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Social Media giants – why they use blue as their primary branding colour
I recently asked my friend, Karen Haller, an Applied Colour Psychology Specialist, why the ‘Big 3′ social networks: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn use blue in their branding. I was intrigued by this. Had branding colour been a consideration way back when the social network giants were a germ of an idea, or was it pot luck? Read Karen’s answer below, and let us know in the comments section if you think it’s a coincidence or not!
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn use blue in their branding
Have you noticed how the big three social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all use blue as their primary branding colour? Is this a mere coincidence or was clever use of colour branding?
Colour Psychology
Blue is the colour of the intellect, the mind, making it the colour of communication and when you think about social media, it’s all about communicating.
Blue also has the perception as being trustworthy, dependable, safe and reliable. These are the perceived positive qualities of a business who chooses blue.
Which blue?
Like any colour, there are so many blues, how do you know if you’re using the right one. Only by carrying out an analysis on each of these brands would we know if they were using the right one that correctly reflected their brands values.
World’s Favourite Colour
Research has also shown blue to be the world’s most popular colour.
Combining with White
White is also use to communicate clarity, simplicity and efficiency. These brands could further strengthen their brand message by using a white that was in the same harmonious colour family as their blue.
I think you’ll agree it’s no mistake that each of these social media giants all chose blue as their primary branding colour.
Do you know what message your business branding colours are saying?
About the author:
Karen Haller is an Applied Colour Psychology Specialist. She helps business owners to communicate their brand’s authentic business personality in colour, further strengthening their marketing message, increasing brand recognition and stand out from your competition.
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15 June 2012 by Mike
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14 December 2012 by Sarah
Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are all blue.
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14 December 2012 by Ping
Yea..blue, white, and black are my favorite color combination. Blue often builds trust, lots of banks use blue on their website.
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25 April 2013 by Harsh Shah
well I was wondering from when that why blue is so preferable by gaint social medias, infact I hav Jst tweeted about my query, and you kno Wat this is this best article I have read , thanks for useful information, appreciable work , now I’m tweeting this article . ;):)
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2 May 2013 by The Commons: Tony Clement defers to the experts - Beyond The Commons, Capital Read - Macleans.ca
[…] might even be psychological grounds for the decision. Indeed, if blue is the colour of intellect and reliability, then perhaps […]
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14 May 2013 by Jakeni Nilono
Hey thanks for the great info! I was very intrigued by this as well…. But could there be something extra to this? May be it’s blue because it’s the colour of the sky that we will never be able to see again once we become addicted to it… Maybe the companies felt sorry for us… D:
That’s just something absurd but you might never know…
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21 May 2013 by The Psychology of Your Favorite Social Media Icons | It's Me Jasmine B!
[…] AliciaCowen.com […]
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22 May 2013 by Social & Digital Marketing Agency
[…] According to psychologists, the colour blue is seen as calming, credible, clean and professional as well as being the colour of the intellect. Blue has also been shown to be the world’s favourite colour. The Logo Company has put together a good breakdown of which colours are best for which companies, which can be seen below: […]
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10 June 2013 by Holly
I reckon it’s due to the lack of the outdoors that people get nowadays due to spending all of their time on these sites. Blue is the color of the sky, and therefore the color of these sites. A different perspective if anything.
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10 July 2013 by Awesome articles on the role of colour in visual branding
[…] Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of research published into the role that colours have on a visual brand of a company. For example, why does every social media site use blue as their colour? […]
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29 July 2013 by Social Media Blues | Michigan Social Marketing
[…] https://aliciacowan.com/social-media-and-digital-marketing/strategy-and-advice/social-media-giant… […]
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10 October 2013 by Colour scheme | Project Me
[…] “the colour of the intellect, the mind, making it the colour of communication… [and also is perceived] as being trustworthy, dependable, safe and reliable” (Cowan, 2013) […]
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23 January 2014 by Social Media Blues | http://blog.michigancreative.org
[…] https://aliciacowan.com/social-media-and-digital-marketing/strategy-and-advice/social-media-giant… […]
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27 January 2014 by Color strategy and possible color schemes | Intern life in Multiway
[…] In this case color Blue works just fine, because according to an Applied Colour Psychology Specialist Karen Haller (https://aliciacowan.com/social-media-and-digital-marketing/strategy-and-advice/social-media-giant…
[…] -
2 February 2014 by Nikhil Phirke
Wow, I’m web designer and always wondered about blue color. Not just social networking websites, many more other sites and blogs use blue color shades. Thanks.
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28 October 2014 by 3 Popular Colors for Websites – When & How to Use Them | Anthony O'Donoghue
[…] Karen Haller, an Applied Colour Psychology Specialist, writes this about the color blue: […]
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5 November 2014 by Why Social Media Giants Use Blue As Their Primary Branding Colour | My Web People
[…] Article Source: aliciacowan.com […]
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27 January 2015 by What REALLY is the internet? | natashazarifesweb
[…] Blue: https://aliciacowan.com/social-media-and-digital-marketing/strategy-and-advice/social-media-giant… […]
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8 May 2015 by M Rieza Rakhman
Wow, I was hardly aware of this fact. Nice article Alicia. I’ll share this
M Rieza Rakhman
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Facebook actually uses blue because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind, and blue is one of the colors he can see the strongest.