Graphic design is an important tool that enhances how you communicate with other people. Effective graphic design for social media provides support towards brand recognition and connects your target audience with your business and services. Great social media graphic design boosts engagement, improves user experience, and makes advertising more effective. Here are 5 social media graphic design tips to set new social media marketers on the right path.
1. Different Images for Different Social Media Platforms
Each social media platform has a different set of size resolutions for social media graphic design requisites. The size that works fine with Facebook might not work with Twitter or Instagram. So you need to stay updated about the respective sizes of each social media channel. Here’s a cheat sheet for the most recent social media image dimensions, as of 2021.
2. Pin Down Consistency
You can’t devote all your time to experimentation, because eventually you will have to settle on a marketing strategy for your visual posts. Your visuals must be consistent with your brand aesthetics. Sometimes this can be the hardest part — always posting visuals in the same style.
The most important thing to take away from this tip is that there needs to be some sort of consistency or coherence so that your followers will start associating a certain style with you. Establish your goals and work towards a consistent look. This gives your followers an opportunity to quickly spot you on their feed.
The Swedish online art print company Desenio does a wonderful job with their Instagram. You will notice that their whole feed is about their product in context. Showing a product in context makes it more relatable and certainly more attractive to potential and existing clients. They achieve consistency with the theme as well as their use of colours, which corresponds to their brand.
3. Be Creative
There is a range of visual contents, so it’s not like you have feed your fans with images and images every day. It might be a little trite. So how do you solve this?
Be creative and create a variety! There are various types of graphics that you can share on social media. Here are a few ideas:
- Top 10 Lists
- Post quotations of famous people in an engaging typo and shape
- Infographics
- Charts
- Screenshots with arrows to illustrate a point
- Captivating Photographs
4. Typography
Typography is an art. Selecting the perfect font or set of fonts that work seamlessly together can bring your social media image to life. It also has a big impact on how your design is received by people and, ultimately, the message your brand intentionally (or unintentionally) sends across.
When selecting which font or fonts to use in your design, one of the most important aspects to keep in mind is readability. Graphic designer Paul Rand may have put it best when he said, “Don’t try to be original, and just try to be good.”
Whether you choose a sans-serif font or a serif font or any variation in-between, make sure that your audience can read your message. Here are a few pro-tips for using fonts:
- Limit your design to a maximum of 3 typefaces
- Use font sizing that fits well within the medium that you are publishing to
- Traditionally, serif fonts are best for print and sans-serif for web
- Kerning is a great technique to use in your titles
5. Going That Extra Mile With UGC
Depending on how you choose to curate your social media pages, there’s always room for creativity and creativity from people that support your brand. For some brands, this is a great way to create a sense of community and promote their products. Starbucks curates their Instagram account with a ton of user-generated content.
If this option makes sense for your brand, why not give it a shot? It’s a way to spread word about your business and find out more about your clients and target audience. You can grow a network of people loyal to your brand and potentially reach new clients, subsequently getting them involved with your brand as well. Let your followers tell your brand story with their images.
