The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Branding for Small Businesses

Why do you need a strong social media presence?
Which social platforms are right for your brand?
The importance of creating good-looking corporate pages
Tips for social media branding
How to add an avatar (profile picture) to your social media pages
Handy services to customize your social media pages

Now that you’ve created a beautiful logo for your company or personal project, it’s time to show it to the world! This next stage poses several challenges. Along with being located and displayed correctly, your emblem must look professional and maintain a consistent brand image. How do you achieve all these goals? In this article, we’ll talk about how to effectively personalize your social media pages by using your logo.

Don’t have a logo yet? We can help! If you need a good-looking emblem in the shortest time possible, there’s no better service for you than the ZenBusiness logo maker. This article will educate you on how to brand your social media pages without trial and error.

Why do you need a strong social media presence?

One can hardly imagine the modern Internet without social platforms. With a huge outreach, social media offers stunning opportunities to promote your brand and raise awareness of your project. Let’s zoom in on why building an expansive social media presence is an absolute must for any company striving for success.

You can establish and boost your reputation online. Using your web pages, you’ll be able to post relevant and accurate information about your company, update your audience on current events and promotions, and present your brand in the best light possible.

You can increase your influence. Social media is considered one of the most powerful networking tools, and rightly so. You can use your social media presence to search for and attract new clients, partners, employees, and investors. Furthermore, social media is the leading online source of valuable information and knowledge.

You can target a large audience. Social media offers multiple touch points with potential customers, helping you market your products and services in a more effective way.

You can boost your customer loyalty. By checking your corporate pages on a regular basis, you’ll be able to manage complaints and suggestions from your customers in a timely manner. Prompt feedback is a sure way to make your clients trust your brand more.

You can enhance your SEO efforts. By delivering unique and regularly updated content, you’ll be able to get your pages to the top of Google, Yahoo, and other search systems.

You can improve the effectiveness of other marketing tools. By employing your social media potential in the right way, you can breathe new life into your other marketing channels, such as your corporate blog, newsletters, webinars, and offline events.

Here are the main reasons why you must act and start building your company image online. For more advantages of social platforms for businesses, click here.

Which social platforms are right for your brand?

How do you know which social platforms offer the best opportunities to connect with your target audience? This is a very important decision that needs careful consideration.

We bet everyone knows the most popular social platforms they use on a daily basis. These include Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Listed below are a few secrets of using these media to promote your project online.

1. Which social platforms to choose for your brand promotion depends mostly on the kind of business you’re involved in. For example, if you’re into art and creativity, you should go for YouTube (videos), Instagram (photos of clothing designs, handmade items, etc.), or SoundCloud (music samples). If you supply or sell standard goods and services, you should explore Facebook. As for Instagram, it’s a great platform for all kinds of online businesses, such as online stores (women’s apparel in particular), creative services, etc.

2. View your web analytics data to determine which social networks drive the most traffic. Traditionally, this list is topped by Facebook, followed by Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Don’t try to embrace all popular social platforms. Instead, focus on the medium that generates a strong inflow of potential customers. Take the time to analyze your competitors’ social presence; which platforms are they using and how?

3. If your goal is to spread the word about your company, you can create accounts with all major social networks. Add your corporate designs and information about what you’re doing to identify your presence. However, invest most of your time and effort into 2-3 networks that play the biggest role in affecting your business.

4. Develop a robust communication strategy, taking into account the characteristics of each channel. For example, Facebook is an ideal platform for posting articles and news, managing customers’ feedback and orders, employing target advertising techniques, etc. At the same time, Instagram is an ideal tool for selling products and services by emphasizing their visual advantages. As for YouTube, you can post video reviews, video presentations, and video tutorials.

The importance of creating good-looking corporate pages

Setting up a social media account is not enough. The trick is to make it live by adding high-quality content. Social media branding plays a crucial role in business – a fact that aspiring entrepreneurs tend to overlook. However, the problem with the modern Internet environment is that users are over-informed.

This is especially true for social platforms. Every day, a person sees hundreds of brand logos, both online and offline. Find this hard to believe? Look around when you’re walking down the street, start your Internet browser, open your wallet containing multiple business cards from your favorite brands – you’ll see a great deal of corporate imagery. A beautiful and informative social media page will help you stand out among all the visual spam surrounding us on a daily basis. Plus, it’ll provide a number of benefits for your business:

– You can draw the attention of customers who might be interested in what you’re doing. A neat logo and other corporate designs are simple yet effective visual tools for promoting your company news, discounts, special offers, and other updates.

– You can create a complex, consistent company image. By using social platforms as touch points with your clients, you can manage and control the way your audience perceives your brand. Your reputation and image are entirely in your hands!

– Branded content looks more appealing and professional than ordinary photos, videos, and texts. By employing such content, you can cultivate customer loyalty, organically promote your brand, and make your audience respond to your marketing efforts in a positive way.

As you can see, a well-thought-out social media presence is indispensable for any company, regardless of its specialization. It has no lack of benefits, the most important of which is a tight bond with your brand advocates.

Tips for social media branding

By now, you must have designed your logo and other brand identity imagery, created social media pages, and determined your marketing goals (promoting your products/services, giving feedback to your customers, etc.). This means you’re all geared up to fill your pages with content. To help you get the hang of designing your pages, we’ve prepared a few tips. Let’s get started!

– Stick with a uniform style. Use the same logo versions, fonts, color schemes, graphic patterns, etc. across all your social platforms. If you’re consistent in your design efforts, your audience will learn to recognize your corporate palette even without your logo or brand name.

– Your logo size, image resolution, and other parameters must fit the requirements of each social platform. While one logo size may look good on Facebook, it’ll be compressed or stretched on Instagram or elsewhere. Before you add your corporate designs to your social platforms, be sure to size your images accordingly. To make life easier, ZenBusiness offers ready-to-use logo versions for all major online networks.

– If a social platform features a small profile picture, it might be a good idea to use a simplified version of your logo, e.g. without text. Otherwise, it may be illegible.

– Pay special attention to your profile picture and cover image or video. Those are the first images that catch the eyes of your visitors and that send a message about your company. It’s important that your profile picture and cover have the same design and color palette. As for the appropriate icon, you can find it on stock photo sites or you can hire a designer to draw the image that reflects your corporate idea.

– Position your corporate designs on the same part of the page, if possible.

– You can use your cover image to display any information you want to communicate to your audience. The options are numerous: discounts and promotions, contact details, a slogan, etc.

– Once you’ve finished setting up your page, be sure to test it on different devices, including a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc. Make sure all images display correctly, without any defects. Remember that even a minor flaw can undermine your marketing efforts and make your company look less attractive in the eyes of your customers.

If you need more tips, check this guide about social media branding.
How do you upload your logo to your selected social platforms? Read on to find out!

How to add an avatar (profile picture) to your social media pages

In this chapter, we’ll break down how to add your newly created logo to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. First of all, ensure your image has the right dimensions to fit a specific platform.

Image dimensions for major social media platforms (2019)

Facebook

Link posts: 1200 x 628 px
Image posts: 1200 x 630 px
Cover image: 820 х 312 px
Profile image: 170 х 170 px

Twitter

Image posts: 1024 x 675 px
Cover image: 1500 х 500 px
Profile image: 400 x 400 px

Instagram

Image posts: 1080 x 1080 px
Profile image: 110 x 110 px

YouTube

Thumbnail image: 1280 x 720 px
Cover image: 2560 x 1440 px
Profile image: 800 x 800 px

Image posts: 1000 x 1500 px
Profile image: 165 x 165 px

Link posts: 1200 х 628 px
Image posts: 1200 x 1200 px
Cover image: 1536 x 768 px
Profile image: 300 х 300 px

Facebook

To properly set up your Facebook page, you must convert your logo into PNG format. Image dimensions for Facebook

How to add or change a profile image:

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Point your cursor to your profile image and click on the camera symbol.
3. Select “Upload a Photo.”
4. Choose a file with your logo and click “Open.” You can crop and rotate your image, if necessary.
5. Click “Save Changes.”

How to add or change a cover image:

1. Log into your Facebook account. Hover your cursor over your existing cover image and click “Update Cover Photo.”
2. Select “Upload a Photo.”
3. Choose a file with your logo and click “Open.” Adjust your image as necessary.
4. Click “Save Changes.”

Although you will see a square-shaped profile picture on your page, it’s displayed as a circle in your news feed. If you have a square-shaped emblem, you should reduce its dimensions so that it’s not cropped when placed inside a circle.

Twitter

Let’s repeat the golden rule. Before uploading your PNG logo to your Twitter account, make sure it fits Twitter’s recommended dimensions. Look here for the correct image dimensions for major social platforms.

Please note: Unlike Facebook, where you can set up a business account based on your personal page, Twitter requires you to create a separate page for your brand or commercial project.

How to add or change a profile image:

1. Log into your Twitter account.
2. Click the “Edit Profile” button on the right side of your profile. Click the camera icon and select “Upload Photo.”
3. Choose a file with your logo and click on “Open.” Adjust your logo as necessary.
4. Click “Save Changes” to finish the setup.

How to add or change a cover image:

1. Log into your Twitter account and click the “Edit Profile” button.
2. Click the camera icon and select “Upload Photo.”
3. Select a logo file from your hard drive and click “Open.”
4. Click “Save Changes” to finish the setup.

Instagram

Before uploading your PNG logo to your Instagram account, make sure your image file meets the Instagram specifications. Check out the correct image dimensions for major social platforms.

How to add or change a profile image:

1. Log into your Instagram account on your smartphone.
2. Click the icon with three dots and select “Edit Profile.”
3. Click “Change Photo” > “New Profile Photo.” Select your logo file from your computer. Click “Next.”

LinkedIn

Before uploading your PNG logo to your LinkedIn page, make sure your image file meets the LinkedIn specifications. Check out the correct image dimensions for major social platforms here and here.

How to add a logo to your LinkedIn Company Page:

1. On your LinkedIn Company Page, click the Photo icon.
2. Click “Edit” > “Edit Profile.”
3. Scroll down to the “Company Logo” section. Click “Edit” and add/change your logo. You can also relocate your logo by dragging it to the right place.
4. Click “Save.”

YouTube

Click here and here to see YouTube’s recommended dimensions for your images.

How to add or change a profile image (icon):

1. Log into your YouTube channel.
2. Select “My Channel” or click on your channel icon in the upper right corner of the page.
3. Hover over your existing profile picture and hit the Edit icon.
4. In the “Edit” dialogue box, click on “Edit” and select your logo file. Adjust your logo as necessary.

How to add or edit channel art:

1. In the menu, select “My Channel.” Point your cursor to your channel art (cover image) and click the edit icon. Select “Edit channel art.”
2. Upload your logo file and see how it’s displayed across different devices. Adjust your image, if necessary.
3. Click ”Select.”

Pinterest

Click here to see Pinterest’s recommended dimensions for your images.

How to add or change a logo:

1. Log into your Pinterest account.
2. Navigate your cursor to your name in the top right corner and select “Settings” from the menu. Scroll down to the “Profile” section.
3. Click “Change picture” and upload your logo file from your computer. Adjust your image as necessary.
4. Click the “Save Settings” button.

Handy services to customize your social media pages

We’ve created a small list of services to add a custom look to your social media pages. Be sure to save these links for later!

ZenBusiness – Create and download logos that have been customized to fit different social platforms.
Crello.com- Design beautiful cover images for your social media.
Sproutsocial – Customize your images to meet the specifications of major social platforms.
Pablo – Search cover images and add text to them.
Pixabay.com – A free photo stock with amazing cover images.
Pexels.com- A free photo database to create cover images and posts on social media.
Unsplash – A great photo stock to set up unique social media pages.
Jaymantri.com – Abstract images for designing neat cover images and creating eye-pleasing posts.
Designspiration – A wonderful place to look for inspiration.
Fonts.google.com – A large collection of free fonts.
Coolors.co – Stunning color schemes to create beautiful cover pictures and entertaining posts.

It’s time to admit that your business needs social media to gain a foothold in the market and boost sales. A powerful online presence creates amazing opportunities, grows your brand awareness, and builds trust with your customers. By following our expert tips, you’ll turn your social media pages into the ultimate marketing tools for attracting and retaining clients on social media.