Creating branded social media content is crucial if you want your brand to stand out in today's digital world. I mean, let's face it, social media is absolutely crowded with content these days. You need to give people a reason to stop scrolling by capturing their attention And you can do that with visually appealing and branded creations.

As well as making a lasting impression, with branded social media content your followers can easily recognize and connect with your brand, which can lead to increased engagement, brand loyalty, and even sales. Putting the effort into creating branded social media content is well worth it in the long run. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, this all sounds well and dandy… but how am I supposed to do this if I don’t have a design team on hand to whip up content on a daily basis for me?Well - it’s your lucky day. Keep reading for tips on how to easily create regular branded social media content, even when you don’t have a team.

#1 Get clear on your brand guidelines 

The key to hitting it off right with branded social media content is to ensure that you have clear brand guidelines in place. First things first, ask yourself what your brand stands for, what makes it unique, and what messages you want to convey through your content. Then, make sure to define your brand's color palette, typography, and overall aesthetic. This will serve as a blueprint for all of your future content and ensure that everything you post looks and feels consistent with your brand. After all, having a solid brand image is crucial for building a strong and recognizable brand. Nike’s infamous swoosh, “Just Do It” tagline, and inspirational ads are but one example.Luckily, you don’t need the budget of a mega sports brand to be able to build brand recognition today. Taking some time to nail down your brand guidelines, perhaps in collaboration with others from your company, will go a long way in ensuring your social strategy soars.Once these brand guidelines have been agreed upon and signed off, do your future self a favor and keep these in an accessible place where the whole team can have eyes on them. This might mean creating a PDF detailing the brand guidelines, and also organizing various assets such as fonts in folders. This serves two purposes. First, it allows anyone from the company (yourself included) to refresh themselves on the branding when needed or unsure. This, in turn, keeps everything consistent with no room for mistakes when designing content. Secondly, it makes it so much easier knowing everything is in one place when it comes down to actually creating your social media content.

#2 Create a design mood board for your social media content

When it comes to making branded social media content easier when you don’t have a team, creating a digital design mood board can be a game-changer. A mood board is essentially a collection of images, colors, and textures that capture the vibe and aesthetic that you want to create through your social content. Having a visual reference at your fingertips makes it so much easier to come up with new and creative content ideas, plus it helps keep your posts consistent with your brand image - which we all know is super important. A good place to start is by spending time finding inspiration for your content. Take a look at other social media accounts you like and take note of what design aspects you find particularly attractive. You might want to do a little bit of competitive research and check out different content styles and their performance to see what goes down best with your target audience. Don’t forget to also utilize websites such as Behance and where you can explore a huge variety of creative designs and ideas to take inspiration from. Tools such as Canva and Pinterest are great for putting a digital mood board together, providing lots of design functions and templates. Spending time on creating a digital mood board at this stage will serve as a go-to reference for all future branded content, making the process far more seamless.

#3 Plan out what social media content formats you’ll want to create

With a big event like March Madness, it’s all too easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to carving out your social media strategy. That’s why we recommend starting by taking it back to the basics. After following steps one and two, you’ll have a solid understanding of your branding and the style of social graphics you’re wanting to create. Next, you’ll want to plan different content ideas per platform, considering how you want these to look with your chosen look in mind. Creating branded social media content can feel like an overwhelming task, especially for those without much help at hand. But planning out your content types and formats needed per platform, will really help to simplify the process and make things easier for you moving forward. Below are a few examples of different content types you might want to consider branding on social media if you were a sports team.

• GIFs

• Memes

• Player graphics

• Visual game statistics

• Quotes

• Behind-the-scenes Instagram stories 

• Ticket and game information 

• Video thumbnails

#4 Invest in a social media content creation platform 

So, now you know your branding style, your desired look, and the type of content you want to create, we’re onto the creating stage. For bigger companies with large marketing teams consisting of strategists, designers, social media managers, and big budgets - creating branded social content is no problem. Strategists and social media managers will typically work together to come up with the ideas, the topic, and the written content and then hand it over to the designers to create in something like Photoshop.But what about those businesses that just have one person running the marketing department? Or if you’re a small business owner who’s trying to juggle social media marketing alongside everything else? That’s where investing in a content creation platform like Slate truly pays off.A powerful content creation tool can be considered much like having an extra colleague on hand to help out. With Slate, users simply upload their brand assets to the platform and can create branded content such as Reels, graphics, and GIFs in literally just a few seconds. Everything can be created within one easy-to-use platform, either via the mobile app or browser, and uploaded directly to the platform of choice. Creators have access to a wide range of customizable templates and design tools, meaning creating on-brand, high-quality social media content has never been easier.Speaking on behalf of social media managers everywhere, creating branded social media content on a regular basis in no easy task - especially when you just don’t have the help on hand to support you. But with the right tools and strategy in place, it's more than possible to produce scroll-stopping content that converts customers.

Want to hear about how Slate’s all-in-one content creation platform can streamline the process of creating branded content? Reach out today and request a demo!