In the ever-changing industry of social media, visual elements and all kind of designs are certainly major tools. Grabbing a viewer’s attention to your business in the middle of a crowded feed may be one of the most difficult aspects of doing social media marketing these days.
But, let me tell you that the main reason to pay special attention to social media design tips, in fact, is quite simple.
Did you know that more than 80% of the information that first enters our brain is through a visual channel?
So, having cutting-edge social media design tips at hand is key to accompany every online post in 2019.
No matter how stimulating your words can seem. Without an engaging image that´s properly aligned with the text to convey your message and intention, the content won´t get much further in terms of social shares, comments, and likes.
That´s why we´re sharing with you today these 5 social media design tips. Improve your social media game.
With these solutions, you´ll be able to elevate your online publications easily and refine your visual choices before posting. Let´s begin.
When creating visuals for all of your social media platforms, the fewer details you include, the better. Copy should always be creative but short in order to catch the viewer's attention. Maybe instead of writing text-only posts, you can apply the following ideas:
Embrace video:
Video marketing is proven to increase engagement in all social media platforms. For instance, the chances of sharing a tweet increase 6X if the text goes with a video instead of an image. Tweeting only in text is not an option in 2019.
But, you may be wondering how to use this resource, what to do, and what to say in the videos. Luckily, there are some common recent video marketing trends to follow.
If you´ve never used video before, you can start small. Introduce yourself and explain what your company does, why you´re different from your competitors. Make sure you´re talking to your ideal client, putting yourself in their shoes.
Also, you could interview a colleague about a very specific topic in your niche to show that you´re serious about your job and that you´re an expert in your field. Potential clients will need to trust you because they don´t know you. So, use these tactics which are ideal to build authority.
Moreover, if you want to learn in detail about the multiple reasons why video is mandatory in 2019 and get more practical solutions, this is your article. But don´t forget to keep the text short and gripping in any social network.
Remember that the aim is always to trigger the reader´s curiosity enough to click further: whether it leads them to your YouTube Channel, your landing page, the website, or maybe, another social media account.
Use popular social media design tools for non-designers:
For example, you can try a convenient app called Canva to create beautiful graphics. This tool features templates and other social media design tips for different niches and sub-niches. There is a raft of samples of images available for each and every social media platform.
Here we show you an example of a social media graphic for real estate businesses.
However, there´s a downside about Canva. If you decide to go with the free version, you won´t be the only one using the sample images. So, to get more exclusive graphics and stand out from the competition, you´ll have to buy paid photos.
Canva functions both in the mobile and web version.
Always include pictures in any long text format:
Imagine you start a blog for your website. Articles are a wonderful resource because they expand on different topics, driving traffic to your site and placing yourself as an authority. But, have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a reader getting to the end of a post and the one leaving your site?
The use of mind-blowing images is a deal breaker.
Long texts (like blog posts) have to be easily digestible, especially when there´s a growing tendency of reading longer pieces of information in the blogging arena. So, start using fascinating photos to help you break up the different sections of the text—and actually, this will elevate the chances to take the user to the end of the blog article.
If you haven´t started a blog for your company website yet, here we reveal all the reasons why you need a blog in 2019 among other three online commerce assets.
Defining visual hierarchy is an extremely important design tip for social media. When it comes to online content, your words and images need to be organized in a coherent fashion to help the reader prioritize the information and find faster what you expect them to spot.
That´s the case with, for example, a contact us or buy now button. Remember that we scan texts before reading them fully. Some people never get to a deep reading stage, in fact.
So, the more important the message, the more contrast there should be at design level. How can you achieve this? By making the correct use of:
Color palettes
Positioning
Size
Fonts
Even punctuation can play a big part in the visual hierarchy of a social media post.
If you want to see examples of the best practices in different industries as well as all the elements explained in detail, you can do it here.
When we talk about tone, we mean choosing whether to use formal or informal language when you speak to your audience. And of course, remaining consistent throughout all your publications is important too.
Bearing in mind the channel you´ll be using to communicate is also vital. For example, it´s common practice that an Instagram account is more informal than a LinkedIn profile or showcase page.
Anyway, it all depends on your brand building and your social media marketing strategy. Maybe it´ll be always necessary to speak in an informal tone to your clients in order to sell them your products or services.
Tone includes the choice of vocabulary, punctuation if you´re going to use contractions or not. It´s always a matter of context.
If you have any doubts about the basics of branding, you can read this post to check if you´re on the right brand identity track. And you should check out this one for all the ins and outs of social media tone.
Typography is a huge factor in visual design—because fonts matter, a lot. With the use of the right fonts, there´s a lot of potential to go beyond the words to elicit those feelings and character about your brand.
You should decide on a couple of fonts and the objective of each one.
It´s not advisable to use fonts that might not be legible. Neither it is to use many different fonts, even though you are consistent with the use of each one. You should keep the number of typographies to a maximum of three.
For example, some people use one font for headlines, another for subheadings, and another for the rest of the text. Some people simplify more and just use one font.
Are you consistent with the fonts of your publications? This is a crucial element because typography is going to show the particular personality of your brand through your social media content.
Here we include some basic design tips about typography:
For body copy, maximize legibility by using the correct amount of leading and tracking. Leading determines how much vertical space there is between the lines of a text. Tracking, on the other hand, is the horizontal space between all the letters of a word.
There´s a tendency of keeping both above small.
Remember that most people scroll social media on their mobiles, so use mobile-friendly leading and tracking.
To investigate more details about these graphic design technicalities, see this post.
When creating your own imagery, you have the option of branding your visuals. While some prefer to have their logo prominent on every piece of content, others prefer to just ditch the logo.
Going back to visual perceptions, the consistency and repetition of the logo help users to memorize your company. This is particularly necessary today in the middle of intense social media competition.
However, it's your choice to use the logo in every social media post, so consider both options based on the target audience, just like with the choice of tone.
No doubt you've heard before about the piece of advice to "think outside the box". Perhaps you've wondered what that meant in actual fact, or you know what it means but you're so firmly "inside the box" that you don't even notice that you're in the box.
Maybe learning some social media design tips today brought you a lot of inspiration to create your own content. So, don´t be afraid to try new things next time you post.
However, we´re fully aware of the fact that online marketing is a hard world. And trying to keep up with the social media hurricane in multiple accounts is extremely time-consuming. You already know that your brand needs a strong and consistent social media presence.
But you can´t do all this on your own. Because you´re already on a tight schedule without posting much on social media. So, how can you fix this and find more free time while your business still runs like clockwork?
At Uassist.ME we provide virtual assistants who can take care of your social media content, among other everyday tasks. Stop feeling overwhelmed.
Curating social media content
Working on social media design
Scheduling posts
Organizing a content strategy for your blog
Editing your videos
Revamping your logo
Answering client inquiries through direct messages
Running administrative tasks
Managing your appointments and meetings
Answering the phone
Updating clients´databases
Doing bookkeeping tasks
Translating information
Request a consultation today. We´ll be happy to give you the information you need.
We have highly professional (and bilingual) virtual assistants who are ready to solve the everyday issues of small, mid-sized and big companies. We´ve recently been accredited as a HIPAA compliant and that means we´re reliable and efficient.
Hire a virtual assistant and dedicate more time to what you love delegating what you don´t.