Designing Graphics For Social Media

While it seems like a simple task to set up pages and accounts on social media, it’s essential to make the extra effort to ensure your content is high quality and reflects well on your overall brand. With an eclectic arrangement of social sites to choose from, there are lots of platforms and various ways to showcase your company's content. That being said, there are also distinct ways to post content and information about your company:

Banners, Headers, & Images

Imagery is fundamental to display content and create visual diversity while simultaneously engaging users. Powerful imagery up top, usually as the banner or header image, can demand a viewer's attention. This may be a good spot to showcase an offer or service with a call to action to view your site.

In addition, imagery shared in the body of your social site can also encourage users to want to share your media. Keeping a consistent appearance throughout is key, whether that means how you select your images or how you display them. This can be done through the selection of dynamic stock imagery, self-generated photography, or adding color or other filters on photos. Choose images so that the overall visual message, look and style are consistent on all accounts.

Sizing

Sizing is crucial when dealing with images, especially the major ones up top. Start off with your the largest template size and work your way down from there. Image size standards vary from site to site:

Save each size and keep the original edited file and keep it well organized for future use. Be sure to save it properly, in a good quality format and an appropriate size for web use.

Branding

Branding is key to communicate who you are to the user and should remain obstinate throughout all of your media outlets. Typically, the main, profile image should be your logo, that way it is visually clear to the user who you are. Other supporting elements, such as your brand's color, imagery, and fonts, come second. You want your social site's look and feel to reflect your branding, so consult your style guide and properly use your branding elements.

Typography

Font usage on social sites are structured and cannot be tampered with, however, if you post images with text, it should mirror the style of your website and brand. If you decide to include text on in your profile picture, banner, or an image you upload, be sure it is a pre-selected font that matches your other marketing material so you can keep things throughout your online presence.

Colors

The same color rules for web design apply to social media: using too much color or a color that’s too abrasive will be too much for your followers. Use color in accent points like call-outs, headers, and key text phrases. Additionally, if you find that images aren’t working out for you as a banner, you can use blocks of color (that fit with your branding, of course) in order to fill in the blanks, so to speak.

Templates

A helpful technique to unify your social sites when displaying content is to create a generic template. Having a template with slight variations can show that you have a specific style and are looking to bring all of it together. Alex And Ani does this well when displaying images that followers love to share:

Positioning yourself as a professional business begins with your website and ends with good, tenacious social sites. With strong visual displays that coincide with your branding, content on your social media sites strengthens your company’s presence online and engages your followers. Executing these tips can lead to further engagement with your followers and build your social traffic online.