5 Tips For Creating Cohesive Social Media Graphics

I recently asked for some feedback on Twitter about where people feel they struggle or are stuck with branding. I heard back from some people and there was some concern about creating cohesive social media graphics. I thought we could talk about that today, since for a lot of us with online businesses social media is responsible for growth and success. 

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REFER TO YOUR STYLE GUIDE

In this post I talked about creating a style guide for your branding. This will definitely contain rules that carry into developing your social media graphics. For example, maybe you have already set the precedence that you use Raleway font or that you emphasize things by switching to a heavier weight. Carry those rules from your website, or printed collateral, into your social media graphics. Create them to reflect the same stylistic decisions – colors, fonts, spacing, and so on.

Depending on how in-depth you previously were in your style guide, this might be a good opportunity to update it with more detailed information. As stated in that post the more specific, detailed, and elaborate you are – the better.

With social media graphics you’ll want to create versions (or sizes) for different platforms, but follow the same feeling across the board. You can have some room for variation – especially if your branding incorporates things like stock photos. My social media graphics for TheCrownFox are extremely consistent across the board – the biggest change being in color. There are other examples of great branding that are less obviously consistent, but keep things like black and white stock photos with whatever typographical treatment to tie things together. You can definitely be less obviously consistent than me, but you’ll want to keep things like your fonts and colors as consistent as possible to be that visual reminder of who’s social media graphic it is.

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USE TEMPLATES

If you’ve already caught the Systemize Your Branding Masterclass you saw my templates for social media graphics in use. My favorite tool is Adobe Illustrator and I use it to create a multi art board document with all the variations of my graphics (since my variation is color based, there are 12 options of how my graphics might look).

I can’t stress how vital making a template is, whether you’re using Illustrator, Photoshop, or even Canva. Having a pre-made, already designed in the right way graphic, where you just need to update text will save you so much time and give you so much consistency. Creating something new each time will leave a lot of room for error, difference, and not build up that cohesive approach. In general, if there’s an option to create some sort of template for any avenue of your business – I strongly recommend doing it.

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POINT TO YOUR WEBSITE

I recommend having your website visible on your graphics, so that even if at that point and time someone isn’t clicking through to your website, they still are being shown in multiple times.  For example, a lot of my blog post pins on Pinterest say the word “branding” somewhere in the title, and my website is on it. Over time the hope is that you’ll see branding and TheCrownFox in conjunction enough times that when you have a question about branding or need a graphic designer I will pop into your head.

To the last point, in your template, keep your website in the same consistent area of your graphics. The standard seems to be just at the bottom of your pins, but if you want it elsewhere that’s fine – I would just keep it pretty similar across all your graphics. This will help to start building up that recognition for people viewing your graphics on Pinterest or Twitter or Instagram.

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LEAVE ADJUSTMENT ROOM

Earlier this year I updated my graphics because my original design had no room for adjustments and had become incredibly limiting. I used to justify everything and try to put the emphasis word of a blog post title into the center. This became SUPER limiting on how I could title blog posts and caused some weird design rules to be broken. I realized the error in my ways and have since created a design that has a little bit more wiggle-room, which has made my life much easier!

So I recommend this to you too. Think about practically, not just the one thing you are designing when you make your template. Think about how you usually word your blog posts titles (or quotes, or whatever it is you are posting the most of). Make sure what you are using will fit that easily. If you are starting to feel too limited by your social media graphics, then it might be time to switch it up and use this newfound knowledge to create something easier to work with.

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KEEP SIMILAR ELEMENTS

Depending on the rest of your branding and what special or unique details you have, you’ll want to carry those into your social media graphics too. So I use the bottom color bar across graphics on my website, which then made sense to carry into my social media graphics as well. Just another visual reminder or cue to anyone finding me on any social platform or on my website that I’m the same business.

If your website graphics look way different than your social media graphics I recommend you take the time to find consistency between them. If someone was to navigate to your website via a social media graphic and then it looked completely different they might think they found the wrong website and leave. The aim is always to represent the same cohesive branding and business across all the possible ways someone can see or find you.

Take time to find what these unique details are that you might be drawn too, or be using elsewhere, and then pull them into your graphics. If you like emphasizing words with another font, then pull that into your graphics. If you double underline important things, then pull that into your graphics. I will say – less is more with social media graphics (and with branding in general, in my opinion) so don’t put 100 unique details and the kitchen sink on your graphics, but do pull in a way that someone will be able to recognize them as your graphics.

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The Main Elements Of Your Brand’s Style Guide

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One way to create a system through your branding is by creating a style guide for your visuals. Style guides are so valuable, folks. Even as a designer, who makes design decisions all day long, I have a style guide. It just takes the guesswork out of everything – and when you have a lot to do, you don’t want to waste time wondering/guessing/figuring things out. You just need to be able to execute, and having a style guide helps you to accomplish that.

A style guide can be as intense or as basic as you want. But, basically, it should have a resolution for any issue that might come up. For example, if your logo is made up of darker colors, what do you do when it is placed on a dark background? Have a solution prepared in your style guide. Are you okay with placing your logo over an image? Or does it need a solid color block behind it? Put that in the style guide. What fonts do you use for headers versus body copy? What colors are your links? When do you switch to a more horizontal lockup of your logo?

Taking the initial time to figure this all out and create an actual system will save you so much time in the long run. It’s especially beneficial to begin documenting and systemizing these things if you plan on growing your business and bringing on employees or assistants, because then you can pass off work without too much explanation. Here are the essential items your style guide must cover.

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LOGO USAGE

You spent a lot of time perfecting your logo, so you want to make sure it’s always shown in the best and most professional way. Things you should consider with your logo:

• How and when you use different variations or lockups of it.

• When you switch to one color (and what the one color is).

• When you switch to a white out or a black out version (depending on what it’s being placed over/on top of).

• What colors are you okay placing behind your logo?

• What sizes can your logo be displayed at?

• What can’t it be placed over (images, photographs, etc.)?

• What margins need to be around your logo at all times?

• What lockup versions are absolutely not allowed?

Going ahead with answers to these questions lets you place and use your logo in a consistent way. This builds trust, authority, recognition, and makes it easier for you (or your designer, assistant, partner, etc.) to work with your logo in the correct way. If you have a more ornate logo, you should also have a minimum size that it can appear (before it begins to look jumbled and confusing) and then an alternative option if you need something very small.

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COLOR PALETTE

Creating a color palette is more than just picking out colors. You also want to consider how you use the colors and how they work together. What becomes a body copy color versus a headline color? What becomes a background color when you need it? What do you use when you need neutrals?

My recommendation is that you have a set of primary colors that include a good body copy color, a good headline color, and a good link color. I also recommend making sure the colors work well together, that one or two of them are strong background colors. I also have recently added the idea, in my palette, of a bank of neutrals to choose from for when the situation arises. I’d rather be more prepared than less prepared.

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TYPOGRAPHY

You want to choose between 2-3 fonts to use throughout your branding. You need a font for the main body copy, one to be headers/title, and one for special emphasis (totally optional, I don’t actually have one for TheCrownFox branding). More than 3 fonts will probably begin to get confusing, so as a general rule, I’d steer clear of that.

Typography should be, at this point in “the way the world works”, web friendly. Or at least have a comparable web-font option. It’s easiest to use Typekit or Google Fonts, if you want to eliminate wondering if your fonts will work online.

With choosing your fonts, you also want to consider creating rules for how it can be altered/designed. For example, do you allow adjustments to the kerning and leading? If so, what sort of adjustments? You would also want to consider, or make a rule, about treatments such as turning things to uppercase, or changing the weight of the font for emphasis. Rather than just haphazardly choosing these things on a per project basis, it would be more efficient and more consistent (and therefore more professional) to have the rules already established within your style guide.

When you are making these decisions, consider the effect of different spacing. Something with blown out leading might appear airy, light, and modern. Something very compact will read as rushed or intense.  Too many uppercase sections can come across aggressive or rude. But most importantly, whatever you decide to do, do it consistently.

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UNIQUE DESIGN DETAILS

Things that would fall under here would be patterns, illustrations, specific design elements, etc. and how you use them throughout your branding. So if you often incorporate a really harsh diagonal line throughout your branding, specifics about how you use that would be something you want to establish – like what the angle is, how thick the line is, what happens when it intersects something else, and so on. Or if you use illustrations, think about what colors they appear (or can appear), how close they appear to text, the edge of a design, etc.

With distinctive elements like these pieces you really want to make sure you use them in a way that makes sense and adds to your branding (and overall goals). It can easily become overbearing or just “too much” and cross into gimmicky.

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OTHER

Other pieces that you would consider including into your style guide would be photography and copy/voice.  If you use stock/styled photography, or any sort of photography, in your branding you want it to make sense with the rest of your branding and be used effectively. You can include samples in your style guide of photography, or just make a note that you prefer images with certain things. For example: lots of white space, business casual wear, 1-2 people max, no people, food, coffee, etc. You can set whatever parameters you’d like - it’s just better to actually set them, so you aren’t wondering what types of images to use.

Copy/voice doesn’t really fit into “visuals” but it is commonly covered in style guides, because it is something else that benefits from having rules. So if you have a good idea who you are targeting, chances are you know some phrases, examples, references, and words to use to reach them. This is especially helpful if you are thinking of growing your team at all, because then you could handoff things like writing social media posts. Ideally, at some point, one person would do these sort of tasks, so everything felt the same – but you can create that ‘sameness’ by having key phrases, words, styles, etc. for people to pull from.

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If you don’t have all the answers to these questions yet, that’s okay. I just wanted to give you a place to start from so that you could establish a style guide. When your business starts to grow, expand, and evolve – having these set rules will be so helpful. You don’t have to “figure it out” on the spot, or try to explain to someone else all these little details that you might have in your mind, but not written out anywhere. 

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