Social media designers, sometimes also called social media graphic designers, are the artists who use different skills to attract their target audience with the help of attention-grabbing social media posts and pages.
They design infographics, product images, social media stories, memes, and similar content to improve a company’s social media presence and online image.
This article explains what social media designers are and what role they play in an organization.
Social media designer description
A social media designer uses his programming and graphic designing skills to generate visually compelling content, pages, and apps for the company.
They employ their marketing knowledge and skills to come up with content that targets a specific audience. Their goal is to attract their target audience and increase the number of customers by making social media apps, social media profile pages, and posts attractive.
They create several drafts of their designs and keep working on them until the final design becomes suitable for the target audience. They incorporate different elements to present information in the best possible way.
A social media graphic designer may also be responsible for posting content on social media. While they work on computers, their employer may also ask them to produce content for smartphone users.
Social media designer skills
A social and digital media designer communicates with the audience using different colors, figures, text, and similar art elements. Typically, employers look for the following skills in social media designers.
Creativity
As a social media designer, you need to have a visual eye and a good aesthetic sense if you want to create unique and innovative visual content. You should be able to find solutions to your client’s problems using your creative means.
Ideation
You should be able to generate and communicate new ideas every day. For this, you need to know how to develop an idea from scratch, filter through all your ideas to find the best fit, and then design it according to the company’s requirements.
Communication skills
You will communicate with the audience using images and visual elements. Therefore, you should have good communication skills.
This skill is important in many other ways too. You should know how to communicate with your employer so you can better understand his needs and explain your ideas, too. It means both written and spoken communication skills are important for you.
Adobe’s apps
More than 90% of the world’s creative designers use Adobe Photoshop. It indicates the importance of Adobe apps for a social media designer.
A social media designer should know how to use all Adobe’s creative apps, which is the basic requirement for this position. Many companies use Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Creative Cloud, and InDesign to design posts, edit images, and perform similar tasks. Therefore, a social media designer should be comfortable with all the Adobe’s apps.
Typography
A social media designer should know how to make his content stand out using different elements. Typography is one of the most important elements of visual content that can make or break a post.
As a designer, you should know the difference between different kinds of fonts, layouts, spacings, and figures, so that you can make written content visually more appealing. Your visual content should be clear, understandable, and captivating.
Branding
You should be able to understand the concept of the brands you are working for. It will help you design content and promote a brand the way your employer wants you to.
Coding
A social media graphic designer does not need to be a programming expert, but he should know basic coding languages, so he can understand how to create pages and apps. Learning HTML, C++, and Java will increase your value as a social media designer.
Data presentation skills
A social media designer is a storyteller. He should know how to present boring data or information in an exciting way so people cannot resist clicking the post or liking it.
What does a social media designer do?
Develop a new graphic content concept
A social media designer works with the content marketing team to determine the goals of the visual content. Once they are determined, he develops new concepts for the representation of content according to the goals.
He tracks new social media patterns and trends to find out the best solution for posts on different social media channels.
Design compelling visual content
The main job of a social media designer is to design content that attracts his target audience. He develops high-quality visual content of different types, such as:
- Images are one of the best tools for increasing audience engagement. Facebook posts with images generate 2.3X more engagement compared to posts that don’t have images. That is why a social media graphic designer ensures he posts images that boost engagement and the brand’s credibility.
- He uses quote graphics that represent the brand’s vision. It helps the brand establish a strong relationship with its customers.
- Infographics are the fourth most used form of visual content in marketing. Therefore, a social media designer makes sure he generates attractive and easy-to-understand infographics that represent useful information and add value to the audience’s life.
- He uses logos and product images that represent the brand and its services
- He posts customer testimonials that tell potential customers how a brand helps people with their problems. Such posts help companies gain the trust of potential customers and convert them into loyal clients.
- Instagram or Facebook stories help engage customers. 35% of Instagram users prefer short narrative-style stories followed by quizzes and polls. Therefore, a social media designer posts such stories every now and then to increase customer interaction.
Check newly developed graphics on different devices
If you are interested in expanding your reach, it is important to generate graphics for users of different devices. A social media designer makes sure that his visual content appears on all devices flawlessly. It will help him improve user experience, and social media reach.
Build a strong social media presence
A social media designer uses his marketing skills to help the company establish a strong social media presence. He develops high-quality content for online campaigns, products, or product pages.
He keeps himself up to date on all the latest marketing trends. He uses them to generate more conversions and sales. He also uses the right SEO practices to make his content appear higher in search results.
Boost the brand image
A social media designer manages the look of all forms of visual content that is posted on the company’s social media profiles. He ensures that his designs are consistent and convey the message of the brand. This visual consistency helps the brand gain loyalty and recognition. This improves its social media image.
Build pages and applications
A social media designer may also have to create web pages for the brand where all the products are displayed in an organized manner. He adds all the essential elements like a buy now button, product description, add to cart button, etc., to the web pages, so that users don’t have any trouble buying services or products of the brand.
A social media designer may also develop apps based on the company’s needs. The app is basically designed to improve the interaction between a brand and its customers.
How to become a social media designer?
Get a degree in graphic design or a relevant field: Many employers prefer designers who have at least a bachelor’s degree. You should get your degree in graphic design because that would be the most related subject, and you will learn a lot through it. However, you can choose any other related subject as well, such as mass communication, arts and design, marketing, or social media.
Learn essential skills: Many institutes teach online or offline graphic designing, social media marketing, and programming courses. Enroll in these courses and learn the essential skills like how to use designing tools or how to design a web page.
Put your knowledge into practice: After learning the basics of graphic designing and other related skills, you should start practicing learnt skills. For this, you can create your social media professional profiles and improve your designing skills by sharing daily posts on them.
Gain experience: Gain experience by working for small companies, doing internships, and helping friends or family members with their design needs. Doing so will help you increase your experience and learn new things every day.
Apply for the job: When you have experience, skills, and qualifications under your belt, you have all you need to apply for a social media designer job. Check different employment websites to see which companies need a designer. Apply for the one that you find the most suitable.
How to design social media posts?
Designing a social media post is not an easy task, but following these tips can help you design social media posts in less time.
- Understand your target audience and choose the visual content type based on their interests.
- Optimize your visual content by adding text or links to it. Each social media platform has a different size and format requirements. Make sure you know those requirements before you start designing the image or other content.
- Keep the image style consistent by using similar fonts, colors, and other basic elements.
- Post different kinds of visual content, including polls, quotes, infographics, tips, and event posts.
- Add value to your visual content to make it share-worthy.
- Add links to your products or online website, so you can take visitors to your company’s online store.
- Add a call-to-action if the post is meant to be used for marketing purposes.
How to design a social media content strategy?
Here are the tips you can follow to create a social media content strategy like professionals.
- Determine your brand’s goals and its social media goals.
- Plan your social content based on the likes and preferences of your target audience. If your target audience is teenagers, the most suitable content for them would be TikTok videos, memes, or short video clips.
- Create a content calendar to schedule your monthly posts. It will help you stay organized and publish content regularly.
- Determine which distribution platforms are the most suitable for your posts and brand.
- Promote and distribute your content on selected social media channels.
- Measure results and analyze how many impressions, likes, comments, and shares your posts are getting. Make amendments to the content strategy if it does not generate the results you expected from it to generate.
What is the salary of a social media designer in the US?
According to Glassdoor, the average total salary of a social media designer in the US is around $74,970 per year, consisting of $56,936 base pay and $18,034 additional pay. Data suggests that Washington, California, Virginia, and Maryland are the highest paying US states for digital media designers.
How much to charge for social media graphic design?
The cost of social media graphic design highly depends on your experience and skill level. If you choose to work as a freelancer, you can start with $15 to $50 per hour as an entry-level social media designer. Similarly, if you are an intermediate social media designer, you should charge somewhere between $50 and $100. An expert designer can demand $120 to $250, depending on the complexity of the task.
What are the career paths for social media designers?
Here are the other careers that social media designers can choose.
- Lead designer
- Visual designer
- Interactive designer
- Graphic designer
- Motion graphics designer
- Web graphic designer
- Layout designer
- Assistant designer
- Associate designer
Summary
People tend to remember information better if it is presented in a visual form instead of written form. Due to this reason, more and more companies are now hiring social media designers for their social media business profiles.
If you have an interest in art and designing, social media designing might be the right profession for you. It offers many career paths as well. So, if you ever decide to change your career, you will still get many job opportunities.