by Areg Vardanyan, founder and COO of AYYO Marketing
Social media posts require visuals – no breaking news there. All big companies go all out in hiring the best design groups to create banners, images, or other visuals that impress and stick to memory. Posting free stock photos on your social media is like telling your clients, “hey, I am not so creative” or “look, I don’t care enough to make my own visuals.” Is this the message you want to convey? I bet no, random photos downloaded from the Internet can make or break your Social Media Marketing depending on how you use them.
Don’t you worry my friend, I got your back. No need to surf the Internet in hopes of finding tips and tricks to design wow visuals.
I have identified the 6 most essential elements. Have fun exploring them:
Rule #1: Visual Means Less Text.
Any content about visuals has to state that vision is our dominant sense and that 90% of information entering the brain is visual. This number appears so much that it has become common knowledge. The point is, visuals stick to the memory, whereas text goes in one ear and out the other. So, whether it’s a banner or an infographic, do NOT include a lot of text, just the highlights. This, however, doesn’t mean that you should completely avoid text. Anything that you write needs to be readable and clearly communicate the message.
Rule #2: Have A Signature.
Association is the key to success in social media marketing. Capture the attention of your target audience with attractive visuals and continue with that handwriting; otherwise, you’ll create confusion. Connect your visuals to one another by colors, font, text size; you name it. Users should be able to identify whose post it is right away.
Rule #3: High Quality.
Here is the thing, there is already too much junk, if I may use that word, on all Social Media platforms. Don’t add to it, seek for high quality. No one wants to see blurry photos or not complete banners. Go over your visuals with the designers, show them to your friends and relatives, double check it by all means for the sake of better quality.
Rule #4: Videos With Thumbnails.
Visuals are not limited to still images; videos can be quite compelling too. People do enjoy beautiful, sentimental, well-made and funny motion graphics. Nonetheless, unlike images, you have another important task; you need to convince users to click on the video. How you ask? Thumbnails are the answer. You can either pick a scene from the video itself or design a thumbnail from scratch.
Rule #5: Make Use Of GIFs.
If you don’t feel like posting videos or your business profile doesn’t entail anything that can be videographed, use GIFs to add diversity and keep the audience entertained. An eye-catchy can work miracles, they don’t take a lot of time to load, they’re short and on point and easy to share and use in conversations. The goal of visuals is to spread the word about your product/service, and GIFs do serve this purpose.
Rule #6: Brand Identity Or Logos Everywhere.
Well, don’t spam your social media with your brand but be sure to have clearly defined brand on your pages via profile pics, cover photos, etc. Rebekah Radice, digital marketing strategist, identified 3 rules that she follows when designing graphics and one of them is, “Your graphics should be in line with your brand identity: From color palette to fonts, ensure that each graphic complements your brand personality and unique style.” Don’t forget about the watermarks; they’re absolutely and completely necessary, I’d even say mandatory. If your photos get shared and disseminated on other platforms, you can be sure that YOU will always hold the credit. Furthermore, you’ll bring people back to your page, which in fact, is one of your primary goals.
You just clicked Ctrl D, didn’t you? If you didn’t then, you most certainly should bookmark this article. No digital marketing strategy can be complete without social media, and no social media can generate noticeable results without top-notch visuals. Stop sitting around, step up your social media game, create graphics that impress.
Areg Vardanyan is the founder and COO of AYYO Marketing. He’s a proud digital marketing geek with many years of experience in the sphere. Areg possesses Google Analytics and Adwords as well as Hubspot Inbound Marketing certifications.
