With more than four billion active social media users and endless social media platforms, your business can leverage the power of such platforms. Visual appeal is the name of the game on social media, so it is crucial to design perfect posts. While a social media marketing agency in Toronto can help, there are also some design tips you can include for your brand.
So, if you want to curate incredible posts that will attract users to your brand, you have come to the right place. Our social media marketers have provided the best tips for designing visually appealing posts.
Top 11 Social Media Post Design Tips
There are many post design tips you can follow to create stunning posts. However, it is best to have a starting point to help you create streamlined posts. Let’s review some top post-design tips you can implement in your work:
Define Your Strategy
You might not think this is important, but your strategy will be your guide on how you will create the posts. We recommend you think about the following:
- How your posts should look
- Marketing strategy
- Brand positioning
- Purpose
- Brand story
- And more
Most of your social media posts must reflect your strategy. However, seasonal campaigns, marketing activities, and more must reflect your overall strategy. There are different types of brand positioning you can opt for.
Once you have this strategy, you can begin with the rest of the tips. Keep reading to find out more.
Opt For The Right Channels
The right channels will take your social media marketing strategy to the next level. For example, our social media marketing agency in Toronto selects the right channels for its brands. The key is to figure out the channels your audience uses the most.
If your audience doesn’t have an Instagram and you keep posting designs there, your strategy will not be fruitful. Our experts have reviewed some top ways you can follow to find out which social media channels your audience is using:
Create A Buyer Persona
If you want to know where your audience is active the most, you must begin by creating a buyer persona. It will allow you to understand your audience even better and get to know them more. You can include many things in the buyer persona, such as:
- What their day looks like
- How do they define success
- The publications they follow
- Their goals and fears
- And the social media platforms they use
Opt For Social Media Analysis Tools
You can also use many social media analysis tools to figure out the channels worth using. For example, Sprout Social, Pew Research Center, and many others have social media analysis tools that will help you determine the channels your audience might use.
Such tools work on the information you provide, so it is important to offer correct information. Then, you can focus on the social media channels that will provide you with the most value.
Select A Color Palette For Your Posts
Social media is all about visual appeal, so the colors you select will impact your overall brand appearance. You can stay true to your brand by opting for the color palette of your brand. However, playing around and selecting various color palettes that will appeal to your audience is also just as important.
Our social media marketing agency in Toronto also utilizes color psychology to leverage the power of emotions. Every color triggers an emotion from the customer, which is why colors are important in creating a certain atmosphere.
You can keep one overall brand color palette and then blend them to create different combinations of palettes. Once you have these colors, you can mix and match them to create exceptional posts for your brand.
Create Custom Illustrations
Illustration is one of the top trends in the social media graphic design world, and you can also leverage its power. These illustrations are a great way to add a custom touch to your social media channels while creating more appeal. Many social media marketing agencies create such illustrations for their brands.
You don’t have to go overboard, as you can keep your illustrations simple yet unique to make people stop scrolling and look at your content. Implementing these illustrations will make them more recognizable to your audience. We recommend you utilize this strategy once you have an audience base and more reach.
In the early stages of your social media marketing, it is best to stick to some tried-and-tested design basics. These will allow you to capture the right target audience for your brand.
Size Images To Specifications
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when creating social media posts is not using the right image size. An image with an incorrect aspect ratio or a low resolution will look out of proportion. When your target audience visits your brand page, these mistakes will reflect poorly on your work.
Our social media marketing agency in Toronto uses incredible hacks for the right social media post size. You can also follow these hacks to make the most of your posts:
- Factor in all devices: Your audience looks at your content through various devices. You can check analytics to confirm what devices your audience uses the most. Then, you can size them accordingly
- Create stunning horizontal stories: The problem with horizontal stories is that they look small. We recommend you use a template or background so the story doesn’t appear too small
- Preview your content before posting: Always preview the post before you put it on your social media. You can also check the thumbnails to see how they will look on your story
- Pixels must be correct: Never put anything important in the upper and lower 215 to 310 pixels for the best resolution
These small yet effective hacks will make all the difference to your social media post design. Be sure to implement them for the best results.
Select The Right Font Type
Even the font will impact your social media posts, so they must reflect your brand. For example, our social media marketing agency in Toronto creates a brand guideline for all brands. This includes color palettes, fonts, gradients, and other information that allows us to create exceptional social media posts.
The font you select will inform your audience about your brand personality, and it can boost your graphics. It also depends on your brand traits, values, and more. Let’s review a few fonts and what they reflect about your brand:
- Cursive fonts: These are ideal for creating nostalgia and harmonizing your brand
- Serif fonts: A traditional font that reflects the same value of your brand
- Sans Serif font: Natural and modern fonts
Regardless of the font, you must ensure it is legible on social media posts. That is because most people access social media through smartphones, so fonts must be simple and easy to read.
Add Variety To Your Content
We understand that the purpose of your social media channels is to let more people know about your brand so they can do business with you. However, not all of your posts should be a sales pitch. Instead, you must add variety to your content and provide value to the people who come to your platforms.
Our social media marketing agency in Toronto uses various types of content for its clients. We leverage the power of:
- Company milestones
- Event posts
- Inspirational quotes
- Industry tips
- Infographics
- And much more
All these content posts allow our clients to remain relevant and create diversity in their posts.
Invest In The Right Tools
While we recommend hiring a social media marketing agency in Toronto because they have graphic designers, it is not always feasible. Instead, you can also use various tools to help you with social media posts. There are endless resources and tools that will help you create stunning posts.
For example, you can use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Canva, and others to create social media posts. There are also editing tools that will come in handy for your designs. Some of these tools also provide templates you can use or customize and create your templates.
So, review some of these tools and select the best one for what you need. However, if you don’t want to use these tools, your next best option is to hire a social media marketing agency in Canada to fulfill your needs.
Add The Right Text
While the visual content is important, using the right text for your social media platforms is also just as important. Less is always more when it comes to text, so the secret is to be simple yet effective. Besides that, our social media marketing agency in Toronto recommends you use legible and bold text for higher readability.
You must ensure enough contrast between the background and text to be readable. The WCGA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) suggest you use a contrast of 4.5 to 1. There are also contrast checker tools that will help you do the job.
Our experts have also set out some guidelines you can follow when including text in images:
- Choose the right font, as it can affect legibility and tone
- Always spell-check your text. You can download Grammarly for this
- Avoid using blue and yellow or red and green color combinations, as they are challenging to read
- Always keep the length short
- Sometimes, leaving one word on the last line can look odd
- Get creative and animate the text to stay unique
Make Your Social Media Posts
Some people forget this, but accessibility should be an important part of your content strategy. That is because not everyone can witness the visual content in similar ways. Accessible content allows your brand to reach a wide audience and become more inclusive.
These changes will also allow you to earn customer loyalty and respect. Here are some ways our social media marketing agency in Toronto follows to ensure content accessibility:
Subtitles
Not everyone can hear perfectly, which is why subtitles are incredibly important. You must include subtitles in all your social videos. They are easily accessible for hearing-impaired viewers.
On the other hand, people that don’t know the language can also benefit from having subtitles. People that watch videos with captions are also more likely to remember what they saw, making the video more memorable.
Alt-Text Descriptions
Visually impaired people benefit greatly from alt-text descriptions because it enables them to appreciate the image. Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have fields where you can add alt-text image descriptions.
Descriptive Transcripts
These types of transcripts describe the sounds and sights that might not be obvious to the viewer. You can also use live-described videos or descriptive audio to ensure such accessibility. Once you do, viewing impaired people will find this to be of great help.
Get Creative
Finally, we recommend you get creative with your social media posts. For example, you can use animations, custom gifs, and more to attract more people to your platforms. In the long run, you will reap its rewards in the form of new followers, likes, shares, comments, and sales.
Get as creative as you like and show your audience why you are unique. Doing this will make them want to do business with you, and they will become your avid social media follower.
Final Thoughts
These are the top 11 tips you can follow to create visually appealing social media posts for your brand. If you don’t know where to begin, you can always consult our social media marketing agency in Toronto. Our in-house graphic designers will take your social media presence to the next level with their designs.