Branded social media assets: how to stand out on socials.

Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn… The list of social media platforms continues to grow. And with so many businesses fighting for audience attention, standing out on socials is far from easy.

But, if you want to stop the scroll with your social media marketing efforts, then branded social media assets can help.

Branded social media assets are creative assets that align with your visual brand identity. They use colours, fonts, images and words that reflect your brand personality and company values.

In this post, we look at why branded assets are so memorable and engaging for social media users. We explore the social media assets you need to assemble — and best practices for creating and managing them.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• What are social media assets?
• The value of branded social media content
• 10 multimedia assets you can use for your business socials
• How to create branded social media assets
• How to manage brand assets

Ready? Let’s go.

What are social media assets?

Social media assets are the content you use on social media platforms as part of your social media marketing strategy. They include things like images, videos, graphics and written content.

The best social media assets consistently use your brand colours, imagery and tone of voice. This makes it easy for users to recognise your posts and your brand. It also helps posts to stand out from other content in the feed.

The value of branded social media content

So why take the time to create branded social media assets? Here are some of the benefits you can expect when you approach the design of your social media content with strategy and consistency.

• You stand out. 77% of all businesses use social media to reach customers. That rises to 96% when we look at just small businesses. So it’s safe to say that there’s a lot of competition on social platforms. To grab audience attention among a sea of content, you need social media branding that packs a punch.
• Your brand becomes more memorable. When all your social media content has the same look and feel, you make your brand more recognisable. People are more likely to remember your brand and recall it next time they need a product or service like yours.
• You improve social media engagement. Well-designed, multimedia brand assets provide a visual hook. They grab user attention and encourage engagement. Good content also prompts likes and shares, which means you reach a wide audience on each platform.
• You improve conversions. Because branded social media assets achieve all of the above, they also lead to more clicks, enquiries and sales.

10 multimedia assets you can use for your business socials

Each social media platform has different requirements and norms. And it pays to post content that fits audience expectations.

That being said, most of the social media assets we’ve included below are relevant to all the major platforms out there today. So take a look and decide which you want to incorporate into your social media marketing strategy.

A logo

Your logo is the face of your brand. So you need a high-resolution version, on both light and dark backgrounds, for each social media platform you use. You can add your logo as a profile picture and as a watermark on branded social media images and videos.

Profile picture

Instead of using your logo as your profile picture, you can use an image that represents the product or service you provide. This is one of the first things people see when they come across your profile so it needs to accurately reflect your brand and draw social media users in.

Cover or banner image

Most social media platforms have space for a cover or banner image. This is the larger, rectangular image that takes up the top part of your profile. Any image you put here should be tailored to fit the available space, so it doesn’t end up looking stretched. You can also update your banners to reflect seasonal promotions or new product launches.

Professional photographs

Professional photographs are another social media essential. They’re great for engagement, help create an emotional connection with your audience and can improve post visibility too. Depending on your business, you may opt for lifestyle shots, personal branding images and/or photographs of your products.

DIY photographs

Not everything you put on social media needs to be polished to perfection. You want to give your followers an authentic look at your brand. For solopreneurs, that might mean posting the occasional selfie or pictures of your day-to-day business life. For larger organisations, you might like to post behind-the-scenes snaps of your team or your latest event.

Videos

To compete with TikTok, pretty much every social platform now supports video content. And — whether you choose to work with a videographer or film your own reels — this type of social media content is really effective. Social media posts that contain video content attract twice the engagement as those that only contain images.

Social media graphic design

Custom-designed graphics are particularly well-suited to platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. You can create carousels to share useful information in an interactive and easy-to-digest format. You can also use graphics to highlight a testimonial quote or showcase a new offer. Infographics are another popular option. They help you turn complex information into useful, bitesize content.

GIFs and memes

Incorporating GIFs and memes into your social media strategy can bring a sense of humour and playfulness to your brand messaging. You can add your on-brand spin to a trending meme or search for the perfect GIFs on platforms like Giphy and Tenor.

Illustrations and animations

Custom illustrations and animations are unique. So they’re a great way to showcase your brand. And — thanks to their creativity and movement — they also do an excellent job of attracting user attention.

Words

Social media visuals are super important. But the words you use have a big impact too. Whether you’re creating text to go with your original graphics, writing social media captions or making text the star of your post, aim to write with a distinctive, on-brand tone of voice.

How to create branded social media assets

So we’ve seen the huge array of social media assets you can create. But how do you put your stamp on them? How do you incorporate your branding to make social media content more recognisable and engaging? Let’s take a look.

Define your visual brand identity

Start by defining your visual brand identity. Working with a web and branding agency, you can develop a professional-looking brand that reflects your company values, appeals to your audience and stands out from competitors.

As part of your visual brand identity, your team will craft and define the following elements:

• Logo
• Colour scheme
• Fonts
• Photography style (for example, candid, minimalist, bold)
• Graphic design elements (the shapes and patterns you plan to use)

If you already have website branding you’re happy with, you can pull most of these elements from your website brand guidelines.

Work with professionals

To get the best possible brand assets, it pays to work with professionals.

Professional photographers, videographers, content writers and social media graphic designers can create visuals and words that show your audience you’re serious about what you do.

You can then supplement this standout content with DIY creations of your own, using brand guidelines as a reference to ensure there’s consistency across all content.

Use branded templates to create DIY social media posts

Creating visually consistent posts doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Branded templates help you maintain a uniform look across your social media posts while speeding up content creation.

So work with a designer to create a set of reusable templates. These should include layouts for infographics, promotional posts and carousels. They should feature your brand colours and graphic design elements, like icons and patterns.

Using these templates, you or your team will find it easier to create social media assets without having to rely on graphic design support each and every time.

Keep a handle on image sizes

Each social media platform has its own image size requirements. Using the wrong dimensions can lead to blurry, cropped or stretched visuals. Regularly check the latest guidelines for profile pictures, cover photos and post images. And consider using templates with the correct dimensions to speed up the content creation process.

Avoid using AI for creative tasks

AI is a useful brainstorming buddy. It can help you come up with ideas for social media content. It can even create a visual mock-up of what you want a post to look like. But it falls down when it comes to actually creating a post.

AI tools lack the human creativity and authenticity that make social media engaging. AI-generated assets can look generic, repetitive and off-brand. So use AI as an assistant for resizing images or automating repetitive tasks. But rely on designers or your own skills for branding, design and text.

Speak in your brand’s tone of voice

Social media captions, replies to user comments and any other text you put on your social media profiles should align with your brand’s voice and personality. A distinctive tone of voice helps humanise your brand and connect with your audience. So make sure anyone writing for your brand understands and follows brand voice guidelines.

How to manage brand assets

Creating your social media assets is a big part of the process. But — to get the most from those assets — you need a process for managing them too. Here’s how to be organised and strategic with your brand assets.

Get organised

You need a system for storing your creative assets so it’s easy to find and reuse them. So create a digital media library and make it accessible to everyone within your team who’s responsible for social media posting.

When populating your library, use consistent naming and tagging conventions. For example, you may like to give all assets a name that includes the date of creation and details of the topics or themes they cover. This makes your library searchable and much easier to use.

Repurpose content

All branded social media assets should be tailored to the platform you’re posting to. But that doesn’t mean you can’t repurpose content across and within platforms.

You can turn a blog post into an infographic or a carousel post. Or break a longer video into shorter snippets, better suited to Instagram Reels or TikTok. This helps you get more mileage out of each creative asset — you can consistently share valuable content without creating it from scratch every time.

Test and optimise

If there’s data available, make sure you use it. Find out which of your social media assets and content performs best with your audience.

To do that, track metrics like likes, shares and click-through rates to identify your best and worst-performing posts. Then, direct your time and resources to the platforms and assets that offer the best return on investment (ROI).

Making branded social media assets work harder for your business

Create branded social media assets for your business and you stand to improve brand recognition, audience engagement and conversions. You make your socials work harder for your business — which means a better ROI for your social media marketing efforts.

To start with, get clear on the types of creative assets you want to create. And ensure you have a distinctive brand identity. Then, make the most of your assets by carefully storing and reusing them.

Branding in need of an update? Then give the Radical team a call. We can help you develop a new visual identity. We can also craft the branded graphic design elements you need to take your social media marketing to a whole new level.

Give our team a call to chat about your project today.