A massive collection of social media icons ?

Using different social media icons is a desire people often nurture. Many people even want to make their icons. But there are rules for making such icons and hence, no one can just make them in any way that pleases them. Thus, borrowing icons from other standard sites is an option one can try. These icons are made with the rules intact. Thus, by using these collection of social media icons you will not land up in any trouble.

All these social media icons are copyright protected and registered trademarks of these companies. If you make them in a way that does not match their standard design, you will have to face unwanted issues. Some good sites host a large number of free SVG icons for social media. Instagram alone has so many different free SVG icons and one can readily download them for use.

Whoever makes them has to know the exact way in which these icons need to be created. Several rules fall in place whenever one tries to recreate them.

Social media is the current hub of logos and icons. Take any of them- WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or YouTube, we all know them by their icons. The moment we see such icons, we know which app is in front of us. Social media icons are quicker reference symbols for different companies. Using any free SVG icon for social media is an accepted norm and is allowed as per policies in place by these social media companies.

Ground rules for Instagram social media icons

Each of these social media icons is powerful enough to connect you to a group of people within a social networking company. Adding social media icons is a norm today for websites, blogs, CVs, and other networks.

Most of these social media icons use their first letter in the symbol logo. Some of these icons are also locked in a container or shape. They are a neat alternative to the annoying follow me pop ups. Due to this reason, they are increasingly popular today. 

Now that you know you cannot just create icons of these social media sites on your own due to the ground rules in place. But you might be wondering what rules hold them in place. Discussing every rule is not within the scope of the article but we will discuss a few here to make you aware.

Rules for recreating Instagram icons

For example, while creating the Instagram social media icon, you must stick to these rules.

• Icons, both in color and black & white present in the brand resource site must be used for Instagram.
• No Instagram icon can be within a circular, square, or rounded square container.
• One cannot use the icons with their company’s logo, trademark, and in other language or symbol.
• If you are using them for broadcast radio, advertisements for home and print, you need to take permission.
• Your design should not have more than half of Instagram’s content.

In this way, every other social media platform has its rules for procreating its icons. You need to check them thoroughly and abide by them whenever you create these social media icons. As it is not an easy process, thus, taking icons from sites that have free SVG icon collection is appropriate.

Use sites like Iamvector.com, Iamvector.com, flaticon.com, icons8.com, and all these sites promote a free SVG icons download facility.

Next, we will touch base on where and how one can use these icons. There is a set of rules for using them in different places as well.

Incorporate social media icons for marketing

Social media icons can link your company or your social media channel to the entire world. Using the icons means knowing a few facts in the right way. Here are a few must-known facts about social media icons.

·         When using for websites

Always place your social media icons on any of the four sites.

• Header (normal)
• Footer (normally used by all)
• On the left or right side-bar (to make it more prominent)

If you place the social media icons on these locations, people have a greater chance to see them.

·         Using for emails and newsletters

If you wish to connect to your clients or anyone around you through emails, do not forget to embed the social media icons in them. You can add icons to your email signature. Do you know how you can add them to email signatures?

We will tell you how?

·         Adding social icons to Outlook mails

• Visit the Home tab and choose the new email option from your Outlook.
• Choose the signature tab from the message option under the Include group segment.
• Select the Signatures option and from the email signature option, click on the edit signature box.
• Now click to include a new line underneath your signature.
• Choose the picture option and visit the folder where you have downloaded the icon image.
• Once you add the image, right-click on it and insert the hyperlink in the web address box.
• Choose OK to complete making changes to the new signature.
• From the Message option, go to the Include group, and select the signature option.
• Select the signature you have newly created with the social media icon in it.

·         Adding the icons to Gmail

To add your social media icons to your Gmail signatures, you need to complete these few steps.

• Press the glyph settings from the right corner in Gmail.
• When you reach the Signature segment, you need to press on the Insert symbol image. Add your icon that you have downloaded in this portion.
• Right-click on your icon and press the link or hyperlink option from the list.
• Once the screen opens up, you must add the link in the given space and then press the add link option.
• After completing the entire process, you must press the Save Change option.

·         Adding them in newsletters

Online newsletters are also places where one can add their company’s or brand’s social media links. Mostly the icons are placed in the footer for newsletters. If getting more followers is one of the end goals of your newsletter, then you can place the icons in the header instead, or just above the fold. If you want followers, do not miss adding a call-to-action tab.

But if your newsletter mainly targets content, you can share your social media icons in the footer segment.

·         Including them in printed pages

Include the icons in the printed pages like newsletters, print ads, and even in brochures and business cards.

The best way to add these icons is by adding the domain name and the company’s or brand’s link.

You can also avoid using the domain name and instead, simply add the brand’s link or social media ID or handle.

·         For YouTube

One can add a link for YouTube by including links that are clickable by nature. In this way, clicking on links can be done easily by the viewers.

In this article, we have shown you the best ways to add a social media icon in places of your choice.

Next, we will talk about the practices you need to adopt when using social media icons.

1. Download all social media icons straight from the source.
2. Do not alter them in any way
3. Size all your icons even the free SVG icons uniformly
4. Make their spacing even
5. Do not choose a lot of icons, instead, use 3-5 of them
6. Arrange the icons priority-wise.
7. Download and display the latest version of the icons
8. Do not make the icons too prominent.
9. If you want to use the icons not mentioned in their guidelines, ask for their permission.

Website collection of icons

If you look at the bulk collection of social media icons on Iamvector.com, you will be amazed. We are sure you will find one icon that meets your choice and taste in these collections.

There are 38 YouTube free SVG icons alone on the Iamvector.com site. Similarly, there are 28 icons for Instagram, 51 icons for Facebook, and almost 31 icons for Twitter. The site has a massive collection of social media icons that appear in different colors and formats.

• If you need to download them, you must move the cursor over the icon.
• The download and copy option will appear on the left side of the icon.
• Choose your action from the two available options.
• When you click on the download option, you can download the icon directly as a free SVG icon.
• All free SVG icons available can be downloaded with little effort.

You can use these free SVG icons in your mail, YouTube videos, and also in any of the other sites.

Similarly, you can try any of the other sites like flaticon.com and icons8.com for downloading icons or even copying them.

If you are in search of some stylish social media icon collections, you can try these sites for a start.

Final words:

Through this blog, we tried telling you about how and where social media icons can be used best and their best practices. If you plan to use free SVG icons for social media it is safe to use the ones present here. Now that you know about how, and where best to use them, try some of them. Using them is great fun and can also serve to stand out for your brand.