Making a good social media post!

Hey hey wonderful people coming across, hope y'all are doing well. ❤

Today's post is a part of the Content Development and Marketing program, under the Academy Fall Events. 🎃

Visuals are always more appealing than just text, visuals help in grabbing the attention of the reader, and make them want to open the post and see what it's all about.

We'll be discussing what can help you to make a graphic post that stands out on social media in the following points.

• Intent: The "why" behind your post and content, what is it that *you* want to convey to the reader.

  • Be specific, thorough, well-researched, and knowledgeable about the idea.

• Designing graphics: A broader area to consider, where we keep in mind various factors like the platform/ social media site to be used to promote our content, viewers and network base, engagement audience etc.

• Image Size:

Make sure your images correspond to the image sizes the networks provide.

Always aim for the highest image quality. That includes pixels and resolution.

• Text:

  • Use an adequate font size, that's legible enough.

  • It's okay to play with different sizes and styles to highlight certain things.

  • Use inclusive language. Avoid ableist language, stick with gender-neutral pronouns and terms, share diverse voices and emoji, and evaluate text for assumptions of limited points of view, to cater to the maximum audience.

  • Use simple language, and avoid slang, if they aren't specific to your post.

  • Avoid overcrowding the graphic, opt for limited line length.

  • Always check spelling and grammar before posting. (No typos hehe 😛)

• Contrast:

  • Make sure there’s enough contrast between the text and background so that it’s readable. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCGA) recommend using a contrast of 4.5 to 1. There are several free contrast checkers available if you’re not sure how to do this.

  • Without getting too technical, some good points to keep in mind:

    • Avoid using loud colours (like red, blue, yellow) with faint text colour

    • With more text, it's best to use a solid/ monochrome background or an opaque overlay

Having brushed upon a couple of things regarding colour scheme, image size, text, contrast etc, I'd like to assure yall that it is really easy to get set and started with your first graphic, all you need to do is hop over to a site/ app that has free editable templates, and various options to select and modify your graphic as per your liking.

Sites that have free editable templates include:

♡ Canva (Please feel welcome to see this well-written guide on canva by @KimByeongIn)

♡ Pablo by Buffer

♡ Snappa

♡ Have another that works for you? Share with us!

• Captions and Connecting: Simply making a graphic won't do the job alone, it's important we caption it in a way that resonates with the audience, conveys the purpose, builds engagement and connects with users.

  • Some ideas for captions include: summarizing the content, mentioning the main motto of the post, asking questions/ inviting thoughts, sharing experiences etc.

  • Include relevant hashtags and consider using mentions and tagging other users, to build a network, and allow more engagement. Check out the 5 Free Hashtag Analytics Tools that can help you with this.

  • Make use of emojis, and shared experiences.

References:

• Social Media Graphics: Promoting Site Content by @Soulfullyabutterfly

• 12 Tips for Creating Engaging Visual Content on Social Media

• Inclusive Design for Social Media: Tips for Creating Accessible Channels

I hope this helps in some way, to make your first-ever graphic (in case you're new to this). As part of the fall event, we would like to do this practice as well.

Feel free to make your graphics applying the tips mentioned here, and share with us in this thread.

Not sure how to add images in forums? Find instructions here.

Looking forward to some amazing graphics and tips! ❤

This post is part of Academy Fall Events! 🔔Click here to view all events

🎓 Explore the Content Development and Marketing Program here

📢 Learn more about 7 Cups Academy programs for listeners here and here for members!