How Social Media Graphics Can Help Increase Engagement
Social media graphics can help increase brand recognition and increase audience engagement for your business. Stimulating visual plays a crucial role in reaching your target audience. That is why brands spend time and effort in creating the optimum graphics that they include in their posts.
The type of visual you want to use largely depends on the purpose of your post. Do you want to offer a reward, motivate viewers to action, or simply provide information about your brand? You also have to pay close attention to the font style you’re using in your graphics, as well as the colors and the layout. Read on to find out how and what type of social media graphics can increase engagement.
Social Media Graphics
So what is social media graphics and how is it any different from regular graphic design? Images used as a cover on most social media sites are images at the very top of your Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube page. These often contain information about a product or brand, the site’s address, promotional video, or company information.
Then there are those graphics that you post together with your content. These images serve a different purpose than that of a cover photo. It is intended to attract users’ attention and encourage them to share the content. The primary goal of social media graphic designs is to urge users to like, comment, or share for more engagement.
Platforms for Social Media Graphics
Here are some social media platforms that social media graphics do well on:
When it comes to images, Instagram dominates this space. It is a social media platform designed for photo sharing and many users and brands have capitalized on this. Not only are people posting their personal photos, but they’ve also posted graphics on the platform for their readers to view.
Tumblr
In its hay day, Tumblr saw close to a million posts and many of the images and graphics were created by its own users. This amount of visuals has led to a drastic increase in engagement among Tumblr users. Today, Tumblr continues to be a platform that incentivizes graphics and images.
From personal accounts to brand pages and business accounts, you can all find it on Facebook. And as more and more users join the platform, there is even more need for quality content that’s both stimulating and informative. The more creative and appealing content is shared on Facebook, the more it will receive views, likes, and comments.
Examples of Social Media Graphics
Cover Photos
Cover photos are a great way to make an impression on your page’s new audience. In this example, the designer used vivid colors consistent with those used in the brand’s logo. They also opted to use minimal information to encourage the viewer to seek out further information about the brand. It is simple yet quite effective. The YouTube channel Real Life Lore’s cover photo is one great example.
Infographics
Infographics is another effective tactic that helps bring attention and engagement on social media. What’s great about infographics is it can present a lot of pertinent information that’s easy to digest. In this case, the designer focused on symbols and simple graphics to drive the main idea of the image. Latest Fashion & Trend on vegetarianism is a great example.
Post Title Image
Any content creator knows that for their content to be effective, it has to incorporate imagery. A long post that’s heavy on text won’t do too well with readers and will often be ignored. Above is a sample of a post title image common in blog posts. What it does is catch the eye of viewers and pique their interest for them to read on. Take a look at YouTube’s Wendover Productions sample of post title image used in his videos.
Inspirational Quote
Images of quotes for inspiration are the most posted and shared on social media. What’s more, they also drive engagement among viewers and followers. Inspiration quotes are particularly popular, especially among the younger demographic. They are easy to create and touch on the emotional side of the audience. Instagram user @sugarhugs. has one great example of an inspirational quote.
Question-Type
If you are looking to drive up engagement in a simple way, then question-type posts are the perfect way to do it. Take this question graphic post as an example. It is simple yet effective in a way that it can easily stand out against all other posts in a feed. What’s more, because the image only displays half of the question, it can lead viewers to pursue the post further to see what the other half of the question is. Here’s one example of a question graphic post done right by @winninggo.official.
Mood Boards
For designers, a mood board is a great way to show their viewers their design inspiration and your design process all in one post. These visual pieces are especially favored in platforms such as Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Pinterest user Sara shows an excellent mood board.
Visual Tutorials
They say that a picture can speak a thousand words. If that’s the case, then when it comes to tutorial content, pictures are invaluable. If you want your audience to quickly learn a skill that you’re quite good at, then the saying “show, don’t tell” is quite appropriate. Here is an example from diycraftsnmore.
Photos with Text
Images already create a powerful impact on social media. By adding a text overlay, it can increase that impact in a simple and effective way. Take the image above, for example. The composition is simple and clean. The added text highlights the message that the brand wishes to impart to its audience. Instagram user, @testimonials, clearly knows how to capture a user’s attention.
Text and Icons
This text coupled with an icon is similar to the previous one. But in this case, the letter ‘y’ resembles an airplane. A post like this should stay consistent with the messaging and overall look of the brand. This particular post by Daily Grafix could work for airline companies, travel agencies, and whatnot.
Stock photos
Last on this list are easily one of the most forgotten types of graphics online, stock photos. These are usually seen in blog posts to break the monotony of texts. Stock posts are quite easy to obtain and offer a wide variety of choices that will fit nicely with the content you are creating. Instagram user @melkinimages uses stock photos to promote his photography business.
Conclusion
There are almost unlimited ways to gain brand recognition, attention, and loyalty using social media graphics. All you need is a little research and a lot of creativity. However, if you feel like you need an extra hand to do the designing for you, hiring experts in the field could ramp up your brand’s social media base. You know what they say, you have to spend money to make money.
