An Epic Guide For Creating Social Media Visuals. But, why do you need visual content? Your goal should instead be to adapt a style and establish your brand with a consistent aesthetic so that people can separate your content from the noise. Venngage has a brand kit feature which can make designing visuals with consistent colors simple. Is there a brand or style that inspires you? The great thing about visual content is that it’s easy to share your work across different social media sites. Here are a couple of examples of infographic templates that work well on social media. And when you share those blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, guess what the first thing people see is? Tips for creating videos and GIFs for social media: 1. Infographics and charts can be turned into GIFs as well.
You and I both are constantly trying to keep up with social media platforms competing for our attention.
I’m also guilty of spending hours a day on my phone scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, lurking various accounts and liking their visuals. But one sleepless night I came across social media visual gold.
A creative studio’s Instagram account called Dschwen popped onto my radar. Two things about their imagery resonated with me.
One, they mastered a simplistic style and remained consistent.
Two, they were able to make design compelling and engaging despite being minimal.
Here’s a look at some of their work:
These visuals don’t linger in the distance of the canvas, but pop out at you, drawing you deeper into the content. Any time one of Dshwen’s images shows up in my crowded news feed, I recognize the account’s distinctive visual style immediately.
But, why do you need visual content?
I get it. You’re busy. Managing a promotion calendar, or consistently producing new written content is time-consuming enough as it is.
But, you’ve likely heard before that 65 percent of people are visual learners and 90 percent of the information we absorb is visual. Think about it, social media is now an integral part of our day-to-day lives. Visuals have become a vital component in engaging our audiences.
To help you keep up, we’ve put together this simple, yet thorough guide to help you create beautiful visuals that stand out from the rest.
If this idea is still daunting, I’ve also featured some free templates for you to access.
In this guide, we’ll cover how to:
- Establish and execute your style
- Optimize your message for five different platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn)
- Choose the visuals best suited to your chosen platform
- Select the right imagery
- Pair your colors and fonts
How to establish and execute your style
As I’ve mentioned, I like lurking social media accounts. I say this with pride. I keep tabs, bookmarks, and screenshots of those babies as a source of inspiration.
Here’s a quick snapshot of Airbnb’s Instagram account.
They have gotten tons of recognition for their Instagram content. Yes, their photos are beautiful but the visuals go beyond that. AirBnb has managed to capture the ‘essence’ of travelling and making people feel like they belong anywhere in the world.
How can you and I learn from them? First, you need to determine your goals and messages. AirBnB’s goal is to inspire people to travel the world, while feeling at home. As a result, they present beautiful travel photos that give off a sense of community, or homey feeling.
Here’s the thing, it’s more than likely your idea for a visual has been done before. But it’s not about inventing a new style. Your goal should instead be to adapt a style and establish your brand with a consistent aesthetic so that people can separate your content from the noise.
Take a look at Casper, a mattress brand which uses illustrations, patterns and bold colors in their social strategy. The style is nothing new, but their execution is excellent. The brand utilizes specific elements of a recognizable aesthetic and adds their own spin on it, complete with a consistent color palette.
To help determine your visual style, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Do you have an established color palette or theme?
If so, stick to similar visual styles across all platforms so your brand carries on a consistent appearance. Venngage has a brand kit feature which can make designing visuals with consistent colors simple. Here’s an example of what Casper’s brand kit could look like.
2. Is there a brand or style that inspires you?
Finding a source of inspiration can really help you jumpstart your visual marketing career. It’s not about mimicking a style, but rather adapting elements from different areas and making them part of your own style.
3. Are you aiming for a consistent visual style?
Use templates to make this process easier. You can reuse one template by changing up the images, color schemes, and fonts. This process will make it easier to change small features of your visuals, while consistently maintaining your brand’s appearance.
4. What is the best format to showcase your product or the idea you’re trying to sell
Figure out the best platforms that will make your ideas shine. Certain platforms will highlight and emphasize your product or ideas more than others. The great thing about visual content is that it’s easy to share your work across different social media sites. It’s important to experiment and find what works best for you.
So whether you are tackling just one platform, or you’re hoping to expand your reach on multiple social media sites, here are a few things you need to know about how to optimize your visuals.
How to convert your message into visuals for different platforms
First let’s start out by getting better informed about the ideal image sizes for various social media platforms. Start by taking a look at this awesome social media image size cheat sheet. This will give you a better understanding of how to repurpose your visuals for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Once you understand the sizing, you can move on to creating specific and high-performing content for those platforms.
People spend an average of 42 minutes a day on Facebook, 21 minutes on Instagram, 20 minutes on Pinterest, 17 minutes on Twitter, and 10 minutes on LinkedIn. That’s almost 13 hours a week spent…
COMMENTS