These days you just can’t build a website without including social media icons, and those same icons are appearing on pretty much every form of communication in business as well. Emails, posters, business cards – just about every place that could possibly carry some of the social media icons does in fact have several of them included in its message. However, you shouldn’t just go ahead and paste these icons on anything and everything that has to do with your business, because there are a few legal considerations which need to be observed.
After all, the social media icons are registered trademarks for the companies they represent, and as such are entitled to full copyright protection under the law. The guidelines listed below will help steer you clear of any legal complications, and will also provide some useful information on how icons might be tailored for use on whatever medium you happen to be working with.
The ‘P’ in Pinterest should always be displayed in red, whether in print, images, or video, and should not be altered in manner whatsoever. In order to make use of the company logo in television or film, a written request must be submitted to the company. After showing the Pinterest icon, a call-to-action should be displayed, ensuring that the call-to-action text is proportionately sized to the Pinterest icon, and the only acceptable call-to-action phrases must include one of the following: ‘Find more ideas on Pinterest’, ‘Get inspired on Pinterest’, ‘Follow us on Pinterest’, ‘Visit us on Pinterest’, or ‘Popular on Pinterest’. It is strongly discouraged to use phrases such as ‘Trending on Pinterest’, or ‘Trending Pins’. When using the Pinterest icon, you should always hyperlink your Pinterest URL or display it.
The Twitter icon should only be displayed in blue or white, unless there are coloring constraints with your application, and in that case the Twitter icon may be displayed in black. Twitter strongly prefers that its logo be displayed without a framing container, but for usage by its followers, the company does provide rounded and squared containers to frame the logo. Whenever using the Twitter logo superimposed over another image, the white version of the icon must be used, and the icon width should always be a minimum of 32 pixels. The clear space around the icon should be approximately 150% of the icon’s width, and the icon itself must never be animated, or depicted with thought bubbles, or any other objects.
The only allowable depictions of Instagram are those which are found in the Assets section of Instagram’s Brand Resources, and most of these are available in both color and black and white versions. There are no containers available for framing the Instagram icons, because no containers are allowed when displaying the Instagram icon. The Instagram logo must not be displayed alongside your personal company logo or image, or your company trademark. Whenever you intend to use the Instagram logo for any kind of broadcast, for print larger than 8.5 x 11, or for radio, permission must be requested of Instagram, and a mock-up of your intended usage must be submitted along with your request. Lastly, Instagram content must not compose more than 50% of the total design of your intended usage of the logo.
The Facebook logo can only be used in its original blue, or in reverse white and blue, although black and white are acceptable if you have coloring constraints in your application. Facebook makes available blue, white, black, and white versions of its logo for download. The Facebook logo should always be used inside a container which is a rounded square in shape, and the icon itself must be reproduced in a size that is clearly legible as the Facebook logo. The logo must not be animated, or be represented with word bubbles appearing alongside or over it. Facebook makes available for download various versions of its logo for television, film, and imaging.
LinkedIn likes its black and white logo to be depicted on a white background, and the icon should always be shown in color for online applications. When this simply is not possible, the reverse white and blue or black and white versions of the icon may be used. On dark-colored photos or images, the lighter icon should be used, and on lighter-colored images, the darker icon should be used. The LinkedIn icon should never be framed by any geometric shape other than a rounded square. LinkedIn icons should be displayed online at either 24 pixels or 36 pixels, and the absolute minimum size would be 21 pixels. The bounds of the icon should be about 50% of the container size, and the minimum clear space requirement specifies that the two I’s in LinkedIn should be padded. If the LinkedIn icon is to be used in television, film, or other video productions, permission must be requested of and granted by LinkedIn. Whenever any kind of call-to-action is used with the LinkedIn logo, the call-to-action should be displayed in a black font.
YouTube
The YouTube logo is made available for download in red, white, and near-black, and if the red logo will not work with your application, you should simply use the monochrome version. The near-black version of the logo should be used for images which are either very light or which are multi-colored, whereas the white icon should be used on darker images, perhaps with multi-coloring. When displayed online, YouTube icons should be a minimum height of 24 dp, and .125 inches when appearing in print. The minimum clear space requirement of the YouTube icon is approximately half the width of the icon itself. The YouTube icon can only be used in those situations where it actually links to a YouTube channel, and not to any other site.
Snapchat
The Snapchat icon may only be used in black, yellow, and white, and the logo must not be surrounded by any other characters or objects. The ghost icon must be represented at a minimum of 18 pixels online, and .25 inches if shown in print. The Snapchat icon is made available without containers for the white and black versions of the icon, and the yellow version has a rounded square container. The minimum clear space requirement must be at least 150% of the size of the logo, or stated another way, the padding should be about the same size as half the ghost logo.
