With almost 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain being visual, it is no surprise that people respond better to good design and memorable images. This means that perfecting a visual strategy for social media is essential, especially if you want to build your brand presence and image. But, if you are new to social media, you may not know how to create one.
When you are building your visual strategy you need to consider every aspect on every platform n order to make your strategy meaningful and successful. You will need to think about the text on an image, the wording underneath a post, as well as the correct image sizes for the different platforms. Not sure where to start? Below we dive a little deeper into perfecting your visual strategy for social media.
Create Content Categories
When you are working on a social media strategy, you should think about different content categories for your posts. This will help you to stay organised and can help to ensure that the imagery and visual style for every platform is consistent. If you have a calendar with posts for three to five times per week per platform, you should not have more than a maximum of six.
Having clearly-defined content categories will not only help those who write the copy for your posts but will help your graphic designers to create easy-to-use templates for the images for each platform. This will streamline the posting process and will ensure that your imagery is cohesive across all platforms. Be sure to mix up the order of the content categories to allow for some diversity in your content calendar.
Implement Image Optimisation
One of the best ways to perfect your visual strategy for social media is to optimise your images for the platforms they will be published on. You will need to avoid the common mistake of sharing the same-sized image on each platform and create one that is optimised for each one, using the right dimensions as laid out by Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Having the right-sized image for the right platform will help to keep your business or brand consistent and will show consumers that you are social-media savvy. If you do not have an in-house designer, you can use free online tools and templates to make images for your social media posts. Having consistent imagery will also help to make your brand more memorable in the eyes of consumers.
Avoid Logo Overkill
Using your logo in your social media marketing strategy will help to make your posts more memorable, but you will need to be sure not to overdo this. If you use your brand name and colours in your post, you might find that the image becomes too cluttered and may not make as much of an impact.
Having a logo as well as other branding imagery could distract your audience from the content in the image itself, and it can come across as being unprofessional. You could instead have some images with brand elements that highlight your colours, such as a frame or element in the image. You could use a speech bubble in a brand colour for a fun quote without overwhelming the reader with your logo and slogan.
Keep Image Style Consistent
In order to build brand recognition and awareness, your visual strategy should include images that are similar in style across all platforms. The images that you select must reflect the tone of your brand and should be in keeping with what your audience enjoys. For example, if you use cartoons frequently, then you should maintain this.
Having one social media post with a cartoon-style image, another with a realistic photograph, and another with a line-drawing will break your brand’s consistency and could lead to confusion with your audience. You should use one style of image across all platforms, as well as the same branding elements and designs to maintain your online presence and brand loyalty.
Set Out A Style Guide
Having a visual strategy style guide will help you to discover the voice, tone, and look of your social media posts. Without this, your posts might be wildly different from one another, which could cause the social media algorithm, and your followers, to see your posts as spam. Your style guide will lay out the foundation of every post and provide guidelines that every post should follow.
Your style guide will lay out all the do’s and don’ts of your social media calendar in terms of visuals, helping your designers to create images that are on-brand and memorable. Style guides should be distributed to everyone who works on your social media strategy so that the visuals and the copy align with one another.
If you would like a super social media strategy, speak to the NetMechanic team today to find out what we can do for you.