Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Xing - the perfect social media image! + Big Special: all social media giants at a glance 2017

A picture is worth a thousand words. Of course, the basis for a successful social media appearance is valuable content. The influence of a harmonious visualization should never be neglected. An appealing visual language contributes a great deal to the social media communication success. In this post we summarize how to harness the full potential of your strategy here.

1. Profile pictures

A profile picture for a company appearance - that's easy: of course the logo or the company name. However, this describes only the most common and at the same time the most sedate way to use the biggest attention spot on the top left.

That's better:

Use the profile picture to support your ongoing campaigns. Are you for example just a sponsor of a good cause? Then adjust your profile picture accordingly. Replace the logo temporarily or add additional information next to / under your logo. There is no faster way to get your audience aware of something new.

That's worse:

If the profile picture looks stale. For companies with multiple brands or products, you prefer to set a fixed interval and change your logos accordingly. This remains interesting without confusing the visitors of your site.
 

Tip:
Use the surprise effect. The social media area is about the entertainment value. A funny combination of profile and cover picture is original and will be remembered for a longer time. If
Browserwerk were to support a new customer in space technology, our Twitter profile could at times look like this:

Possible example of a combination of profile and title picture with "follow" reminder.

2. Cover pictures

A harmonious atmosphere is never completely wrong - factual corporate images, the proven keyvisual, emotional images from this year's corporate brochure.

That's better:

There, where there is a large cover picture in addition to the profile picture, you should not miss the chance to occupy this stage in the best possible way. Use them as a perfect opportunity to involve the audience - e.g. via call-to-action to effectively draw attention to products or actions. Place your massage, encourage participation.

This is worse:

If the cover picture technically gives nothing. Be sure to use the default format so that no important parts of the image disappear behind the edge of the browser. The most important image sizes can be found in our overview for 2017. Also, be sure to avoid images with too low a resolution or all kinds of poorly executed image processing.

Tip:

Do not overload your title image with text. Even with title pictures, social media portals provide specifications for the maximum text content of a picture. Better put a link to the current campaign or put arrows to the like / follow buttons.

Simultaneously with the publication of the big browser work SEO-Tales - an interactive storytelling info landing page on the subject of search engine optimization - our design team has developed a special design of the Facebook profile. Link to FB

3. Advertisements and picture contributions

Now that your profile and cover picture have caught the attention of your target audience, your ads and image feeds are expected to have the same, interesting and high quality visual content. So the key is the consistency of all your social media images.

This works best this way:

Choose a color scheme and stick with it. Matching your logo - or most of the time already defined in the corporate design - you can use your specified palette in all pictures. How to kill two birds with one stone: Your profile looks professional when your sums and ads match profile design, and you expand your reach by making it easy to recognize your messages on social networks.

Aber beware:

You should not overdo it. The necessary image rate for a successful social media appearance should not be generated mainly by advertisements. Switch your ads better in balanced intervals and use a good portion of the images for promotional campaigns.

Tip: Story Telling! Campaigns that tell a story before prompting the user to buy are significantly more effective. Because everyone loves stories and social media platforms are about entertainment value, which in many cases can account for up to 80% of an ad's success. An image sequence communicates in each case more efficiently than a single image. It should be easy to choose your adds here.

Concept and design of a carousel advertisement for our customer Prime for the campaign "Spring cleaning". Storytelling with final participation request.

Extra tip:
 

For some time now it has been possible to use animated gifs. A moderate amount of moving images are the icing on the cake for your social media appearance.

Conclusion: In order to fully exploit the potential of your social media presence, good content, a strong concept, an imaginative implementation and the right visual language are required. For the great success of optimizing the user experience, the early support of professionals in UX design and online marketing can pay off quickly. Here an investment and the know-how of a specialized Internet agency are worthwhile.

Browser work cheatsheet - on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Xing everything fits.

Great Social Media Image Size Overview 2017.