A social media design system is a set of materials that outline how your company represents itself online, so you can work faster and stay closely aligned with your brand across all social platforms.
Social media design system materials may include:
- Social media banners or profile images.
- Digital ad templates.
- Instagram and Facebook Stories templates.
- Templates for posts that are made on a regular basis, such as blog posts, testimonials, or employee highlights.
Why you need a social media design system
You need a social media design system if:
- Your organization has several people managing your social media.
- Your organization uses an external agency to manage your social media.
- You have different divisions within your company that develop different campaigns, with different priorities and outcomes.
- You want to save time and energy, but keep the look of your social media channels consistent and on-brand.
Examples of how to do it
More and more, companies are adding digital collateral components alongside standard collateral items like business cards and stationery.
For example, when we designed a website and stationery for Bowditch, we didn’t stop there. We created a social media design system full of materials they can use online.
The result is a cohesive and professional look for anyone who visits their website and social media profiles.
Likewise, when we designed a full suite of collateral for Verrill, we also designed social media banners and a digital ad template.
Verrill’s bright yellow and black and white brand colors are carried through all elements of their social media, creating a very cohesive and professional appearance.
We created targeted, subject-matter specific graphics for Johnson O’Connor to use on their social media posts to highlight different aspects of their business:
The marketing team at Sullivan created template graphics for different types of posts on social media, like blog posts, pull-quotes, new employee announcements, save-the-dates, and recruiting calls-to-action based on their new brand standards that we helped develop. The templates vary from one another so they are eye-catching as well as cohesive and on-brand:
If you don’t have a social media design system in place yet, consider making one or contact us and let us know how we can help streamline your process.
