four times as many site visitors interacted with the big blue buttons versus the quieter gray ones.Unfortunately, the KnightLab blog from Northwestern University failed to give adequate statistics to determine the validity of this test. Nevertheless, the test points to the ability and necessity of testing various page and UX elements.It’s also a good reason to review the top three mistakes in A/B testing.