Social media has always been an integral part of the Internet. Text-only bulletin boards were the earliest social media platforms where people could meet, exchange views and interact with each other. From bulletin boards came Internet Relay Chats, which were the earliest forms of the modern-day Facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts.
Social media evolved faster with the increase in Internet speeds, availability of faster computers and laptops along with the introduction of smartphones, tablets and phablets — and, of course, MySpace and Orkut were popular before Facebook entered the scene.
The modern social media paradigm allows businesses to:
- Market products and services to a precisely-defined target audience.
- Engage with existing and potential customers on a real-time basis.
- Resolve queries and complaints through instant communication.
- Share updates, deals and offers based on the customer’s past purchases, location and other variables.
- Collect big data for understanding customers better.
Social media has evolved beyond imagination since the earliest bulletin boards and chat applications. Yet, one thing that all social media platforms have in common is the emphasis on visual content. Imagine Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or YouTube without any images, infographics, memes or videos! It’s important to focus on your logo design and how it applies to social media outlets since it can serve as the basis for your branding strategy!
Graphics and Social Media — a Fantastic Combination
What is the most important language for any business or enterprise? Its customers’ language! Your marketing and branding strategies won’t succeed unless you convey your message in a manner that your target audience prefers.
Relying on chunks of text when your potential customer is not interested in reading anything beyond 140 characters does not make sense. This is why you need to make smart use of graphic design on your social media pages.
A well-designed image, photo, meme or even a video offers the following benefits:
- There’s an instant connect between your brand and all your potential customers.
- It’s easier to speak to an international audience without communication issues.
- You can convey different aspects of your brand like passion, commitment and innovation in a single image.
- You can cut through the clutter on social media and grab attention immediately.
- Images can be timeless, which means a single message can be used again and again.
- Visual media is a lot more versatile than boring text.
- Colors, shapes, lines, curves and patterns can all convey your message differently.
Getting Your Social Media Marketing Logo Right
While it may be difficult to rank different visual elements of your social media profiles in order of importance, there is absolutely no doubt that your social media marketing logo must be given top priority.
Your social media marketing logo is something more than just an image. Your business’s logo is the visual or pictorial representation of your values and brand identity. For instance, Ferrari’s iconic logo of the prancing horse represents energy and vigor, which is a subtle nod to the type of cars Ferrari manufactures. The Rolls Royce logo conveys majesty and grandeur, which is a common trait of all cars made by this iconic brand.
Your business’s logo assumes even more importance in the world of social media due to the sheer volume of content that gets uploaded daily. Around 300 million photos are uploaded on Facebook in a single day, and Instagram users have shared around 40 billion images.
Getting your logo right and using it in all your posts and updates will bring the following benefits to your business:
- Create brand recall. Having your logo on each page, post, image, video and update on your social profile ensures visitors don’t miss viewing your business logo. Getting your audience to recognize your logo goes a long way in boosting your brand recall.
- Promote your business with every update. Your logo ensures every social media update serves as a permanent advertisement for your business. You can plan updates that highlight different aspects of your business and use the logo to reinforce the message.
- Avoid being tagged as a spammer. How do you avoid being tagged as a spammer for mindless and blatant promotion? Include your logo in your signature as a subtle and discreet way to promote your business in all your posts and updates.
- Distinguish your business from its competitors. Since the Internet has converted the entire world into a single marketplace, you can’t assume that potential customers make the effort to remember your brand name. A distinctive logo with unique design, colors, or symbols helps you stand apart from your peers.
- Highlight your brand’s values and professionalism. Your logo can be a great tool to convey the values that form the foundation of your business’s operations. Putting in effort to come up with the right social media marketing logo design goes a long way in enhancing your brand’s credibility.
Improving Your Social Media Design
Getting your social media graphic design to function optimally is not rocket science. It’s all about focusing on certain basic points and being creative and innovative to the maximum extent possible. Remember, getting the right social media logo design or exploiting the various social media design elements is not a one-time task. It’s a process that requires constant refinement and improvement.
Understand Your Audience
Visual graphics containing fancy but difficult-to-read fonts, bright neon colors and quotes from new-age celebrities may not be a smart choice for a firm that manufactures healthcare products for aged individuals. While senior citizens are active on social media, too, they’re unlikely to be impressed with a business that does not cater to their sensibilities and preferences.
Youngsters may prefer humorous promotional posts over boring posts that detail the benefits and advantages of your product. The busy professional, on the other hand, may not want to waste time sifting through memes when taking a purchase decision.
No matter which social media design elements you consider, make sure your content is suited to your target audience. This means you must consider their age, design preferences, preferred device and even whether visual content is the best option for user engagement.
Get the Basics Right
The font or typeset is an important element of any graphic post. As a rule, don’t use more than three fonts in a single post. Further, try to use the same font or same set of fonts as often as possible. Ignoring this may result in a situation where the viewer has to put in too much effort to decipher your content.
Using easy-to-read, yet stylish fonts will make your brand look mature and professional. Your social profile won’t look as if it has been designed as an exercise to explore your creative skills without any regard for the visitors to your page.
Using fancy patterns or shapes will not hurt your design, even if they don’t add value to your post. However, a fancy font that is impossible to read will make your entire effort useless.
Recognize Unique Design Opportunities on Different Social Media Platforms
Each social media platform offers certain unique design elements for your business to exploit. Some examples include the banner and profile picture on Facebook, the profile banner on YouTube, your account picture and status on Twitter and your profile pictures on Instagram or Pinterest.
Make sure you incorporate all elements in your social media marketing strategy. The Facebook profile picture can highlight your logo, while the banner can have the photo of the top-performing employee of the month. This will present you as a responsible employer who understands the importance of recognizing good work.
Link It Together
Pinterest and Instagram are designed for image sharing, which is just one of the many features Facebook offers. Ideally, your design should be such that it can be used on different platforms without requiring significant rework. This will give you the opportunity to link different profiles through shared content without any hassles.
Understand the Impact of Colors
Light colors are great for a happy and cheery feel. Darker colors can convey more serious emotions. Used individually, black or white may convey a somber message. Yet, mixing black and white can make your logo, page or post look classy and cool.
Of course, you can also play with the tone and opt for a blue or green tinge to direct the focus of your audience to a specific part of the post. Sepia is a great way to introduce a bit of variety if your design is becoming monotonous.
The colors you choose will have a huge impact on the message that’s ultimately conveyed to your audience. Choose them wisely for creating popular well-designed posts.
Balance, Lines, Patterns and Shapes
Straight lines convey strength, order and precision. Curved lines are ideal if you want to convey a relaxed feel in your update, logo or image. Yet, smart use of straight lines to create patterns and shapes can ensure the social media graphic design appeals to all sections of your audience.
Balance may seem tricky at first. However, you’ll realize that it’s all about using every element of the picture in the most efficient manner possible. Excessive use of curved lines or monotonous use of specific shapes may affect balance.
Symmetry may help you achieve balance. Yet, asymmetrical designs may make more sense when you’re announcing a once-in-a-year sale or discount offer on your social media profile. The subtle message that your customers will understand from the asymmetry is that the deal is unlikely to be repeated and is best utilized at the sooner rather than later.
Don’t Forget the Power of Contrast
Adding a black outline to white text written on a gray surface will make your message stand out due to the use of contrasting colors. The best part about employing social media graphic design tips such as these is that you can make your profile look classy and professional with minimal effort.
Simply choosing multiple contrasting colors for your posts and mixing it up with monochromatic images or updates will create a sense of energy and purpose on your page.
Hierarchy Is Good — Even on Social Media
Instead of choosing the same font size for the entire message, create a hierarchy where the most important part of your message is highlighted with bigger text. The least important or the longest section of the message can be designed in small text. This simple trick will allow you to include a longer message without the post looking too cluttered.
Play With Social Media Design Elements
People may love viewing photos on social media. Yet, the presence of so many memes online clearly shows people love images with overlying text as well. Elements of your post should include:
- Size of the image
- Text
- Typeset and size of the font
- Color of text
- Placement of your logo
- Patterns, shapes and lines
It’s not mandatory to use all the elements together in each update. However, don’t make the mistake of restricting yourself to just one or two elements all the time. A post highlighting your logo against the backdrop of lines and patterns can be a refreshing break from standard promotional messages.
Track the Latest Social Media Graphic Design Trends
Three out of every four Americans use smartphones to surf the Internet, which means a social media page that’s not designed for a smartphone is likely to be an utter failure. Design trends are impacted by various factors like technological developments, the current preferences of Internet surfers, choice of device, the demographics of your target audience, etc.
While it may not be possible to anticipate each new trend in advance, you certainly can try experimenting to the maximum extent possible. With live video streaming becoming popular, consider creating personalized video offers and combine them with well-designed social media updates.
Every New Update Is a Fresh Start
The world of social media design can be very cruel and unforgiving because you just can’t rest on your past success. What matters is whether your latest post or update has been designed well or not. This is why good social media graphic design must be treated as a process of constant refinement and improvements.
Keep It Simple
Focusing on the technical aspects of social design may cause you to lose sight of the fact that your brand’s social media presence is aimed at engaging with your existing and future customers. Technically-correct design that is too complicated to understand will serve no purpose whatsoever. So, never forget that the most important tip among all social media graphic design tips is to keep your design simple at all times.
What Next?
Good social media design is not something to be treated like a DIY activity to be done during your spare time. Just as your business requires your full-time involvement, your social media design will require the services of a professional firm offering comprehensive and quality services at affordable prices.
If you’re looking for social media logo design that will be true to your brand messaging, contact The NetMen Corp today.