Social media icons on website

Question

Possibly an already answered question, but I'm having doubts with regards to properly adding social media icons to a website.

I work for a company and at the bottom of our website there are social media icons (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram). When you look at the company's Brand Resource Guidelines, they all have very specific rules about not modifying the logos, but when you look online, everyone uses "different" logos. For example, the Facebook f without the circle or the LinkedIn logo without the rounded square.

What is the exact rule about this? Even websites with articles about this seem to be using the wrong logos.

Could someone clarify?

Answer 1

Social icons mean brand recognition. In this, whether you are with a Facebook circle or without the circle, everyone recognizes it because the brand is an identity in itself. It doesn't matter much. You can use whatever you like from these two.