Social media can be one of the most beneficial resources to boost your brand. However, this is totally reliant on you using it right. I highly recommend checking out some fab social media guides.
Specifically, Melyssa Griffins Pinfinite Growth course: http://www.melyssagriffin.com/_p/sp/pinfinite-growth/. (Please note: I am not an affiliate but, from personal experience I found it super informative.) These are really useful to help you organise, plan and strategise your social media plan.
Bringing things back to the design side of social media, lets walk through what techniques you can implement into your designs, to make the most out of your audience.
My first tip for you is to know your sizes. There is nothing worse than stumbling across a profile picture that clearly wasn’t large enough to fit the frame or a twitter post that is completely out of focus. I have made this easy for you and designed a printable that summarises all of your key social media sizes. You can find it here: http://fraserandcodesign.co.uk/diy-design-area/.
File sizes run hand in hand with file formats/ types. For some reason, certain platforms work smoother using certain file types. Again, I have noted these on the printable that can be found at the link above.
Moving on, lets consider the layout of your designs. How can we positively effect your audience using just the layout to reinforce you message?
Firstly, know your message. What is it that you want to get across to your audience and how can you do this? I recommend choosing imagery that we would associate with the message. That alone will make those interested stop and read more.
But, how can we be even clearer? Use dividers. Separate your design up, make things clear and don’t over clutter your work. Over clutter, simply, leads to confusion. People will rapidly lose interest and move on. Keep things simple and direct to the point, keeping your audiences attention. When considering using dividers, these do not have to solely be image or lines. You could use your text to divide a design up. Using different fonts (not too many – I recombined no more than two or three) and spacing to section your message. Be creative here! You can also introduce colour into the mix and play around with different ways to separate areas.
Considering colour. How will colour effect your audience? Consider your branding here. By this point, if you have a strong brand, your audience should know who you are without seeing your logo. Your font choices, use of colour and style should do this alone. Thinking about this, it is worth making sure your designs are in keeping with your exhausting branding. Try using a bold colour to allow your design to stand out from others your audience may be seeing on the same page.
Finally, we need to make sure that we allow our shapes and images to interact peacefully with one another, bringing the whole graphic together as one. We need to be considering how we can use negative (blank) space effectively. Maybe this is somewhere you would chose to put your text or a call to action.
Social media is an extremely powerful tool. Heck – you’ve got millions of potential followers and clients out there. It has got to be one of the stand alone ways to gain a larger and more engaging following. Don’t waste that resource and put as much effort in to your social media design as you have done everything else!
GET YOUR FREE SOCIAL MEDIA SIZE GUIDE HERE:
Informative for sure. 🙂
And one of the great social media to boost brand for now is Instagram.
You’re right Ummu. Instagram and pinterest are my top two social media platforms (if Pinterest counts as one?).
Great list of tips, especially the know your sizes! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading, Luna!
I struggle with this on Instagram because it’s recommended you post at least five times a week. It’s hard to achieve quality and quantity, but I do think I’m getting better at photography.
It’s really interesting you say that because I think a lot of people are in a similar situation. My advice, it’s less about quantity than it is quality. There is no point throwing out 5 posts a day that don’t provide your audience with information/ a story/ something they want to be reading. You are far better off being consistent (twice a day, 3 times a week, 4 times a month – it doesn’t matter!), the important thing is consistency and connecting with others in your industry/ niche and your audience.
Some really practical tips and tricks here. Thanks so much for sharing. I especially appreciated the info RE file sizes and image dimensions! Rach
I am glad you’re finding my posts useful, Racheal. Feel free to check back or make a handy note for when your a creating your designs.
This is the second article I read from you. You are really precise on branding and marketing, I love it. You seem to perform in this discipline. Bravo!
Ben
Thanks for checking in again, Ben. It’s lovely to hear you reading regularly – thank you!
Great tips! I try to be careful with my branding because I tend to overdue at times without knowing. I will for sure keep these tips in mind when I reevaluate my website.
Please do and don’t forget to check out Sam’s checklist! Thanks, Ashley.
I have been working really hard to conquer social media! I saw the increase of my traffic when I had more followers on Pinterest! From 0, I currently have 6 thousand monthly viewers and hoping to increase it more!
Well done Nina, my advice for Pinterest. Make awesome graphics and be consistent, that’s the key to seeing steady growth!
Very great article for bloggers. Social media is key for our business success
Thanks for reading, Pearl!
Social media is a powerful dragon that is hard to subdue. However once it is your ally you’d get to conquer the world.
It’s a very powerful tool indeed. Saying that, I am a firm believer of not putting all your eggs in one basket. After all, social media is not something we have total control over!
Great list! As I work on rebrand my blog and starting a business I am book marking this. Thanks
Definitely, come back whenever you need and please do make use of Sam’s checklist!
Useful tips on social media. In fact I never took designing part seriously till now.
Great tips, know your size is a very important one. I’ve made that mistake myself as a newbie. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for reading. Part of the journey is learning. 🙂
You are a lifesaver and a blessing. Thanks for sharing this post I was needing this.
Thanks for reading Gloria! 🙂
Thank you so much for these tips! You don’t know how much trouble I have with social media sizing. I always end up wasting my time to redo the sizings every time.
Hi Ellen, we’ve all been there. I’m about to put a simple social media size guide in our free DIY Design Area, so keep your eyes peeled.
great tips and rich blogging resources as always…. Thanks for this
Thanks, you’re welcome!
Thank you. I have been struggling with images on social lately. I must remember that all social mediums are not a one size fits all.
For sure, I said it to Ellen also, but keep your eyes out for my social media size guide that’ll soon be in our free DIY design area!
Great tips! Trying to find the right font choice and color for branding has been a challenge for me especially since there are so many choices. Any ideas that could help?
Hi Sasha, definitely! In regards to Color, I have a colour guide in our free DIY Design Area that you may find useful. Fonts are very personal to you brand. Rule of thumb, stick to 2 (maybe 3) and be consistent throughout ALL of you branding. 1 or 2 of those fonts should be readable for large amounts of copy, I reccomend a sans-serif font, but that’s personal preference. This then allows you to have a more decorative/ headline font for your main logo/ headlines etc. I’d love to know more about what you do so we can discuss this further. 🙂
Social media marketing is now essential to all businesses. This is a great article and helpful for bloggers.
You’re right there, Evelyn. It’s such a powerful tool that if used well will allow us to really connect with our audience.
Social media is very powerful and very influential. This is really helps about boosting your blog and business.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
Branding is a crucial part but very rewarding when done right. It needs learning, and never be afraid to try different.
Being different can seem daunting but that will allow you to stand out. Thanks for reading, Blair.
Thanks for the tips! Very useful post for a blogger like me.
I’m glad you’ve found it useful, Megwyn, and I hope you can take this forward with you on your blogging journey.
I have been struggling with managing social media and my blog along with pinterest. It becomes very overwhelming for me. I hope I can apply your knowledge and get better at it. Such an awesome post!
Thanks for reading. Social media management can be very time consuming. From design, to planning, to posting… it is a lot of work. Try not to let it overwhelm you, do you have a schedule? Have you looking in to scheduling apps such as Tailwind?
I’m a social media manager in Germany and so far I couldn’t bring much value with Instagram to the 3 companies I work for. However Facebook and Pinterest are the ones I get the best results. Thanks for sharing this article Katherine!
This is really interesting to know. I think it must vary form niche to niche and how you use different platforms. I have seen a lot of engagement from Facebook groups, but not so much form pages. Pinterest and Instagram are also high runners from me.
You know that I am a great fan of your blog. I am a VA and would want to have my own business someday so I always bookmark your posts and read them thoroughly. Thank you so much for sharing such an informative post.
This is such a lovely comment Sheena, Thank you! If you ever do start your own business and need some friendly design advice, I am here!
Social media is a great tool to use to grow your brand. I’m actually subscribed to Melyssa Griffins, I don’t think I’ve actually taken one of her courses though.
I really reccommend Melyssa Griffins courses, I have taken a few now and they have been full of useful information!