Social Media Design Guide for Kiwis and Aussies

We are living in a world where if people are not on social media platforms, then they are considered as out of the world. As social media marketing has become very important and part of daily routine, it can be from merely browsing or uploading any activities.

Looking at the situation worldwide due to COVID-19, it has become mandatory for brands to adopt social media to communicate and in touch with their customers.

As per the reports, 24000 New Zealand Facebook Pages and 11000 Instagram accounts were tracked the changing ways of brands are leveraging social media for marketing activities.

Kiwis have steadily increased the number of hours they spend on Facebook over the last several years, from 6 hours and 33 minutes per month in December 2013 to 9 hours and 57 minutes in June 2019, according to Nielsen Online data.

From September 2019 to February 2020, across the 23971 NZ Facebook pages, an average of just 2.24% of page followers interacted with a brand page per week.

There are around 3.81 billion active social media users worldwide. In January 2020, Australia had 18 million social media users, and in between April 2019 and January 2020, social media users increased in Australia by 735,000,000 which is +4.3%) Social media penetration in Australia is currently at 71%.

With great diversity existing in digital and social marketing strategies, it is straightforward to get yourself lost from fundamental elements. Hence we are enlisting below informative content for you to understand the necessary steps about social media creative design strategy.

Social media Creative design strategy

1.Evaluate the audiences for your current channels

Depending upon the suitability of business; one can discuss the correct channel for their activities on the social platform. It can be Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn many more hence one significant step here is to evaluate your target audience.

Knowing your audience is a vital part of any marketing strategy. Make sure you do basic research in advance demographically, interest, behaviour, niches gather maximum information. Look at competitors and try to develop your unique persona.

Try to comment and interact with your audience to understand them. You can also conduct surveys through which feedback is gathered and yet analysed.

2.Choose the correct platforms to reach your audiences.

Make sure you spend your time, effort and money on the most strong tactics and channels without knowledge of what will work best, it is easy to let fear stop you from starting.
Not all social media platform will work best, and it depends on the type of industry you belong to.

For instance, visually-driven sectors like fashion, cosmetology and dining gravitate toward Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. Dairy and food industries on Instagram and Facebook, while educational services can be promoted on YouTube also effectively.

Industries like software and tech have seen a lot of success with Twitter because they can curate content and pull users into their site.

New-Zealand is having significant industries such as mining, dairy, agriculture while Australia vital industries are tourism, financial, healthcare, service industry comprises 70% of their GDP. Hence depending upon the industry one has to select social media platform to promote their products or services.

3.Evaluate the types of content

User-generated content is quite popular these days, which is earning strong impressions and engagement on social media. Instagram is a platform which can beach such content and increases its reach.

Various captions, trending hashtags, story contests are few examples.
Infographics are three times more effective then text, memes are also being liked by people as they are hilarious. Videos work better in Facebook posts, inspirational yet practical content works best for this medium.

New-Zealand products are known for its 100% purity, so make sure your content is based on these keywords.
Human interest stories across NZ also gather attention and likes on social media.

Some hashtags which are popular on Instgram, Facebook, Twitter:

#newzealand
#100%newzealand
#NZ
#nature
#auckland
#canada
#australia

Your social media graphic design workflow

1.Colour

Did you know around 90% of people make their purchasing decision on the basis of COLOUR? There is a reason why the Canterbury brand represents red in colour. Why Air New Zealand is having teal blue colours in favour of mostly black and white pattern, there is a reason for everything you see.

New Zealand dons their natural colours in order to make worldwide aware that they are exclusively New-Zealand made. Black, silver, red and white are majorly seen and executed colours by Kiwis.

At the same time, green and gold are majorly seen shades reflected by Aussies. Align such shades in your social media images which will guide your target audience through a brand story.

Some examples:

Red- Energy and Hunger

Green—Wealth and Relaxation

Black –Sleek and powerful

Blue- Trust and security

 

White – Purity and Honesty

Purple and Pink – Royal and Feminine

2.Clarity

Whether your design is simple or complex, one should know how it should be its clarity, especially with regard to social media graphics.

Do not try to include everything, and make it look clumsy, ensure the balance between simplicity and informative. You don’t have much time to impress your target followers, so ensure your brand message is visible.

There are four types of features to sustain the correct balance:

1.Symmetrical
2.Asymmetrical
3.Crystallographic
4.Radial

Hence these features of added correctly will result in beautiful social media design.

3.Font should reflect the brand personality

Fonts bring your design’s message from static into life fonts should always embody the nature and character of your brand. The country-owned 100% of products can imbibe font style from Maori or silver fern patterns which represent NZ owned and made products.

Social media images and posts are an excellent opportunity to let out from your usual boring set of brand fonts. Social media design is an opportunity to get creative with your font style and collection. Whatever fonts you choose to use, make sure you apply them consistently.

Examples: NZ water polo, Disney, NZ Herbals

4.Contrast

There are many things which negative space while contrast attracts the eye and can be applied with the brand story, font style, colours, size and more.

For example, to use a white logo, there should be a contrasting dark background to make the look and read correctly. The right proposition can bring any social media graphic design, which is non-living into living life!

Text is also a crucial part of contrast hence by choosing effective text sizes that contrast well, as mentioned above, will help to make your graphic pop.
Easy thumb rule goes light when the logo is dark and vice versa.

5.Proximity

When there are similar elements in the social media designs, make sure they are placed as a family if not, it can make design look scattered and cluttered.

You can make the physical placement of objects near each other, or use similar colours, size and font to make it look at the same family.

In social media design, the proximity can help to bring elements of a product or concept together through special relationships.

6.Direction

There is always a different pattern of glance customer go through when he check out images, content, social media or website which can be E, F or Z.
We need to create a deliberate flow of pattern, and placing essential and eye-catching characteristics on the upper left and left side of your design is critical.

7. Space

The power of simplicity in your design can make you stand out. Space can help bring an aesthetic quality to your image while also highlighting the essential elements.

Examples: Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, FedEx, Formula 1, SANCCOB

Also Read: Branding & Marketing for Kiwi Businesses after Covid-19

Social Media Creatives dimensions for each social media platform

Below we are sharing all image sizes for various social media platforms. Hence this will ensure your next social media updates reach out to its maximum target audience.

Here is a complete guide which is covering all image sizes of your social media networks you require for the perfect visuals!

Image guidelines for social media posts

Minimum size: 400 x 150 pixels.
Displays: 820 x 312 pixels on a desktop and 640 x 360 pixels on smartphones

Facebook feed post images, the optimal size is 940 x 788 pixels. For a Facebook feed ad and shared link image, use 1200 x 628 pixels.

Best Instagram image size for posts are: 1080px by 1080px (Square) 1080px by 1350px (Portrait) and. 1080px by 608px (Landscape).

LinkedIn recommends using a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. This is the same aspect ratio as the image in Facebook’s link preview! Hence, 1,200 pixels wide by 628 pixels tall will work great for sharing links with a vision to LinkedIn.

Twitter profile picture size is 400 x 400 pixels (file size must be less than 2 MB)

Around 93% of Pinners use Pinterest to plan or make purchases; hence Profile image: 165 x 165 pixels.

YouTube image sizes: Channel cover photo: 2560 x 1440 pixels

CONCLUSION:

When you start your business, you should always know about its correct channels and its audience. Facebook makes excellent use of articles, and promos and a lot of the older generation are majorly on this platform.

Millineials are more towards Instagram while twitters are engaging, Pinterest is inspirational, and LinkedIn is inclined towards business. Depending upon your purpose, you can select and move with that platform.

Any good social media strategy with an effective plan can do wonders for your brand. If you want to start social media for your brand but don’t know how to start, from where to begin to connect us today we will help you to connect your audience and develop a fundamental relationship with them which will help you to gain competitive advantage.