Those darn social media share icons-where's the best placement?

[reedb]

Agency wants ‘clean’ design for overhaul of B2B site and is suggesting the social media share icons be in the footer. Client wants to push sharing, when appropriate (news, video, articles). What’s the best practice for UX in locating the share icons?

[HAWK]

I am not sure that I am qualified to answer this from a UX perspective, but I can tell you that from a social and sharing perspective, the best placement is at either the TOP of the article, or floating at the side. Ironically, the majority of people tend to share an article before they actually read it, based solely on the title/subject.