social media branding – the colour psychology of blue

Karen Haller 01
Karen Haller

Social Media - face book twitter linkedin icons.

Why do the big three social networking sites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all use blue as their branding colour? Is this a coincidence or clever 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?

If you enjoyed reading this article you may also be interested in other articles relating to colour in business branding.

Share the knowledge

8 Comments

  1. karlita borrego on June 28, 2011 at 5:58 am

    very interesting karen!

    • admin on June 30, 2011 at 3:02 pm

      Thanks Karlita for stopping by and leaving a comment. I love getting comments from new visitors.

  2. Tamsin Fox-Davies on June 28, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    I knew that blue was about trust, but didn’t know about the communication element.

    It’s no surprise that many banks use blue in their branding after reading this.

    • admin on June 28, 2011 at 9:08 pm

      There are many qualities to a colour. For Banks that have blue as their branding colour it shows that trust and communication are two of their values.

  3. Keren Lerner on June 30, 2011 at 8:26 am

    Loving these blogs Karen – so insightful. We are actually about to start designing a website for a company which has blue as core to their branding – no surprises I guess as this is quite common – but seriously their company name has “Blue” in it. So it’s interesting to read what it stands for! I think it matches with their ethos. Will definitely share the URL when it’s launched!

    • admin on June 30, 2011 at 2:38 pm

      Thanks Keren!

      Blue is the world’s favourite colour. But as you know there are hundreds of blues. It’s picking the right one that best presents that brand’s values. And just as important the colour combination of used for the brand. Pick the wrong tones and the negative qualities of those colours will be expressed.

  4. Felicity Lerouge on June 30, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    I knew some of the elements represented by blue but I didn’t consider it in relation to my branding; I’m glad that it is the main colour in my logo – perhaps I chose it unconsciously. What does pink represent?

    • admin on June 30, 2011 at 2:55 pm

      Hi Felicity,

      As I mentioned in replying to Keren’s comment there are many blues. It’s picking the right blue that best presents a given brand’s values. Pick the wrong tones and the negative qualities of the colour will be expressed. For blue it could be cold, lacking emotion.

      In regards to pink, positively it can mean nurturing, caring, femininity, feminine love. Pick the wrong pink or one that is not harmonious with your other branding colours and it will jar and the negative qualities may be displayed such as inhibition, neediness, emasculation, physical weakness, staunch feminist.

Leave a Comment