How to create a more visually appealing social media strategy? How to improve your social media design and drive more traffic to your website? Follow these 10 tips…
- DETERMINE YOUR PRIORITY
Think about the main element you want people to notice first on your visual. What will your audience care about most? In design jargon, this is called a focal point. Contrast it.
- START WITH TEMPLATES
Use professionally designed visual templates as a starting point using a tool like Canva or any other tools and resources to create images for social networks even if you have no design experience. Obviously, you don’t have to use templates forever. The idea is to develop how to create an attractive graphic and learn the “rules” of design to catch the attention of your audience.
- CHOOSE 1-2 LEGIBLE FONTS TO USE CONSISTENTLY.
Remember, your audience is looking for clues as to what to pay attention to and it happens quickly. By using the same fonts over and over, you are training them to recognize and remember your content.
Some basic rules:
Choose one main font to define the text;
Don’t use too many fonts;
Choose a font that fits the brand;
Never set large body text;
Test your text on mobile.
- CHOOSE BRAND COLORS AND STICK TO THEM
Rather than following the latest trends or simply choosing colors you like, use color for your visual identity strategically to help you stand out and capture attention.
- CREATE RULES FOR THE IMAGES YOU WILL USE
Again, think about your brand’s personality and determine some adjectives you can use when choosing images. To do this, ask yourself the right questions: Will you use stock photography? Original photography? Illustrations? What style? What mood do you want to convey?
- USE RELEVANT IMAGES
Choose the right image for social media. The more relevant your image is to the topic of your post, the more likely it is to catch the attention of people who are actually interested in that topic. The great thing about social media is that you can test different visuals to see what works best. Because most people will miss most of your posts most of the time, it’s perfectly normal and even advisable to share your posts multiple times. Take the opportunity to experiment with different images to see what people respond to.
- MAKE SURE THERE IS ENOUGH CONTRAST IN THE TEXT
One of the most common mistakes is to place text above a photo with almost no contrast. To avoid this, you can:
Choose photos with very low-detail areas where the text can easily be read when placed on top;
Use an overlay.
- AIR OUT THE IMAGE AND TEXT
White space is not necessarily white, think of it as space between things. One of the best ways to improve your designs is to pay as much attention to the areas around your design elements as the elements themselves. Specifically:
Don’t push the text to the edge, give it plenty of margin.
Align design elements and create consistent margins.
- USE THE DATA
Check your data and analytics and analyze which tweets, pins and posts are working best and then ask yourself the right questions:
What’s working? What’s working? Why?
What’s not working? What doesn’t work? Why?
Then formulate a hypothesis and test it.
- ASK FOR OPINIONS
If you’re not sure about your visual, don’t hesitate to get feedback from your target audience. Facebook groups are great for this where you can ask questions like “What do you think of this design?”
