Social media 'buttons' for forum
 

Maybe I am dense but I can't figure out what the deal is with the little social media buttons you click on that direct you to the forums social media accounts.

Their seems to be no way of obtaining images for these buttons from the social media outlets themselves. I downloaded Vines logo kit but it was pretty much useless as it didn't have a logo that looked like a 'button' with the smooth rounded sides I was looking for.

Anyway just confused as to why these are so hard to find. The Twitter logo my forum came with is out dated and in the form of a 't' and not the bird, while the Instagram camera looks old and slightly different what they have now, and the Facebook logo has also changed since the time the forum styling was made and it should be updated.

To be honest I am lost. Is resorting to copy and paste from 'free' logo designs found online ok or a big no no? What other option do I have?

That's pretty much how it's done. There's plenty of icon archives on the web where designers share their social media icons, and generally the official ones can be found on commons, like Wikipedia. No one's going to quibble over an icon for a public service that doesn't share much distinction from every other logo, in any event.

Thanks for the reply Digital Jedi. I am surprised these big companies don't have a logo page where they provide webmasters/ general public with a set selection of official icons to download as a way to protect their brand identity. Otherwise people will just use unofficial ones created by anyone. Anyway good to know I am not breaking any rules.

For one, it would be impossible to police. But they likely leave that option open, knowing that designers will prefer to maintain control over their own website's design and color palette.