3 ways to brand your social media effectively
Social media has been around for many years and it’s become front and centre for most business owners’ marketing strategy for good reason. The reach of social media is huge, both through followers and also through impressions and reach, but like with brand guidelines, application of branding is important to make a great first impression and connect with your consumer.So how can we brand our social channels effectively? Here’s a three-step guide:
COVER THE BASICS
Using brand guidelines, upload a profile picture of your product or your logo on every social channel. The same goes for any ‘cover imagery’ that heads up the page. Pin the most on-brand content to the top of your page, for instance, using social highlights.
Make sure your logo/profile picture is set up at the right dimensions, you can use programs like Photoshop or Canva* to create these. Remember to use a logo that is legible at the dimensions of each profile picture, this might mean you choose a different one for each channel from your logo suite. This will maintain the brand image without compromising legibility.
Apply colour through the backgrounds of your profile picture, banner, social highlights and through image selection as much as you can. You can also use your brand colour palette through text used on your social media designs, just make sure it is easy to read.
Make sure your branding is refreshed when necessary, and pop a note in the diary to check in on the basics once a quarter.
2. IMAGERY
As the saying goes, images say 100 words and your posts should also tie in with your branding as much as possible. If you have had art direction included in your brand identity, use these references to style shoots. These will include texture, colour, lighting and shadow references. By having consistency running through your imagery, your brand aesthetic will be amplified and become more recognisable to your audience.
If you are not able to create your own images, have a look through stock image libraries like Styled Stock Society* and define a ‘look’ that you will keep consistent through the season.
3. SOCIAL TEMPLATES
If you are planning on using graphic/text-only or text and image combinations as part of your social marketing campaigns it may be worth considering commissioning social media templates. The examples in this post all include social media templates that help apply branding to the grid between full-bleed (edge to edge) images within your feed. Colours can be changed to help keep a pace through the content, for instance background and text combinations can be chose to complement the images around them.
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