Branding and design for social media success

Social media is all about creating that instant connection that leads to followers joining your online community. As a marketing professional, you may be focused on boosting engagement and the reach of posts, but do you know which kind of content receives the highest engagement across the board? According to statistics from Zabisco, 40% of people respond better to visuals than plain text, which means content such as images and infographics can outperform text-only posts a large percentage of the time.

Research compiled by 3M suggests our brains tend to process visual content 60,000 times faster when compared to regular text. So, when we are scrolling down our news feeds, impressive visuals are much more likely to get our attention.

For many businesses, digital natives make up the target market and so understanding how they operate is key to building an online community. Digital natives know what they like and are quick to turn off if it doesn’t meet their standards.

If your social media posts aren’t up to scratch, you won’t get their attention. Researchers suggest that the average human attention span is 7-8 seconds, so in many cases, users will continue to scroll and come across your competitors. Igaming is such a competitive market and many brands have already built strong communities online. Learning how to leverage branding and design can help you to compete with a highly engaged online community.

Use your brand to build a connection

If you aren’t convinced that branding and design are important, this might change your mind: did you know that 47% of people who follow brands on social media are more likely to visit that company’s website? The truth is that professional branding can help to improve your credibility online. Despite the fact that igaming is heavily regulated, players are still careful where they deposit. So, if you don’t have a credible social presence, you might miss out on leads.

In this case, you must also offer an element of professionalism in the content that you create. Poorly designed content will only affect your credibility in the opposite way – something that can be detrimental to the success of your online community.

Social media is also extremely effective in building your brand awareness, alongside brand affinity. For a player to become engaged in an online community, they need to understand the brand and its values. Professional design and branding throughout campaigns can help to push this narrative forward and benefit your brand in the long run. It typically takes around 5-7 brand interactions for a consumer to remember the brand – so make them feel part of something!

Igaming brands will already understand just how difficult it can be to stand out from competitors. Brands typically offer the same games and, in many cases, similar promotions, so finding unique content can be tricky. Additionally, social media has become crowded and newsfeeds move quickly so you need to get it right.

This is where professional design and branding can set your brand apart from others. Even if you are offering the same information as a competitor, having it presented professionally in an infographic or a branded video can make all the difference. Over time, your community will come to recognise the branding and will engage.

One of the key elements of building a community involves engaging the users. Marketing professionals are continuously measuring engagement levels to determine which content is working and why. The more engaged the audience, the more often they will see your content, in many cases due to the way in which the algorithms are designed.

Well-designed graphics are proven to help with engagement. Videos have the power to elevate content and keep users on your page for longer. Typically, infographics also receive more engagement than a post that contains just text or a photograph. Additionally, if you can create something that is shared across the platform and which includes your branding or logo, you can increase your brand awareness extensively.

Creating a unique brand

Having a strong brand identity to run with is the first step to using graphic design to build your online community. If you already have an existing brand identity, it is possible that players are both aware of it and have some kind of affinity with it.

While it doesn’t hurt to tidy your branding up a bit for social content, you shouldn’t stray away from something that is relatable and recognisable. If you’re new to the industry, you should ensure your branding relates to your business personality and encompasses your voice. Additionally, this should match the personality of your users.

Creating a cohesive design is key to making this work. Stick to your brand colours and don’t muddle the picture with unusual fonts or images. Keep it simple and focused on your brand image – overcomplicating things can result in a negative impact on brand awareness.

You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to create graphics that will help you build a community online. If you don’t have the skills or experience, you can make use of tools such as Canva, which comes with templates and easy-to-use functionality. Many igaming professionals use it to create branded templates that can be easily edited for different campaigns – saving time and money.

Did you know that social video content can help to generate around 1,200% more shares than text and image content combined? This figure might sound incredibly high, but video content is typically much more engaging. You can use Canva to create short videos or go the extra mile and create webinars or video interviews.

Igaming experts have a wealth of options when it comes to creating effective video content. Most stick to promotional videos for new games or seasonal events but there is so much more to be done. Users typically engage well when a brand has a face that they can recognise – so give your brand one. Brand ambassadors, team members or even players can appear in video content to help build that community. Just make sure to keep your branding cohesive in any video content to achieve the desired result.

If you do decide to create content for your social platforms, you must ensure that you are staying up to date with file sizes and formats. If an image can’t be viewed or isn’t fully optimised, all your efforts will go to waste. You must remember that each graphic you push out on social media represents your brand, so it needs to be professional and optimised.

Social media platforms are always changing their recommended sizes and adding new features. What might work for a feed post won’t work on a story. Additionally, you must be clued up on how the features work and why they are important. For instance, 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound so subtitles are crucial. Most social platforms now also come with a captioning tool to save you some time.

You must also consider the impact of user-generated content. According to recent research from Stackla, around 79% of people claim that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing choices. For those in igaming, this could include screenshots from games, photos of winners or anything else sent in. There is a fine line between leveraging user-generated content and pushing out content that doesn’t look professional. Try to incorporate your branding into any content like this to keep the brand image clear.

Conclusion

To build a strong online community, you must be willing to show off a cohesive and professional brand image at all times. With the right creative content, you can boost your brand awareness and create a community of loyal followers who could one day become players. Avoid text-only posts and share content that users will pay attention to from the moment it appears in their social feeds.