Should a Twitter logo be accompanied by anything else, or is it obvious enough?

Question

Intent
Notify users about the way to interact with us about our product. But only those that would actually care.

Background
We have a Twitter page for one of our products. But the person handling social media for the product is not very active on Twitter. We just want to let people know that we are available if they want to reach us that way.

There seems to be no reason for anyone to be interacting with us on Twitter (we manufacture dental materials). So my intent as the designer is to not draw too much attention to our Twitter. We prefer them to be on our main site.

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So is my current footer ok with just the logo fine?

[And I am very aware of the alignement of the bird. Please lets focus on the UX]

So for a user who wants to contact us via twitter, their experience should basically be "I want to contact them. I see the Twitter logo. I click on the button. I am now on Twitter and can tweet at them."

So should I really include anything else? if so, why?

Answer 1

Notify users about the way to interact with us about our product. But only those that would actually care.

If you are looking to focus a "Twitter user's" attention to a company, or product, web page then the "Twitter bird" alone should be sufficient. I believe that someone would be hard pressed to argue that the Twitter bird is not synonymous with the brand and would not be immediately recognizable by a large majority of Internet users.

The icon is Twitter's official branding logo after all: https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets

Also note that the above website gives guidance on how to present the bird. Placing the word "Twitter" next to it, for example, is not encouraged.

So my intent as the designer is to not draw too much attention to our Twitter. We prefer them to be on our main site.

If someone doesn't know what Twitter is, or doesn't use it enough to know what that bird will take them to, they are not your audience. The logo is unobtrusive and doesn't harm a user's experience by its presence. If they do end up clicking on it the worst thing that will happen is they sign up for Twitter.

For someone familiar with Twitter, it would be a recognizable shortcut to reach the companies Twitter account. The Facebook "f" and Google "g+" (to a lesser degree) are similar commonly used social media icons.

There seems to be no reason for anyone to be interacting with us on Twitter

This might be a reason for you to not put the bird there at all. If a user is savvy enough to reach out to your company on Twitter, they may be expecting a reply. If they do not get one (or it is very late, since the company is not very active on Twitter) then a user may feel they had a poor customer service experience.

If you are adding the Twitter bird "just for the heck of it" then really investigate if it should be there at all.