Iconic Mistake

We've all seen those cute, artistic renderings of the social media icons. They are everywhere - some for free and some you have to pay for, and unfortunately the social media outlets don't like them - according to their brand and marketing guidelines.

After recently working on a site for a client, we worked diligently to find icons, albeit icons that are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn approved, and in that quick bit of research and reading the associated guidelines a bit more in detail, such as the Facebook "f" logo, you discover that they are all pretty strict on how to use their logos on your site. This may seem harmless, but for an organization, eroding their brand and image is not something they condone, nor should they.

So what's the verdict? If you value your company's brand and image, be sure to show the same respect and care when using social media icons on your site as well. Take a few extra minutes and see how they want you to use their icons and make sure the icons are from the source, not from the icon designer looking for a link back to their work.