What would be faster, plugin, html or shortcode?

[WPMonkey]

I'm curious if anyone has experience with refining their site to make it as fast for page loading as possible and which approaches work better than others.

For example, lets take adding social media buttons to a footer. What would be fastest? What would be the biggest drag?

1. Plugin - there are some plugins, including for Genesis, that allow the user to enter a social media URL and then the icon and link are generate in a widget. I'm wondering if this would be a big load in case the CSS and files for all icons sets are loaded instead of just those being used, plus any additional plugin code being run.
2. HTML in a widget - With something this simple I thought that the code could be created and added to a text widget, with the images being stored in the theme folders. This can be a little risky because I've seen HTML code in a widget get blown out and clients can accidently edit the wrong piece.
3. HTML in the theme - I try to avoid hardcoding elements that the client might want to update, but this seems very efficient, unless it's in a widgetized area by default, in which case would you un-widgetize it?
4. Shortcode - with hardcoded elements that would need to be used in a couple of different places, I thought creating a shotcode could be a good option. But does anyone know if shortcodes tend to drag on a site? Do all of the elements within the shortcode file get loaded even if that shortcode is not called on that page? I'm trying to do away with unneeded CSS or scripts whenever necessary, but I don't know if shortcodes will only call the piece being called. Anyone know?

Thanks, any information or advice is greatly appreciated.

[Susan]

In most cases, it's just easier for me to use a plugin. I try not to bog down the site with too many plugins...

[Jami Howard Mays]

Good questions. I'm not sure what is technically the quickest, as I've never tested and measured. But I've always been pretty happy, for social media icons, with the Simple Social Icons, http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-social-icons/.

Have you tested the different methods?

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Jami Howard Mays, HBIC, Imaj Works | Athens, Georgia

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