You understand why content creation is necessary for your company and advertising and marketing strategy, however, do you know how to convince your target audience to consume the content you create? In this article, we share 9 Pragmatic Social Media Graphic Design Tips for Exceptional Engagement.
Two words: social media. According to Statista, over 2.62 billion individuals use social media networking worldwide. If you consider our modern-day population, the odds are that your audience is on a social networking platform, or two or three…
Now, don’t go create an Instagram account unless you have the right content to make it work. With 2.62 billion customers perusing social networking websites this year, your social media graphics need to stand out and make an impact.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “How do I make my graphics more engaging?” and the answer is simple. The best way is by creating designs and unique illustrations to set up your online brand identity and a solid social media advertising method based on your business strategy.
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Types of Visual Content Brands Can Post on Social Media
There are so many options available when it comes to image content. To help you get started, we’ll share a few of the most popular ones:
- Charts and graphs to visualize important data
- Infographics – a combination of icons and data that creates an easy-to-understand message
- Memes – this involves taking trending images and reworking them with your brand in mind
- GIFs – these are short, attention-grabbing videos.
- Product images
- User generated content – things your followers post about your brand
This may sound daunting, but we’ve got nine social media design tips that will help you make the most of your social media graphics.
9 Pragmatic Social Media Post Design Ideas
1. Setting a Goal
Determining the aim of a social media design is like drawing up blueprints for a house; the goal, or motive of your designs, will set the route for the complete creative process.
Social media is filled with content competing for attention, so it’s important to create attractive graphics that cater specifically to the target audience you’re attempting to reach.
No social media image will ever please all 2.62 billion users, and that’s okay; you solely need to reach your target audience (a small fraction of the entire social networking population).
Things to consider include:
- Who is my perfect customer?
- Which social media platforms do they use regularly?
- What device is my target market using?
- What is the message I am trying to share?
- Do I want to invoke emotion?
2. Choose the Correct Size
You need to remember that each platform has its own size requirements. Your audience will know if you’ve gone the extra mile to resize per platform and if you haven’t.
The size of the image will impact the layout, something to be mindful of when trying to achieve a uniform appearance.
3. Keep the Text to a Minimum
Let the picture tell a story, don’t rely too heavily on your status or accompanying text to do the heavy lifting. It’s often the image that attracts the viewer, so make it count.
Choose imagery that will invoke emotion and leave a lasting impression. Don’t forget to make sure that it is relevant to your brand for maximum impact.
4. Use Contrasts
The perfect use of light and darkness can bring any social media design to life. Combine contrasting colours to make your social media feed a scroll-stopper.
The most desirable colour mixtures are colours that oppose every other on the colour wheel. Avoid the usage of shades that conflict with the brand colours and identification of the social networking platform you’re using, like the signature blue of Facebook.
You’re already competing for interest with different ads – don’t compete with social media itself!
5. Understanding Your Business’s Identity
Create a flawless experience by analysing your visual identity before you start selecting format elements.
The best way to study the visible identity of the company is by referencing your branding guide. A branding guide is a series of pre-selected fonts, shade schemes, elements, brand variations, and sample images that precisely signify a brand.
Another tip is to use material web design to discover the guidelines and best practices for a user experience.
You can also do a quick search to see the current social media trends, as well as analyse your online analytics to determine what is working and what isn’t.
6. Don’t Complicate It
The most extensively agreed-upon tip for social media snapshots from our designers is to keep it as simple as possible.
Here are some tips:
- Utilizing large, captivating photographs and illustrations
- Not using more than two fonts
- Sticking with 2-3 contrasting colours
7. Create a Showstopper
Building brand consistency is important, however, now and then you’ve got to skip some guidelines to get the attention of your audience.
The sole way to find out what will make your target market pause mid-scroll is to experiment with different designs to see what works and what doesn’t.
Use textures or patterns to add a fascinating contrast to product images. This works especially nicely on e-commerce platforms that have rows of “listings”.
It takes the human eye 50 milliseconds to shape an opinion on a visual. This is why your image needs to focus on what’s important. Emphasise the parts that need to be remembered.
8. Research Cutting-Edge Social Media Designs
The best way to come up with a design is by trends on the platform you’re utilizing. Take some time to see what your peers are up to, as well as influencers.
When it comes to creating the best social media graphics for engagement, it boils down to a few simple things. Firstly, you need to do your research to see what your audience responds to as well as what your peers and competitors are up to.
Next, you need to experiment with a few options to see what works and what doesn’t. Of course, the most important aspect of them all is to ensure that whatever content you are putting out there is truly reflective of your business.
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*TIP – We use and recommend DesignCuts for all your fonts, mockups and design bundles.
Author Bio
Sabrina is a creative content writer at Appnova, a creative design agency located in London that specialises in luxury brands. While typically writing about social media marketing, she is experienced and covers everything from user experience to mobile app design