American digital business expert Barry Libert said, “The future of business is social”, and we couldn’t agree more. As businesses of all scales and sectors digitalize their operations, social media has emerged as a common platform for consumers to discover brands. 

For instance, every time I come across a new brand, I take a quick scan through their socials, and it is in those few seconds of surface-level assessment that I decide if I want to buy from them or not. 

I’m sure many of you also follow a similar pattern in your purchasing decisions. As such, it is crucial for brands to keep their social media pages decked up with the best of designs, so as to create a powerful first impression on the visitors.  

What is Social Media Design?

Social Media Design is an umbrella term for the different processes involved in the making of a social media profile- from planning and development, to the creation and upload of content best suited for the target audience of specific platforms.  

A social media page is a reflection of the brand image and thus needs to be designed accordingly. Your graphic design portfolio contributes to the perception of your business, so make sure that each post on your socials conveys your brand message effectively to the audience. 

Social media is also a rare platform where sellers can directly communicate with customers. Maintaining an active social media presence for your brand is thus an easy way to build a rapport with the audience, and converting leads into sales through effective social media marketing.   

What to look for in Social Media Designs?

Though the design prerequisites of a brand’s socials differ on the basis of the nature of the business and the platform in question, some basic considerations to make while designing social media pages for brands can be identified as follows-

• What is the USP of your brand?
• Who is your target audience? What is their demography?
• How can they connect with your brand message?
• What do they like seeing on social media? How can you incorporate their likes into your brand’s feed without disrupting your brand identity?

It is also advantageous to take a look at your competitors’ graphic design portfolio, analysing what social media strategies they are using and how the audience is responding to it. Such information can serve as a frame of reference when you are designing your own unique creative content for social media.

Top 5 Social Media Design Tips for your Brand

• Ensure Cohesion in Brand Image

While creating social media pages, make sure that your design is aligned with the branding of your business, and is a clear demonstration of the products and services offered by your brand. It is important to maintain uniformity in the designs for different platforms so as to promote a cohesive brand identity.

Like I said, always put your brand first. Display the same company logo as the profile picture on all platforms for ease in brand recognition. For those that require a cover/ background picture should be relevant to the offerings of your brand.

• Stick to a Color Aesthetic

The influence of color psychology in branding is universally recognized, and most businesses allot one or more colors to their brand on the basis of their offerings. For example, food brands are usually associated with colors like red and yellow, and financial institutions with shades of blue.

In the process of social media design, it is advised to stick to the color palette of your brand, as another means of promoting a cohesive brand image. This, however, does not forbid you from the use of other colors- you are free to have multi-colored images on your social media pages as long as your brand colors are front and centre, and the color aesthetic of the page is not disrupted.   

• Format your Design for the Platform

Every social media platform adheres to its own content guidelines, and has a set of recommended file dimensions for best media quality across different devices. It is advised to size and format your visual content specific to the platform it is to be posted on. 

This is true for images and videos alike. For instance, Facebook requires a 180×180 profile picture while LinkedIn accepts 100×60 profile pictures. Instagram Reels are formatted to be viewed on smartphones so they require a portrait orientation while Facebook videos are best shot on landscape mode. 

• Follow the Standard Design Rules

The main purpose of your social media pages is to engage the audiences, and the way to do is through visually appealing content. Here are some basic design rules that you must adhere to-

• Alignment betters your designs by creating a sharp, ordered appearance for the different elements in it.  Centre, right and left-aligned are the usual ones but you can also experiment with an asymmetrical alignment or try aligning your text with other objects in the graphic. 
• Use hierarchy to arrange your elements in a descending order of priority. Play around with different font types and sizes, and balance the positioning of images and negative spaces so as to draw attention to the most important elements of your design.
• Contrast is helpful in strategically emphasizing parts of your design. Pair bold typefaces with delicate fonts, or bright colors with lighter shades to create an aesthetic variety in your designs. 

• Choose catchy Images over dry Texts

The human brain is known to process images much faster than it does text, so brands who are on social media with the purpose of attracting new leads should create more content with imagery for their pages. Image-based content is also proven to generate more engagement than textual content, so it’s always best to design your social media content with more pictures than writing. 

Digital Polo can design the best Social Media Pages for you

We are an expert graphic design agency, providing 360-degree design services for a flat monthly fee. Be it logos, brochures, business cards, social media creatives or GIFs- our vast graphic design portfolio covers all kinds of static and video designs. And that’s not all. 

We provide the added benefit of unlimited revisions on all assignments, and a guarantee to deliver the final work in not more than 48 hours. So if graphic design is not your specialty, don’t bother with it at all. Contact Digital Polo and enjoy a supply of unlimited original designs made specially for your brand.