Everything You Need to Know About Social Media Design

Studies have shown that over 65% of people identify as visual learners–an unsurprising figure, considering the fact that people process visuals 60,000-times faster than text!

This is good news for companies everywhere; it means they’ve got a ready-made super-powerful marketing tool built right into their audience’s everyday life.

What is this magical tool, you ask?

Social media of course!

To take the very best advantage of all social media has to offer your company’s marketing strategy, you’ll want to know all about design in social media.

For 5 of our most essential tips on awesome social media design, read on!

1. Understand the Principles of Good Design

We considered leaving the entire body of this article as nothing but this one heading. Really, it’s that important.

If you or your team has a background in visual design, you probably already knew we’d be getting on you about this one. If you’re not familiar with the principles of design…get on it!

Design 101–the end-all-be-all of anything visual aesthetic–is the intentional, informed use of the principles of design. If you think you don’t need to learn and understand them, you may as well just leave your entire social media campaign to your blind great-aunt.

Exact accounts of these principles may vary depending on who you ask, but for now, let’s go with these: color, balance, line, typography, contrast, scale, proximity, hierarchy, repetition, direction, and space.

Write these down and paste it on the wall above your computer until you can get in for an appointment to have it tattooed across both forearms.

Understanding the impact of each of these elements on any and every visual design project or social media posting you ever make is the Cardinal rule. Without a crucial understanding of the principles of good design, your social media design is an absolute lost cause. We’re not being dramatic, you’re being dramatic.

Learn them. Understand them. Live them.

2. Keep it Simple

Once you’ve mastered the principles of good design, it can be tempting to show off your skills and get a bit carried away. Don’t do that!

Social media is all about quick delivery of information. Chances are, you’ve only got a few seconds mid-scroll to get your message across to your audience. Keeping your social media designs clean and simple is the best way to ensure your followers feel inclined to stop and look more closely, instead of getting overwhelmed and scrolling right past.

Keeping your designs generally simple also helps make your content more highly-relatable to a broader audience of people. The more specifically detailed, the less effective outreach you’ll have.

The other major reason you’ll want to keep things simple with your social media design is that it’ll be easier on you! Simple designs are often quick (but thoughtful) designs, which means you’ll have plenty of time to think about new ways to present content, and to post more awesome stuff.

3. Establish Your Brand

Any time spent in the world of marketing or advertising is time spent establishing your brand. Just because you’ve shifted to focus on social media outreach doesn’t mean you should stop working to establish your company’s consistent visual presence.

Consider maintaining your brand’s logo or website aesthetic through use of the same colors or style of typeface and illustration. Social media offers plenty of room for customization, which means you’re totally free to carry on with your company’s brand, even on generic social platforms!

Establishing consistent key elements of design helps establish your brand’s voice and tone, making your content more easily recognized and remembered by your audience.

Using common design elements among all different social media posts will help your audience make natural connections between one post and all other content from your brand, thus asserting your company’s significance in your audience’s minds!

4. Switch it Up

Yeah, yeah–we just told you to keep things consistent–we know. But one of the most important moves you can make in terms of social media design is to keep your presence fresh!

There’s nothing worse than a social media account that only ever posts car selfies or plaintext information slides.

We know what you’re thinking! But there’s plenty of room to try new things and maintain your branding, don’t worry.

Instead of falling into a rut where you’ve started to use the same template over and over with different text added in, consider changing things up completely! Posted two promotional slides with gradient backgrounds and serif typography? Feature a client post or a cool typographical photo using an image from this website instead!

Your audience is used to excitement in social media. Kylie Jenner posted one selfie, one lip kit photo, and one Stormi foot photo all in one day! Expectations for variety in your posts are understandably high.

Just remember: when in doubt, switch things up!

5. Highlight Key Info

We’ve been dancing around one super important fact: your social media presence is all about sharing information.

The entire reason to care about social media design at all is because of the ways in which awesome design can highlight and communicate your brand and its information. So, naturally, any and all social media content you post should work to highlight its key info.

Right?

Listing information in the captions of your posts probably isn’t enough to draw attention to the fact that your brand is offering a 60% off sale tomorrow only–but building an effective visual with a big, bright “60% off” can grab their attention and help them remember.

In any social media post, you’ll want to create a hierarchy of information with a clear point and an obvious call-to-action. Good social media design always highlights key information and makes it clear why audiences should stop by to listen.

Social media is a platform for communication. Make sure your content is managing that.