Social media is constantly evolving. With new platforms springing up almost on a daily basis, and current platforms undergoing algorithm updates it can be difficult to keep up. However, regardless of all of these changes that continue to arise one thing remains a constant—the design of your social media profiles.
It’s very easy to overlook the design of your social media profiles. However, without having a cohesive social media design you run the risk of confusing your visitors and losing potential leads. If the thought of re-designing your social media profiles sounds like a lot of work, then keep reading.
Below we dive into a few easy-to-implement principles that’ll make your social media presence more cohesive, and stand out amongst the sea of competition.
Social Media Profile Design Must-Haves
When you’re designing your social media profile there are certain must-haves that your profile needs to include. The elements below will help you create a professional profile that helps your business give off an aura of authority.
1. Size Your Visual Elements Correctly
When you first land on a company’s social media profile the banner is one of the first things you see. Sadly, a lot of companies tend to have poorly designed banners, or cover photos that don’t display properly. Even the subtle elements of your profile communicate a lot about your business.
Beyond the header you’ll also need to have the right sized profile image. To make sure you have the proper dimensions set, check out this free guide from Hubspot.
2. Be a Brand
Your profile needs to match the rest of your online brand. For instance, the colors of your website needs to align with any colors you’re using on your social media profiles. Also, your language needs to be in alignment with the language and tone of your website.
If you’re a very professional and corporate-oriented business, then make sure your social media posts are written in a similar tone. And visa versa if you’re a more creative, hip, or funny company.
3. Use a Similar Bio
Your bio should be relatively the same regardless of what social media network you’re active on. This will help to build a sense of cohesion and allow your followers to track you across multiple platforms.
Of course, feel free to test out your profile bio with different CTAs depending on the social media network you’re active on. Different segments of your audience may hang out on different platforms and you’ll want to adjust your CTA to fit their unique needs.
4. Have a Consistent Name
The name of your profile needs to stay the same across each platform you have a profile on. At the very least, it needs to be as close as possible. This will help people to more easily find you and follow you on different platforms.
By having a branded name you build a consistent social media image. This will help to cultivate a sense of authority in your niche as well.
Social Media Posting Style Guide
The type of content you’re posting also needs to match the overall feel of your brand, and the goals of the platform you’re active on.
1. Understand Hashtags
Hashtags allow you to reach new segments of your audience and talk to relevant subgroups. If you’re familiar with the popular site Reddit you can think of hashtags as as sub-reddits, which are smaller category threads within the larger site.
Hashtags can also help to tell your reader what your post is about. So, feel free to incorporate as many relevant hashtags as possible into your post. Of course, this will work better for platforms that are built for hashtags, like Instagram and Twitter. But, you can still use hashtags on platforms like Facebook, but they’ll be for more of an aesthetic effect rather than to provide a search or category function.
2. Use Other Forms of Media
Including things like video and images will help increase the reach and engagement of your post. People are constantly craving more visually oriented content. This can be easily seen with the massive success of platform like Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat, which are mostly image and video based.
By including photo and video elements in your posts you’ll greatly increase the chances of your post being shared and reaching new fans.
Plus, you’re never quite sure which kind of content your audience will connect to best. Some people are more visually oriented, while others are prefer to engage over the written word. Why not cover all your bases and post content that connects visually and through text?
3. Know Platform Content Standards
You’ll need to create content that adheres to the standards of every platform that you post to. For instance, when posting on Twitter you’ll need to create something compelling in under 140 characters. While when posting on Facebook you can get away with content that incorporates video, photos, and text.
It’s very difficult to create a single post that’ll perform well across every platform. To truly succeed you’re going to need to adjust your content to do well on each platform you share on. You can start with the same seed of an idea, but make sure you adjust it to align with what kind of content people will expect to see on each platform.
By adhering to the principles above you’ll be on your way towards creating a more cohesive and powerful social media strategy for both your offline and online business.
If you need some assistance with either designing your social media profiles, or creating an effective social media strategy, then reach out to our team today.
