Social Links
Show your readers where to follow you. The Enova theme supports the two social links Ghost provides natively, plus any others you want to add through Code Injection.
The Enova theme renders your social links in two places: the site footer and the About widget in the right sidebar (homepage only). Ghost natively supports two social platforms — Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). For everything else (Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Substack, Patreon, and more), Enova provides a simple way to add them through Ghost's Code Injection feature.
Where these links appear
Custom social links appear in both the footer and the About widget by default — exactly where the standard Facebook and X icons appear. You don't need to set them up twice.
Footer
About widget (sidebar)
Standard Ghost social links
Ghost lets you set a Facebook page URL and an X profile URL directly in your site settings. These are the easiest to configure.
Log in to Ghost Admin
Log in to Ghost Admin.
Open Social accounts
Go to Settings → General → Social accounts.
Edit and paste Facebook URL
Click Edit and paste your Facebook page URL into the URL of your publication's Facebook Page field.
Save
Click Save — the icon will appear in your footer and About widget straight away.
X (formerly Twitter)
Log in to Ghost Admin
Log in to Ghost Admin.
Open Social accounts
Go to Settings → General → Social accounts.
Edit and paste X URL
Click Edit and paste your X profile URL into the URL of your X profile field.
Save
Click Save — the icon will appear right next to Facebook.
Custom social links
Ghost only exposes Facebook and X out of the box. Enova adds support for the platforms most content creators care about — Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Substack, Patreon, and more — through a small snippet you paste once into Ghost's Code Injection field.
Code Injection is required
Custom social links are added through Ghost's built-in Code Injection feature. You don't need to edit theme files or know how to code — just paste the snippet and replace the URLs with your own.
Step 1 — Open Code Injection
Log in to Ghost Admin
Log in to Ghost Admin.
Go to Code injection
Go to Settings → Code injection.
Select Site Header
You'll see two boxes: Site Header and Site Footer. We'll be using the Site Header box.
Code Injection field
Step 2 — Paste your social links
Copy the block below into the Site Header box. Each line is one social link — change the platform name and the URL on each line, delete the lines you don't need, and save.
<meta name="enova-social-instagram" content="https://instagram.com/your-handle">
<meta name="enova-social-youtube" content="https://youtube.com/@your-channel">
<meta name="enova-social-linkedin" content="https://linkedin.com/in/your-profile">
<meta name="enova-social-substack" content="https://your-name.substack.com">That's it. Click Save and reload your site — the new icons will appear right next to your Facebook and X icons.
One link per line
If a line has a typo or a wrong URL, it only affects that line. Your other links will still appear correctly. To remove a link later, just delete the line.
Supported platforms
Use one of these slugs in name="enova-social-<slug>":
facebook | twitter (or x) | instagram |
youtube | linkedin | tiktok |
threads | bluesky | mastodon |
pinterest | reddit | github |
discord | telegram | whatsapp |
substack | patreon | medium |
rss | email (or mail) |
For email links, use a mailto: URL — for example content="mailto:[email protected]".
Advanced: per-link options & custom platforms
The simple meta-tag form above is enough for almost everyone. If you need any of the following, switch to the <a> block form:
- The platform isn't in the list above (e.g. Goodreads, Spotify, Twitch)
- You want a link to appear in only the footer or only the sidebar
- You want a different visible label (e.g. "Watch on YouTube" instead of "YouTube")
Paste this block into the Site Header box (you can use it together with the meta-tag form):
<div data-enova-social-links hidden>
<!-- A platform that's not in the supported list — paste an SVG icon -->
<a data-name="My Forum" href="https://forum.example.com"
data-svg='<svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5">...</svg>'></a>
<!-- Show a link only in the footer (or only in the sidebar) -->
<a data-platform="discord" href="https://discord.gg/your-server" data-placements="footer"></a>
<!-- Use a custom visible label -->
<a data-platform="youtube" data-name="Watch on YouTube" href="https://youtube.com/@your-channel"></a>
</div>Attribute reference
| Attribute | Required | What it does |
|---|---|---|
href | Yes | The URL the icon links to. |
data-platform | No | One of the supported platform slugs (see the table above). If you leave this out, Enova will try to detect the platform from the URL. |
data-name | No | The visible label (used by screen readers and as the tooltip). Defaults to the platform's name, e.g. "YouTube". |
data-placements | No | Where the link appears. Use footer, sidebar, or footer, sidebar. Defaults to both. |
data-svg | No | A custom SVG icon. Use this for platforms that aren't in the supported list. |
Where to find SVG icons
Need an SVG icon for a platform we don't support yet? These libraries all let you copy an SVG with one click. The first two cover most brand-mark needs and match the Enova style best:
- Font Awesome Brands — official brand marks; this is the icon set Enova uses internally, so anything you pick here will look right at home.
- Simple Icons — alternative library covering thousands of services with consistent single-color brand marks.
- Lucide, Tabler Icons, Phosphor Icons — line-style icon sets, useful when no brand mark exists.
Open the icon in your library of choice, click "Copy SVG", and paste it into data-svg='...' (note the single quotes around the SVG — keep those exact).
Troubleshooting
A link isn't showing up
Check the URL — it must start with https:// (or http://). If the URL is misspelled or missing the protocol, Enova will skip just that link and leave the others alone. Open your browser's developer console (right-click → Inspect → Console) and look for warnings starting with [enova social links].
My link only shows in the footer, not the sidebar
The About widget in the sidebar only appears on your homepage. It also requires you to have a published page with the slug about and a non-empty Excerpt field — see the Right Sidebar guide for the full setup.
If the About widget is hidden by the #hide-from-sidebar internal tag on your About page, custom links won't appear in the sidebar either.
The whole snippet looks broken after pasting
Some text editors and word processors automatically replace plain quotes (") with "smart quotes" (" and "). HTML doesn't understand smart quotes. If you copied the snippet from a Word doc or chat message, paste it into a plain-text editor first (Notes app, Notepad, or Ghost's Code Injection field directly) so the quotes stay straight.
I want to remove or temporarily hide a link
To remove a link permanently, delete its line. To hide a link temporarily, wrap the line in an HTML comment:
<!-- <meta name="enova-social-instagram" content="https://instagram.com/your-handle"> -->The link will be ignored until you remove the <!-- and --> markers.
Table of Contents
Help readers navigate your long-form content with Enova's adaptive Table of Contents — visible inline at the top of every article, and seamlessly integrated into the sidebar on desktop.
Page Templates
Choose from multiple layout options to customize the reading experience for your posts and pages.