A decade ago, you might have gotten away with believing that social media was only a flash in the pan. However, today more and more people are beginning to think about social networking as important as ever – and implementing a systematic approach to your social media design is something you would do to ensure you get more following.
Social media has created a faucet where businesses can directly connect with their consumers. You post something and you get a judgment there and then.
There are a plethora of posts that appear on your timeline every day and people scroll while multi-tasking – you never know which post would attract the audience as there are a million options to look at. It’s more like “survival of the fittest” out there on the internet for content creators.
An article in creative inferno quotes that social media graphics make your brain retain information more quickly rather than plain text. And, if a post has an image attached to it,
people are 650% more likely to engage with your content and that is the goal.
Engagement is the currency of the internet – your content may be out of this world, but it is of no use if it fails to engage your audience and gain new customers
If you’re looking to take your social media design to the next level, read this blog to spot some useful tips for an impactful social media presence.
Best Practices for Impactful Social Media Designs
Know Your Goals
Determining the vision of a social media graphics design is just like drawing blueprints for a house; the goal, or intent, of the design will set the tone for the complete creative process.
Your social media design should act as an enrichment to your content, promoting the messages you want to convey, so it’s critical to first develop a solid design strategy.
Since there is so much material vying for exposure on social media, it is best to produce engaging visuals that are tailored uniquely to attract your target audience.
In addition, every social media platform is different, and the design and content must be tweaked for them. Therefore, it is important to know which platform will need what type of content, branding, and design.
The famous Graphics designer Neville Brody tells us right “Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries” so don’t forget to conduct thorough target market research and come up with something that lives forever.
Choose the Right Colors
Color is one of the most critical facets of social media design. It will help to set the tone, build an aura, express feelings, and even elicit deep memories from personal experiences.
In a report on the effect of color on marketing, researchers discovered that depending on the product, up to 90% of snap judgments are reliant solely on color.
Other studies have pointed to the fact that colors should support the personality you choose to represent rather than conform to traditional color associations.
Take the example of the brand Loulou & Tummie. The brand shows how color can be used to target a particular audience. Loulou and Tummie are well-known for their attention-grabbing vector work as well as their usage of color to convey a story and elicit emotion.
So, use colors in your social media images to lead the audience through a story. Consider how different colors affect our brain and how they’re often used in storytelling and marketing. Color theory concepts are a fantastic place to start and can build a feeling of harmony in your social media presence.
Size Has an Impact
The next step in social media graphic design is to decide the size of your canvas. Any social media network, like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter, needs photos of varying specifications and picture styles.
Before you begin designing, decide which platforms you would use to share your designs. You must scale the picture to fit the precise measurements of each site on which you want to display a social media design.
It can seem time-consuming, but a short size check may mean the difference between cropping out the most critical design factor and providing a seamless user interface.
Social media platforms adjust their specifications from time to time, so make sure you're up to date on the latest standards for each platform you're using.
Going directly to the root is the easiest way to get the most up-to-date specifications. For example, if you’re using Facebook, it has a comprehensive Facebook Ads Guide that shows any form and scale of image support.
Typography Matters
You should make sure that the typeface or font family you choose conveys the meaning and intent of your brand. The way your design is perceived and the message your brand sends out is influenced by the font you use.
Typography, like color, may convey moods and emotions and is sometimes even much more effective than that. As a marketer, you must select the correct font since it will convey your tone.
When using fonts, hold the following graphic design guidelines in mind:
Serif fonts are best for print
For the web, sans serif is the way to go
Use no more than three fonts in your design
Good Contrast Is at The Heart of Good Design
Any social media graphic design layout can be brought to life with the perfect mix between light and dark. Make the social network graphic design a scroll-stopper by combining contrasting colors (search contrasting color palettes for ideas).
Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel make the most striking color variations. Pinkish-red with aqua blue, soft green with magenta, and neon yellow with plum purple are only a handful of the contrasting color combinations.
Using effective contrast to highlight your social media images is a perfect way to do so. Your design would be “flat” if there isn't enough contrast. However, excessive contrast will make the design cluttered, and nothing would stand out.
Be Consistent with Fonts, Colors, And Logos
The theory of repetition is one of the simplest elements to boost up your social media presence. To establish and strengthen your social media identity, repetition is an important part of the process. It is also referred to as "consistent branding."
Fonts, colors, and logos are three elements to be consistent with your designs. The repetition of these three components would offer you or your brand a distinct and immediately identifiable appearance. Let's look at a few instances to see how repetition can be used in the design.
Take an example of this famous Apple’s iPod advertisement. This image is appealing because of its vivid and humorous appearance, and the usage of repetition in this image aids in creating a clear association. It also accomplishes its goal of creating a sense of movement or dancing in the shot.
Take Conscious Platform Decision
As mentioned, every platform has a different type of audience. Social media may be very effective in your business branding, but you don’t have to be everywhere. For example, if you own a clothing brand – Instagram will work wonders for you and Twitter will be a shady tunnel that’ll lead you nowhere.
So, before you take the leap and launch a brand – do some research and choose your platform wisely, or rather find a platform that works best for your niche. You do not necessarily have to stick with the “famous” ones.
Be mindful of the fact that people consume most of the content (80%) on their phones – so make sure your social media design is user-friendly for both phones and desktops.
Introduce Themes
Creating unique social media designs is important – but at the same time, it takes a lot of time time. A better and scalable idea would be to create one design or template that can fit your social media for a long time.
You can play around with colors and designs but designing a post from scratch is too much effort with very less impact.
Shoot Your Shot
All the tips that are discussed in this blog are ingredients that will spice up your social media but if you don’t put your cauldron on the stove then all this chopping is of no use.
Therefore, go out there and execute your designs – if they don’t work, try again! It isn't rocket science, is it? What matters is that you put in your efforts and bear sweet fruits in the long run.
The Takeaway
Social media designing is subjective, but you cannot throw everything on the wall and still hope that something sticks. Due to this – the most important thing about curating a plan for your social media is to know what you want to achieve with the design and content.
To get an impactful social media design it is important to get a top-notch graphic designer – as your ideas are of no use if you do not execute them. An expert designer will sketch out a perfect design model that will act as wings for your social media presence.
