Brand Led Social Media Design

Who owns your brand? It’s an interesting question because, when you think about it, the whole point of branding is to both attract and be recognisable to your customers. It’s job, in other words, is to be both eye catching and comfortable, or, if you want, challenging and predictable. And this is never more true than in social media.

But let’s first answer the question: Who owns your brand? You may think that it’s a silly question, obviously you own your own brand, after all you created it, it represents you, it tells your story…but the truth is that you share ownership with all those mentioned above to whom your brand is recognisable, comfortable and predictable. Your branding has to meet their expectations, having created your brand you’ve passed ownership, at least commercially to your customers, because you’re now hostage to fortune, you can’t make changes to your brand without the risk of losing those you depend on.

How does this affect social media? Hugely, because unlike, for instance, magazines or other paper based advertising, digital advertising, which is what social media is in effect, is instant. You have less than seconds to both attract a new audience and to be recognisable to those you already know you, to be both eye catching and reassuring, challenging and instantly known.

How do you do that?

1. Make sure that your designers know what your marketing is trying to achieve. Where are you pitching your business, what do your customers look like, what are you trying to achieve, what’s your story.

2. Design to differentiate. The art is in looking different, but recognisably you.

3. Understand that design goes beyond the first impact, it targets its market and keeps your communication relevant.

4. Understand that good social media design works on a number of levels, as a layout, as a process that allows interaction with your audience, and as a strategy, where is all this taking us? What next?

5. Good designers will aim to be both consistent and novel, to convey your values and culture, to be eye catching and creative…all at once…which is why you need a great creative team who recognise the value of outstanding social media design. Brand51.