Making sure that your brand has a clear and consistent message online is extremely important for every business that operates in the virtual world. When we set up social media pages for a client, we make sure that their branding is consistent across every social channel that they have a profile on. Our goal is to make sure that their brand can be easily recognized, no matter what channel a user is on.
However, one of the most overlooked aspects of online branding is the image that businesses share with fans and followers on social media. It is important that the images your company is sharing are consistent with your brand.
Below are a few design tips to help your audience recognize your brand’s pictures when they discover them online.
Consistent Logo Size and Placement
If you choose to place your company logo on your images, it is important that you determine the proper logo size for all images that are shared. Once that size is determined, apply it to all images that are shared on social media. The logo size shouldn’t be so small that it is unrecognizable, but it shouldn’t overpower the image either.
You will also want to make sure that you keep the positioning of your logo as consistent as possible. If your logo looks best in the bottom right-hand corner of the image, it should be there on every image that is shared.
Make sure that the positioning of the logo does not distract from the image but compliments it. Changing the position of the logo to suit a specific type of design is OK, but remember that images look best if they are right or left aligned.
Keep Your Fonts Consistent
Nike is one of the most recognizable brands in the United States, and arguably the world. If you browse Nike’s Facebook page, you will discover that they use their iconic bold uppercase font in almost all of the images they share on social media.
If you like to use a lot of text overlays like Nike does, you will want to choose no more than three fonts to use on your social media graphics. Your brand can also use the same font, but use a combination of italics, bolding words or letter spacing to separate your heading, subtitle and body text.
Incorporate Band Colors
Many well-established companies will incorporate the colors of their brand every chance they get. Target is an excellent example – they take full advantage of their signature red whenever they can. Either items in photographs, the back drops or the fonts in the image will incorporate the color red.
Colors help evoke emotion and feeling associated with your brand. You can apply this same approach by using the colors in your logo in a majority of your images. If you don’t already, you will want to find and save the hex code of your brand’s logo colors. The hex code is the six-digit number that appears on the color wheel and gives you the exact color of your logo.
Don’t stress out about incorporating your brand colors into every image that you share, but do try to use them whenever appropriate.
Pick Images That Fit Your Style
Choosing images that fit your brand and have a consistent theme is important for social media. These images should fit your brand’s personality and should connect with the audience you are trying to reach.
Here at Katie Wagner Social Media, we use images from Instagram in a majority of our social media posts because the images are visually appealing and are of high quality. Instagram images are also easily recognizable and have a social appeal. That’s why we share them.
Colors, fonts, logo placements and layouts are all essential design elements that play a role in making your company stand out on social media. If one of your goals is to increase brand awareness for your business, having a consistent brand image across all social media channels can have a major impact.
For more social media information, find us on Facebook!
