You'll need to include social media icons in your marketing materials to let people know where to follow you. Find out how to do it without getting sued.
No website is complete without social media icons. And nowadays everything from email signatures and business cards to posters and video spots benefit from a little “iconography.”
But before slapping icons on every asset your company owns, there are a few things to consider—including legalese. Despite the ubiquity of icons in all shapes, colors and sizes online, social media icons are registered trademarks. They are protected by copyright and enforceable brand guidelines.
We’ve assembled download links for all the major social network icons, as well as best practice guidelines that will keep your icon use on the level. And we’ll help you steer clear of design blunders with tips on how to tailor icon use for each medium.
Bonus: Read the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Key brand guidelines:
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Download the full suite of icons.
Key brand guidelines:
Add social media icons to your website, business cards, and other digital and physical marketing materials to grow your social media following and connect with customers on different channels.
Not to be confused with share buttons or wordmarks, social media icons are shorthand symbols that link to your company profile on different networks (or, in the case of print materials, simply let people know that your business is on those networks).
Most often, social media icons use the first-letter or symbol logo of the social media company. Think Facebook F, Twitter bird, or Instagram camera.
Some logos are available in “containers.” Containers are shapes enclosing the letter or symbol. Very often the icons are coloured with the company’s official hues, but they are sometimes also available in monochrome.
Thanks to their widespread use by businesses, most customers expect companies to have icon links on their websites and are savvy enough to know where to look for them. Neat and uniform in style, icons are a tidy alternative to annoying “follow me” pop-ups.
Whether online or offline, social media icons can provide a link to your company’s social channels. Here are a few tips and tricks for using them effectively on different mediums.
Often brands will place social media icons in the header and/or footer of their website. But they can also be placed on a floating left or right sidebar for greater prominence.
As a general rule, icons placed above the fold have a better chance of being seen.
Having social media icons in your email signature or newsletters offers additional ways to connect with recipients. If networking is important and your company permits, you can also add a public profile LinkedIn badge.
Follow these steps to add icons to your email signature:
1. In Outlook, from the Home tab, select New Email.
2. On the Message tab, in the Include group, select Signature, then Signatures.
3. From the E-mail Signature tab, in the Edit signature box, select the signature you want to edit.
4. In the Edit signature text box, add a new line beneath the current signature.
5. Choose Picture, then go to the folder where you downloaded icons, and select the icon you’d like to include.
6. Highlight the image and select Insert then Hyperlink.
7. In the Address box, enter the web address for your corresponding company profile.
8. Select OK to finish modifying the new signature.
9. On the Message tab, in the Include group, choose Signature, and then choose your newly modified signature.
1. Open Gmail.
2. Click the settings glyph in the top right corner.
3. In the Signatures section click the Insert Image symbol to add your downloaded icon.
4. Highlight the image and click the Link symbol.
5. Add the web address for your company profile.
6. Scroll to the bottom and select Save Changes.
Most publishers place social media icons in the newsletter footer, because often the goal of newsletters is to promote website products, services, or content. .
Gmail can sometimes clip long messages, so if gaining social followers is one of your newsletter goals, put the icons in the header or above the fold and consider using a call-to-action. Alternately, if the goal of your newsletter is to promote content, you may want to consider including share icons, and placing follow icons in the footer.
Social media icons are space savers in print collateral such as brochures, print ads, or business cards. But don’t forget that you can’t hyperlink on paper.
A good workaround for offline icons is to use just the domain name and the direct link to your company’s page. Or, skip the domain name altogether.
Option 1: (F) facebook.com/Hootsuite
(T) twitter.com/Hootsuite
Option 2: (F) Hootsuite
(T) @Hootsuite
Option 3: (F) (T) @Hootsuite
On business cards, if you don’t plan to include a URL or handle , then you may not want to include the icon—especially if the handle is not obvious. But if your company has a high profile and is easy to find on social media, standalone iconscan be an elegant way to signal your brand’s presence on social media in print ads and brochures.
Like print, if you’re using video on a medium that doesn’t allow viewers to click on an icon, then you should include the URL. On YouTube, you can include clickable icons using the annotations feature. Most often “follow” call-to-actions come at the end of a brand video. Make sure to allot enough time for viewers to read the URL.
Many social media brands require permission requests and sometimes mock-ups before allowing companies to use their icons.
Thanks to widespread use of reshaped and revised icons and third-party sites like Iconmonstr or Iconfinder, many brands and social media managers don’t realize that use of altered icons is strictly forbidden.
Here are some common guidelines you should be familiar with before adding social media icons to your marketing materials.
When in search of social media icons, try getting them from the social network websites first. We’ve also assembled the download links for the most popular social media icons below.
All social media logos and icons are trademarked. That means rotating, outlining, recolouring, animating, or edits of any kind are not permitted.
Display all social media icons at equal size, height, and resolution if possible. Don’t display social media icons larger than your own logo or wordmark. And don’t display any of the network icons larger than another network icon (e.g., making the Facebook icon larger than the Instagram icon).
Make sure icons are spaced in a way that meets the “clear space” requirements of each social media company.
Very often icons are used as call-to-actions, and if you use too many, you risk overwhelming visitors with decision fatigue. Not to mention the clutter that too many icons create on business cards or assets with limited space. Determine the top three to five channels that are most important for your brand and audience. A full list can be included in the contact section of a website or in the website footer.
If LinkedIn is a more strategic network for your brand than Instagram, for example, make sure LinkedIn appears first in your icon list.
Social media companies require that brands using their icons ensure they keep them up to date. But also, using old logos will stick out and could signal that your company is “behind the times.”
Most social media companies explicitly state that you should never use the wordmark in place of the icon. Wordmarks are typically for corporate use only, and represent the company, as opposed to your company’s presence on the network.
Featuring icons too prominently could wrongly imply sponsorship, partnership, or endorsement, and potentially land your company in legal trouble. Plus, your brand should be the focus of your marketing materials anyway.
This may seem obvious, but don’t link to a product page, personal profile, or the generic homepage of the site. It’s commonly understood, expected, and in some cases required, that these icons link to your company profile page on the specified network.
As a general rule, if you plan to use the icons in a way not specified in the brand guidelines, it’s best to double check. Some brands may forbid use of icons on manufactured products, such as T-shirts or other memorabilia. In other cases, you may be required to send a mock-up of intended use.
Now that you know how to legally advertise your brand’s presence on all the major social networks, easily manage all your social channels from one dashboard using Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts, reply to followers, track your performance, and more. Try it free today.
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