Have you ever wondered why photos and images are the primary tools for social media marketing now?

Besides improving your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to rank higher on Google’s search results, photos and images also boost traffic by engaging customers.

Images are a great medium of getting a message across because a human brain only retains 20% of what it reads but 80% of what it sees, and in this modern digital landscape saturated with images, your brand must have an effective social media strategy to stand out. At the very least, it will determine if someone should follow you or exit the page.

It is easy to get overwhelmed, but here are 11 social media design ideas that will increase visitor traffic, conversions, and clicks on your website, and extend your brand recognition.

1. Optimize Your Social Media Post Design Ideas According to the Platform Used

A strong visual strategy requires regular activity across various social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest among others, but that does not mean you can recycle the same post design ideas everywhere. The platform used not only dictates the type of post you put up but also determines the optimal size for the content used in it.

A video shot in Portrait mode may be a great social media design idea for an Instagram reel, but that same video would not fare well on YouTube or Facebook which are formatted for Landscape videos.

Similarly, each social media platform demands specific image sizes, which is where social media graphic ideas come in. Images with incorrect aspect ratios or low resolutions will stretch or crunch out of proportion, harming your brand image. Therefore, use an image sizing guide and Adobe Photoshop or any of the other online editing tools before using the same image everywhere.

2. Develop a Powerful Brand Identity

A principal social media design inspiration can sometimes be so powerful as to become synonymous with your brand. You must be clear about what your brand represents:

• What is its personality?
• What are its characteristics?
• What is its color palette?

Once you are clear on what your brand design is, ensure that everyone knows what it is. The profile picture (mostly the logo) should be the same across all social media platforms, and the supporting cover photos should be similar to it with similar themes of color, mood, text, imagery, or a filter, according to the most accepted social media graphic ideas. When someone sees that logo, they should immediately think of your brand.

3. Repurpose Images Everywhere

In addition to using consistent profile pictures, repurposing other images (albeit with an altered size) is another useful social media design inspiration.

If your client comes across a particular image on Facebook and clicks it, they could view the same image on your website. If a similar picture with the same model pops up on their Google search or in their Instagram explore, it drills into them an idea of your brand being everywhere. This cross-channel recognizability will instill confidence in the product and push them over the edge before they finally purchase it.

4. Ensure Consistency

It takes a few seconds for someone to decide if they want to click that ‘Follow’ button and here, first impressions matter a lot. Picking a color palette (usually the brand’s colors) and sticking to a strong visual theme on your social media channels not only makes it more appealing and aesthetic but it allows for instant brand recognition.

Think of Coca-Cola as a social media design inspiration:

• Why do they use bright red color in all their promotional material?
• Why does Apple use the same font on every website?
• Why do many feeds use the same template for all their posts?

They do it because audiences start associating that recognizable look with their brand and it strengthens their identity, and you can do the same with your social media graphic idea.

5. Create Templates

While it may sound like a time-consuming social media design idea, it ends up saving a lot of your time. Upcycling pre-made templates is not only efficient for last-minute posts, but it also enhances the consistency in your feed which contributes towards brand recognition as explained above.

All you need to do is make some templates whose color or font can be readily modified for future use, and you have a repository of post design ideas with you.

6. Innovate Content

No one wants to follow a brand’s page that posts the same thing repeatedly. Everyone wants to consume meaningful content and they want to be kept on their toes, not knowing what to expect.

If you are on Instagram, you would not just be posting pictures. You want to be making good use of the stories, the reels, and post full-fledged videos too. Even when it comes to the pictures, you want to mix up the company’s latest news and achievements and industry tips with infographics and motivational quotes to vary your content.

Content that is relevant to your target audience and website will establish a loyal customer base with long-lasting relationships, and if they learn something new, you might just go viral.

7. Use Colors Consciously

It is no secret that colors evoke strong emotions and using that to your strength is a social media design idea to keep in mind. While most feeds use their brand’s logo as their signature color palette, you should also be mindful of where else to use color smartly.

A study conducted by HubSpot demonstrated a 23% higher preference for red-colored Call-to-Action buttons over the green, on account of being more exciting and passionate.

Similarly, the blue color induces warmth, and these can be circumstantially used to invoke a certain action. For example, using a lot of red in posts is a popular post design idea for many brands in February around Valentine’s.

8. Post During the Peak Times

Social media design ideas are useless if posted at the wrong time. According to Digital Marketing Agency, Each social media platform has a peak time, that varies by day when there is maximum traffic on it.

For example, uploading your infographics around 9 am on Facebook ensures higher visibility as people check their phones after waking up. The peak times for Instagram fall between 10 am and 3 am and may vary for other platforms.

9. Add Contrast

For an image’s visuals to be striking, it needs to have contrast so that one element of an image is highlighted and stands out more than others, thus, catching the eye. While too much contrast will make your image look cluttered and confusing, a lack of it will make it a dud. If there is text in your image, contrast is what will ensure it is readable.

This can be achieved by playing with color (mixing dark and light colors), sizes (one aspect larger than another), or shapes (mixing symmetrical and asymmetrical ones), so that your images are more memorable.

10. Reflect the Diversity of Your Audience

Being inclusive in your marketing strategy is not only a responsible social media design idea, but it is also a smart thing to do. This could mean small changes like adding captions to videos or alt text captions to images, or bigger ones like having more diverse (in terms of skin color, body shapes, and gender) models for your photoshoots, especially if you are a beauty brand.

Showing that your brand values everyone without exception expands your customer base significantly and strengthens your brand image.

11. Pay Attention to the Font

When you use a font in your posters, it is crucial to ensure that it does not distract from the visuals behind it. Keeping it simple is a trusted social media design idea. Keeping it bold, contrasting its color with background, using a simple font, triple-checking its spelling and grammar, and being concise is the way to go.

Use image hierarchy to your advantage, by increasing the size of the most important text or content. The more you complicate the font, the worse it is for your visual strategy.

The Bottom Line

The wide majority of people are visual learners, which makes social media marketing an instrumental aspect of your brand’s promotional strategy.

Maintaining a positive presence on every platform is not an easy task, especially for small businesses with limited resources, but these easy-to-achieve social media design ideas can help boost your visual strategy and give your brand the reach it requires with minimal expenses.

Are you struggling with devising a marketing strategy that will give your brand the visibility and exposure it deserves? Get in touch with the professionals at One Design Pro for custom social media post design services.