Social Media Design: What, How, Why

Social media design is the visual content used in digital marketing and it is essential for every company as it allows your followers to immediately understand your brand identity. You can directly engage with your audience and your content has the ability to be reached by entirely new audiences.

Designing your social media and staying consistent with your brand identity can create brand recognition, meaning users will immediately know what your brand provides. A successful social media presence is directly correlated to the design and aesthetic of your profile. It is difficult to gain recognition on social media as it is extremely competitive, and you need to stand out amongst other companies in your field as well as competing with the algorithm of the platform to be seen by as many users as possible.

Here are Me:Mo’s tips and tricks to creating successful social media design for your company:

Graphics and Content:

Posts on social media generate the most interactions within 24-48 hours therefore your content must be eye-catching and dynamic as consumers respond best to visuals better than regular posts. Users are more likely to like, comment and share on images, therefore the content and graphics should be carefully planned and designed in order to be share worthy. Analytics on posts should also be monitored to understand which of your posts are the most successful, and what about them has caused the most audience engagement. This means you can tailor your posts to suit your audience resulting in content with more interactions. Using apps to schedule Instagram posts such as ‘Later’ will keep your feed active so more users will see your content.

Social media strategy:

A social media strategy will make sure you are giving your followers what they enjoy and will engage with. As a company you need to understand who your audience are and what they want to see on social media. The design of your content should reflect your brand and enhance the viewers experience of the goods or service you are providing.

Creating audience personas for both your current audience and your target audience you wish to reach will help you determine the type of content they will enjoy and using a social media strategy, you can post these in the correct way in order to reach as many users as possible. If your followers are enjoying your account, they will be more likely to share and engage with your company leading to increased followers and brand recognition.

Use correct imagery and platforms for your brand:

Depending on the service or product you are selling you will need to use the correct imagery and design to stay consistent with your brand identity. Not all social media platforms will be beneficial to your company, if your brand requires more imagery and infographics than text, then Instagram will be of the most benefit to you. Research into your industry to see which platforms will be the most successful for your company. Not all posts will work on every platform so only use the ones which will benefit your brand, and work to design your content in the way that will be most aesthetic for that specific platform. Every social media has different sizes and dimensions for its content and how it is shown on the feed so researching the best way for your content to stand out amongst other posts and designing accordingly is crucial to get the most interactions and views. Also using high quality and relevant photography is important as you want to reflect the quality of your company and what you are providing. An example of a consistent and exciting Instagram feed is @Donershackuk as they use their bold colour palette throughout their posts and use a variety of imagery such as delicious meals and happy customers!

Consistency and Planning:

Planning ahead for your posts and organising how your feed will look is essential. Every post should be engaging and dynamic with interesting captions, and the goal of the post should be clear to the audience. Posts should be relevant to your brand and add value to your feed, and a variety of imagery is key in creating quality content eg. deals/promotions, highlights, stories and your team. If a user goes onto your profile, you want it to look exciting and eye-catching as well as the feed appearing well planned and balanced. Creating grid mock-ups allows you to create a layout of intended images for Instagram and you are able to see how it will appear on your feed. Meaning you can rearrange the images to create an aesthetic which matches your brand. You can design these grids to make compositions of images into graphically similar rows or columns which are consistent and look aesthetically attractive. Creating these grid mock-ups will create consistency for your brand but sticking to this grid too rigidly can make your feed appear dull and repetitive. ‘Preview’ is a free app which allows you to plan and arrange your Instagram posts before they go live so you can make sure your feed will look balanced and appealing.

Brand identity:

When a user goes onto your profile you want them to immediately understand who you are and what your company provides. Social media design is extremely important to get right as your profile needs to immediately reflect your tone of voice and brand identity. The design of your profile and its content will determine whether the user will follow your account. Sticking to your brand guidelines and staying consistent in the graphics, fonts, colours and design will create brand consistency and your audience will always know what your content is about and your brand’s goals. Your graphics and style should also be consistent across different social media platforms as this will create brand recognition.

Me:Mo provides a range of services to design and manage your social media accounts in order to get you the best possible engagements and interactions for your business. If you would like to talk to us about your social media design, give us a call or email!