Do you need to worry about updating your Facebook icons again?

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The tech industry is abuzz with Facebook’s name change — but fortunately, this doesn’t mean broadcasters have to rush to change out those little social media icons that have become more ubiquitous in on-screen graphics.

While Facebook Inc., the company, is changing its name to Meta, that’s really only a corporate entity. The Facebook name and brand will remain associated with the social media platform and its various related services. 

It’s similar to the 2019 move when the company introduced a new logo for Facebook the company, featuring the name spelled out in all caps and gray type:

 
When this logo was introduced, it was made clear that it shouldn’t generally be used when referring users to a business or organization’s Facebook page or other presence. 

It would be appropriate to use when talking about Facebook Inc. the company, however. Likewise, the new Meta logo shown above would be appropriate to use when reporting on the name change or stories involving the company.

From a storytelling standpoint, you should probably use the “Facebook” letters in gray with the Meta logo when reporting on the news since it’s the corporate entity that’s changing names and logos — and presumably, the circle “f” is here to stay for the social media platform.

While that “f” is likely more familiar to viewers from a visual standpoint, it could be a bit misleading because they might think the service is changing names (plus, given that the corporate logo literally spells out the name, it’s pretty clear what company it’s talking about even if you haven’t seen the logo before).

Back in 2019, the company also said its social media service would get a new logo, using a circle with a redrawn “f.” Prior to this, the company used a square with rounded corners and several variations of an “f” inside as well as the service named spelled out (two distinct versions of that existed).

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All this means that if you’re using the circle logo when pointing visitors to your social profiles, you should be good to go. T

That said, if you still have that square “f” icon in your copyright graphic or elsewhere in your branding elements, you might want to take this opportunity to update it (or if you still have that Twitter “T”). 

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