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One of the best ways to attract your target audience and stand out on social media is through visual content. Here we’ll go over ten ways to create visual content for social media that will amp up your brand’s online presence.

1. Create A Standardized Color Palette

Part of having a recognizable brand is creating and using a standard color palette. These colors, tints, and hues give your brand a feel while communicating moods and emotions. It helps make any social media videos you share instantly recognizable as yours, regardless of the social network.

If possible, make a brand guide for your company and include the approved color palette. Note appropriate uses for the colors and why it’s important not to stray from these colors in the official company uses.

2. Create Custom Video Thumbnails

When designed and presented appropriately, custom video thumbnails pique interest and curiosity before someone watches the video. When you’re creating visual content for social media, make sure every video has its own custom thumbnail. The imagery should be related to the video content and use approved branding to create cohesion.  

3. Ensure Visuals Align With The Brand Message

Yes, visuals enhance any type of social media video, but they should detract from the brand message and storytelling of the post. Before hitting send, have at least one other person give the video a lookover to ensure it’s on brand and on message. The core message and values of your brand or company should be consistent throughout every video you share.

4. Use Light Text Overlay

Using text in your videos isn’t an inherently bad practice, but it does come with a few caveats. The text should be legible; if you struggle to read it because of the size, color, or opacity, your viewers will too. Keep your message short but not so short it doesn’t communicate the video’s intent and capture interest. Light text overlays are also a good space to incorporate one or two keywords throughout the video.

5. High-Quality Video and Images

Creating visual content for social media should always — and we mean always — use high-quality video and images. Remember, visual content is part of your brand and how it's perceived online and off.

Quality visuals are also more aesthetically pleasing and easier to see on a range of screens and devices. If you or your company doesn’t have the capacity to create high-quality videos or images, working with a social media video production company will take this off your plate and virtually guarantee that what you put out is top-quality.

6. Share User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is a cost-effective and efficient way to create brand awareness and generate excitement around products. It’s created by real-life product users and brand evangelists, mostly without prompting from the company.

Reviews and testimonials are also considered key to building credibility for the company. Before you add UGC to your social media strategy, make sure you have photo or video rights to use the posts from the creator. Then, include credit on every UGC post by tagging the creator’s handle on the platform.

7. Install A Logo Watermark

It’s recommended to use a logo watermark with every social media video you share for two reasons. One, if someone else uses your video for their own promotion without permission, the watermark gives you recourse as the original creator for a takedown notice. Secondly, it’s another place for your brand to be noticed and create more awareness and familiarity across social media channels.

8. Get In On The Latest Video Trends

We’ve all heard about social media trends and posts going viral as a result. But your brand can get in on the latest trend without costumes and off-key acting or singing. Keep your finger on the pulse of what music or themes are popular and incorporate them into your social media videos.

Trends are a great way to shake up creating visual content for social media since they boost your post and profile visibility, are memorable, and an easy way to build a connection with your customers and followers.

9. Create Viewer-Friendly Content

Visual content is great for growing engagement and followers, but not everyone has the ability to consume the content as intended. When you make viewer-friendly content, you’re inviting everyone into your space, whether they need a screen reader to describe the video or are watching it in a place where having the sound on isn't an option.

Start by including accurate captions, or subtitles, for every video. While many platforms have a feature to add auto-generated captions, they aren’t always accurate and can skew the message or video intent. Use concise bullet points to recap video information at the end.

10. Transform Data Into Video

Numbers may not resonate with everyone, but for increasing engagement on visual content, they’re highly effective. Add relevant statistics and data as text overlays to drive home key points in a video. Because numbers are attention-grabbing when given in a contextual situation, they help make a social media video more digestible and shareable.

Start Creating Visual Content For Social Media Today!

Kickstart your social media production with engaging visual content by blending these tips and tactics with your creativity.