Branding usage differences by social media companies

[porina]

This isn't something I thought much about until today, when I decided to make an endscreen for use on YouTube and Twitch so that viewers have an at a glance view of my social media presence, which may help against imposters should I ever get big enough for that to be a problem. It should be simple enough, find the logo icons and put my identity next to the logo. It was easy enough to find each companies official page, but what was there differed...

 

Twitter and Facebook were relatively straightforward. They offer usage guidelines on the same page as the download. Twitch was more relaxed and had a horrible layout webpage before reaching the download. YouTube was another level. While you can directly download the logo assets, they also require you to get approval before use. I wonder how many actually bother to go through that? I've filled in the form so will await my approval (or lack thereof). It even requires an example so I had to create what I want before I can even use it. It looks set up for more formal usage by bigger entities, for example it requires a business name, which I don't have (yet). So I do wonder if most people don't bother to get permission, or does Google have to process a ton of requests from small users.

[wall03]

I've found that Firefox has a relatively straightforward brand usage page, even though it's very long.

https://mozilla.design/firefox/

there's a page on just about everything you need to know.

That's just an example, as Firefox isn't a social media companie

[startrek03]

I guess most people don't care at all. Probably because the companies aren't after people who are basically promoting the use of their platform. It probably won't hurt to look it up to be sure, though.

[Eigenvektor]

Have you seen this page? https://www.youtube.com/about/brand-resources/#logos-icons-colors

 

At the very bottom there's this little paragraph:

Quote

Using the Icon in social media

The YouTube Icon can only be used in social media assets when it links to a YouTube channel.

Important: The only time a Logo or Icon can be made a link is when the destination URL is a YouTube channel.

 

[porina]

21 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Have you seen this page?

That is the page I found, and at the top it says all usage requires their permission.

[Eigenvektor]

6 minutes ago, porina said:

That is the page I found, and at the top it says all usage requires their permission.

Ah, yeah, I must've missed that. No idea how formal their process is. Maybe it's enough to send them a screenshot of your layout. On the other hand, they probably don't really care as long as your channel is small, but who knows.

 

I've clicked the link for the request page and e.g. on "What best describes your company" you can select "Individual". I guess you could just use the name of your channel as the company name.

[porina]

40 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Maybe it's enough to send them a screenshot of your layout. On the other hand, they probably don't really care as long as your channel is small, but who knows.

That's what I've done as part of the submission process. I would have thought they might have some general allowed cases so they don't have to review everything, but if they say all uses need to be approved, I'll do as requested.

 

40 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I've clicked the link for the request page and e.g. on "What best describes your company" you can select "Individual". I guess you could just use the name of your channel as the company name.

I already picked Youtube creator which is another option. I didn't see individual the 1st time, maybe that would have been better, but probably wont make much difference either way.

[porina]

As a follow up on the YouTube permission side, I got an e-mail yesterday saying my usage was approved. So roughly one working day for a response. Not bad.