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How to Design Your Social Media Posts Like a Pro (with Tailwind!)

Kristie Hill on July 14, 2021

Without formal design training, creating social media designs for multiple platforms can seem like a really intimidating task. Especially if it’s up to you as a small business owner or marketer (without a design team to back you up) to have a presence on these digital marketing platforms!

The good news is that it’s not as hard or as time-intensive as you might think to generate consistent content across all your favorite platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. 

In fact, all it takes is a few clicks in our Tailwind Create tool!

Let’s dive into exactly what it takes to fill your social media content calendar with branded designs for each of your platforms.

But first, we’ll spend some time on why branding on social media is so important for small businesses – and how establishing your branding guidelines early on will make this process even faster!

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Why Brand Your Social Media Posts?

We’re so glad you asked. Most people know that from a business perspective, your posts should be branded. But you might not understand exactly why it’s important! That’s okay, we’ll break it down:

Branding Your Social Posts Helps Communicate Your Story and Personality

Humans take visual cues from just about anything they look at. For example, color psychology is a very real science studying how people react to different colors and the emotions that they invoke.

Fonts also evoke emotion and give people a very real impression of who you are and what you’re about from their computer or phone screens. Careful choices in color, font, and design elements can act as a calling card for your personality, without you ever saying a word!

Branding Your Social Posts Creates Brand Recognition and Awareness

Think for a moment about how many posts you see scrolling through your timeline or feed on social media platforms. 

Now, think of one or two of your favorite brands or accounts. Can you immediately pick out a post from one of these accounts in the feed without reading the caption? Chances are, you can. This is because you’ve been exposed to this brand often enough to immediately recognize their signature designs!

Firming up your branding and sticking to it will create this same instant recognition among your followers. That in turn builds trust and loyalty.

Branding Your Social Posts Helps Prevent Content Theft

Honestly, it’s a bummer that this has to make it on the list, but it’s true. When you hit publish on your designs, that means they’re ripe for the picking on the web. Other users on social media can easily save and use your unbranded designs as their own content.

When you add your website, your company logo, and even recognizable details from your branding like fonts and colors to the social media designs you publish, it becomes a lot harder for other people to pass them off as their own.

If you’ve worked hard on your designs, your content, and your business, you definitely don’t want someone else to get credit! That’s why we recommend branding your social posts – especially graphics.

How to Brand Your Social Media Posts with Tailwind

So now you know why you should be taking the time to brand your social media posts – now let’s talk about how you do it with Tailwind! It all happens in just a few quick steps. 

Once you’re in your Tailwind social media management dashboard, take a look at the left-hand menu. You should see a paintbrush icon – this is our powerful design tool, Tailwind Create!

Before you dive into designing your social posts, you’ll want to set up your branding tools. Click the paintbrush icon, and then select Brand Settings from the top menu.

Step One: Add In Your Website or Brand Name

You can enter your company name (ex: Sample Company) or website (ex: www.samplecompany.com).

This will be automatically generated on all your designs in Tailwind Create, as well as your logos (more on that later!)

Brand Settings view in Tailwind Create

Step Two: Select Fonts, Or Upload Your Own!

Tailwind Create has dozens of fonts to choose from to craft the perfect font pairings for your social media designs.

Just browse our available fonts for your title font and subtitle font.

If you need inspiration, check out our curated font pairing choices! Or, upload your custom brand font files if you have them handy!

Step Three: Choose Your Brand Colors

Now that you have your fonts all squared away, you’ll want to add your brand colors into Tailwind Create. This ensures that all of the designs in Create are personalized with your brand colors – talk about cutting down design time!

Choosing your four brand colors in Create is super easy to do. If you know the Hex or RGB codes of your colors, just click on each colored circle and copy and paste. You can also move the dropper tool around until you find the perfect shade!

Tailwind Create also has tons of curated color palettes to browse! If you’re a big believer in seasonal color theory (we are!), you’ll love the curated palettes for the seasons!

Step Four: Upload Your Brand Logos

The final step in your journey to creating perfectly branded social media posts in Tailwind Create is to upload your logos. This is an optional step if you don’t have a logo, but gives you more flexibility with the presentation of branding on your designs!

Upload 200 x 200 pixel logo files by clicking the grey plus sign icon. Make sure your files are .pngs, so the backgrounds of your logos are transparent and can be overlayed onto your design with ease!

Pro Design Tip: Upload your logo in a few different colorways so that you have plenty of flexibility. For example, Tailwind has a blue and a white version of our logo, so that we have plenty of contrast and visibility on every design!

How to Design Your Social Media Posts with Tailwind

Now that you’ve done all the legwork of inputting your brand settings into Tailwind Create, it’s time for the fun part! Creating the perfect social media designs with Tailwind is so easy. In fact, you’re starting from almost done with each design already personalized to your brand as soon as they cross your screen!

Here’s how it works!

Step One: Upload Your Photo

Head on over to Design Gallery, and upload the photo or photos you want to create designs for. If you don’t have a photo handy, you can browse our library of Stock Photos!

If you want to use photos from your website, enter the URL of the page you’d like to pull from.

Available images from that page will populate below, and you can select the ones you’d like to use!

You’ll notice designs start to populate in the gallery with your selected images. You can select any that catch your eye or use the smart filters in our design gallery to find designs matched to your industry, type of content, number of photos, and favorite social platforms.

Step Two: Filter Designs By Your Industry (And More!)

With your photos in place, it’s time to personalize your Tailwind Create designs even more! Take a look at the top menu options above your Design Gallery. You’ll see Post Types, Photo Count, and Categories.

Post Types allows you to see your designs for specific platforms – you’ll find options for Instagram Feed Posts, Instagram Stories, Pinterest Pins, and Facebook Feed Posts here.

Photo Count allows you to preview your creations based on how many photos will be included in the design. You can see design options for “multiple photos”, “one photo”, “no photos”, or “any number of photos” here.

Category is where you can narrow down your design styles based on things like:

  • Content (is your post about a product, a blog post, a quote?)
  • Promotion (is this an ad design, an announcement, or a contest?)
  • Industry (are you in the animals & pets, entertainment, fashion, or travel niche?)
  • Style (is your brand modern, minimalist, artistic or festive?)
  • Seasonal (are you designing for Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter?)

Choose the filters that best fit the content you’re looking to create on social media, and watch personalized designs based on your choices fill the screen!

Step Three: Review Your Designs and Make Necessary Tweaks

Now that you’ve got hyper-specific social post designs customized to your brand needs, it’s time to pick your favorites and make any tweaks!

Hit the Photos button to see the design with your other photo selections, or to rearrange the placement of multiple photos in a design.

Hint: this will only work if you’ve selected more than one photo in Step One!

Hit the Layouts button to see the design in different layouts. You’ll see several different options for text placement, picture placement, and justification.

Hit the Colors button to see the image with different combinations of your brand colors. To the right, you can see the different choices from the uploaded brand fonts being used in the element and overlay colors!

You can also click the Edit button to make more in-depth tweaks to your design. You can add additional text, add or remove design elements, or make changes to your photo if your original selections just aren’t working the way you want them to.

In this screen, you can also physically move around any elements of the design!

Step Four: Review Your Branding

Before you’re done creating your social media designs, check your branding one more time. Thanks to the work we did putting in our brand settings above, you should have some options in your Design Settings!

Click on the Branding heading to see branding options for your designs.

You can set your Website or Brand Name to automatically populate on all your social media designs. If you’d rather use your logo, select Logo and the version you’d like to work with.

The designs in your gallery will automatically update with your choices, so you have full power over how your social media post is branded, every time!

Step Five: Select and Schedule Your Social Media Posts

As you finish reviewing and tweaking each of your favorite designs, you’ll want to hit the Select button under each to save them! You can search for new designs, edit and select them one after the other – no need to interrupt your workflow to review and download until the end!

Once you’ve finished designing to your heart’s content for all your platforms, hit the big green Review button in the bottom right corner of your screen. This will show you all of your selected designs, and allow you to do a final check.

If you feel like you need to just move that one thing in order to have a picture-perfect post, just hit the edit button and get that tweaking out of your system! Your designs will still be there waiting for you on your Review screen.

When you’re ready, return to this screen and either download all your images by hitting the download button, or tap the green Go Schedule button to seamlessly send your designs to your Tailwind social media scheduler drafts. It couldn’t be easier to create your social media posts, schedule, and post them with this workflow! ✨

Have any questions about branding your social designs or using Tailwind Create? Drop them in the comments below – we read every one!

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Read our guide for in-depth tips on branding and designing your social media posts - and find out why branding social media posts is so important!

Instagram Story Template Guide: How to Find + Use Them

Kristie Hill on July 5, 2021

Instagram Story templates are a life-saver for busy marketers.

Whether you need a little something in your back pocket for creating beautiful Instagram Stories designs, need inspo for Stories content, or just want to save yourself some time – a good set of templates can make all the difference!

But how do you find a good set of Instagram Story templates, or even make your own?

That’s what we’re here to answer! In this blog post, we’re covering what an Instagram story template is, why you should use it – and our favorite apps and tools for creating Instagram Stories.

Benefits of Instagram Stories

Sooo… what is an Instagram Story template? Basically, it’s a pre-made Instagram Story sized design (9:16) with graphics, text, and even animations that you can customize to your brand.

In the past, most templates were made in programs like PhotoShop or apps like Canva, and allowed you to customize font styles, text placement, color palettes, and more!

However, Tailwind has launched our own version of “templates”. You upload your website and brand colors, your logo, and give us the text and the photos and we’ll mix it up and give you dozens of pin designs that you can just automatically select and load into Tailwind.

You can get ideas for designs you’d never have otherwise thought of, and the best part is, it only takes seconds to create a design.

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You Should Be Using Instagram Story Templates – Here’s Why!

If you haven’t already started looking for an IG Story Template or two, now is your chance! After all, having a stash of branded Instagram Stories templates is a smart move for your social media marketing strategy.

Here are the three main reasons why:

IG Story templates create recognizable Instagram branding for your business.

As your followers interact with more and more of your content and begin to recognize your distinct color palette, fonts and voice on Stories or Instagram posts, brand awareness is being built. And that’s valuable!

Instagram Story templates save you major time and energy.

When you have a stack of Instagram templates for all your content types (think: photos, text posts, collages, product features, etc.), you don’t have to puzzle over design details and putting everything together. Just pop in your content and go!

This is also important because Instagram Stories only last for 24 hours. You want to create quality content, but not spend a ton of time on a post that’s only there for a day!

Story templates will help you “Stop the Swipe.”

Clean, professional-looking designs are so eye-catching in a sea of (usually) unpolished photos and videos in the Stories feed. Your followers are more likely to pause and take notice of your Stories post when they look well-crafted. This gives more time for your various calls to action to be noticed!

So, you get the picture. Stories templates can really help you make more impact in less time!

Now that we have you convinced, let’s talk about the different types of Instagram Story templates and where you can find them in our resource list below!

Types of Instagram Story Templates

When you’re on the hunt for the perfect set of templates, it’s important to know where to look and what you need.

Depending on your technical skill, editing preferences, and branding needs, one type may make more sense than another!

The three types are Story prompt templates, mobile app Story templates, and downloadable Stories template packs. We’ll get into the details below:

1. Story Template Prompts and Inspiration

Figuring out how your Story should look is often just the first (and easiest!) step. Next, you’ll need to figure out what to post, and create enough content ideas to keep followers engaged and interested day after day!

That’s where Story prompts like Tailwind’s new Story Starters come in handy!

With this free download, you’ll get the best of both worlds: Story content inspiration, and free templates and instructions that help you make world-class Stories in just minutes.

Did we mention it’s free? That’s 4 weeks of daily content at your fingertips!

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2. Mobile App Story Templates

There are several popular mobile and web apps that make personalizing IG Story templates with your personal branding a breeze.

Template apps are usually favored by novice and beginner social graphic designers because you don’t need a lot of technical know-how to create and customize template designs. That’s why Tailwind Create is ideal, you don’t need any design or branding experience to create beautiful, engaging posts for your feed. 

Another major bonus? Tailwind Create is free, so you won’t break the bank!

Story creation in StorySwag mobile app
Editing a story in StorySwag

Our Favorite Instagram Story Templates

These are a few of our favorite examples for mobile or desktop. These come from our amazing users (who have some amazing brands of their own, if we may say so ourselves)!

If these seem like something you’d love to create for your own brand (in seconds might we add) give Tailwind Create a free trial!

Instagram Story Templates

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Schedule Your New Instagram Stories with Tailwind

Now that you have tons of templates and inspiration for new Stories content, why not take advantage of Tailwind’s new Story scheduling feature?

You can schedule Instagram Stories from your desktop or phone. Just upload your images and videos, add text, and find the best hashtags for your Story to increase reach!

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10 Pros Reveal How to Create Scroll-Stopping Images for Social Media

Tailwind Team on June 6, 2021

When your business relies on getting quality traffic from social media, you spend a lot of time crafting the perfect images.

But there’s nothing more depressing (or infuriating) than spending precious time designing something beautiful only to have it overlooked or ignored.

If you’re not a professional designer or marketer, knowing what kinds of graphics will make people pay attention can be hard. In fact, even many designers and marketers are often left scratching their heads when their images just don’t connect.

Today, our goal is to help you understand what it takes to create and post scroll-stopping images for social media. 

We’ll focus primarily on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook—but these strategies can be adapted and used on a wide variety of platforms including sites like YouTube or your own blog.

The advice in this post comes from a very talented group of professional designers and marketers who have been in the trenches and know what it takes to get their followers’ attention.

So if you want your flowers to STOP and pay attention to you in their social feeds, this roundup of top-notch advice is for you.

Let’s get started:

Tip #1: Follow the Data

We’re starting with this tip because it should literally affect every decision you make about social media design moving forward.

If you’re a true marketer or entrepreneur, data and analytics are the most important things to consider when designing for social feeds.

Ask yourself: What are users actually engaging with?

From there, any other questions about brand consistency, colors, fonts, and images all take a back seat.

“Start out by experimenting with different types of images for your content– different colors, fonts, image types, etc– and find what people are engaging with the most (Pinterest analytics are an INCREDIBLE resource for this!)– and then use that data to make informed decisions about what kind of images to create moving forward. “

Morgan Nield, Marketer and Entrepreneur

Tip #2: Optimize for Each Platform

Just because you’ve got a good understanding of what it takes to succeed on Pinterest, doesn’t mean the same tactics will work on Instagram.

In fact, they’re almost guaranteed not to.

“It’s essential to make sure that the social media designs adhere to each platform’s size and resolution requirements so that your posts look just right,” explains marketing & design expert Amalia Madalina Pop.

But optimizing your designs for each individual platform is about way more than just getting the right social media image sizes (although, that is definitely important).

It’s about understanding why your followers are using one platform over another.

“It is essential to understand which platforms are suitable for your business,” Amalia continues. “While Pinterest is one place to find inspiration that leads to purchase, LinkedIn is a more business-oriented platform.”

“Every platform has its specificity. Pick those platforms that will shed the best light on your product or services with the help of social media graphic design.”

The design team at Design Pickle agrees:

“Identify which platform(s) you’re going to share your designs on before starting the design. You’ll have to resize the image to fit the specific dimensions of every platform you plan to share a social media graphic design.

It may seem tedious, but a quick size check could make the difference between cropping out the most important design element and a flawless user experience.”

For more information, review how to recycle social media content for multiple platforms.

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Tip #3: Tap Into Emotion with Faces

Visual communication is all about emotion: what do your followers FEEL when they see your social posts.

The more emotion you can build into an image or design, the more likely your followers are to stop scrolling, pay attention, engage, or click.

“Use emotion or motion in the images.

This means if you’re going to use someone’s face, make sure there is obvious emotion vs just using a standard smiling headshot.” 

Clay Mosley, GetDripify

Studies show that using faces in your social media images can lead to more likes. 

The overall goal here is to get your followers to feel something when they see your graphics. The more they feel, the more connection they will have with your brand, and the more likely they’ll be to engage in positive ways.

Tip #4: Don’t Be Too Polished

Our next design tip for scroll-stopping images has proven to work especially well when designing facebook images (particularly for ads).

Our advice? Don’t be too polished.

“It may seem counterintuitive at first,” explains designer and marketer Preston Lee, “but sometimes a ‘poorly designed’ image can grab a LOT of attention.” 

“You should balance this decision with other considerations like your overall brand appearance, but often, if your posts are too polished, they’ll fade into the background and get swallowed up by all the noise in your followers’ feeds.”

The reasoning behind this is pretty simple:

If an image is over-optimized it can begin to feel too “corporate” or “cold” where a less “official” image can feel authentic, warm, and original.

Tip #5: Provide Additional Value

When designing images for social media, it can pay off to ask yourself “how can I add even more value here?”

Studies show people come to social media for “reward processing, social cognition, imitation, and attention.”

In other words, people come to social media looking for something. Attention, validation, and often information.

Pro designer Amy Kuo reveals how she boosts engagement through social images:

“Share your knowledge! My most engaged-with posts are clear, well-designed graphs or carousel posts sharing bits and pieces of my knowledge about branding and design.”

It’s the same with interior design expert Mania Mavridou.

“My personal goal is to connect my architectural studio with professionalism and great taste, but also provide value, showing my expertise and educating prospects and clients,” she explains. “This is why there’s always some text, an attention grabbing story or useful information, and a link to a blog post for those who want to learn more.”

Tip #6: Master Composition & Hierarchy

Every social media graphic or image should tell a story. And, indeed, each one does whether you intend it or not.

The real challenge is telling the right story in a fraction of a second as your followers are scrolling through their feeds.

For that, you’ll want to harness the power of good composition and hierarchy.

“To create attention-grabbing images, you’ve got to create an engaging composition,” says pro designer Matt Olpinski. “Your graphic can be text-based or image-based, but the composition (or layout) has to captivate the user.”

Great composition starts with getting users to see the most important messages first. This is called hierarchy.

Created by Tailwind

Brian Peters, a marketer working at Shopify, explains the power of hierarchy in your social designs:

“It’s quite likely that you’ll be working with multiple elements in your social media design. And chances are each of those elements will be important to your overall message.

Taking full advantage of the hierarchy design principle starts with an understanding of your goals. Establish the most crucial message as the focal point and … once that’s in place, you can start to build your second or third pieces of information in without taking away from the overall goal.”

To get a better grasp on hierarchy, try reading our guide to visual hierarchy for non-designers!

Tip #7: Don’t Make it About You

When designing your next social media post or capturing that next great image, you might be inclined to focus on you, your brand, and your message.

That makes sense. But taken too far, this can be a big mistake.

“Given that social media is designed for publishing YOUR words and YOUR pictures, it can be tempting to make it about you.

Your audience chose to follow you for a reason. Whether it’s for information, entertainment or inspiration, your job is to give the people what they came for.”

Jamahl Johnson, 99Designs

While many of your followers have chosen to click that “follow” button because they want to see what you’re up to, keep in mind: almost all of us are narcissists to one degree or another.

Even if they’re not asking it consciously, when someone follows you on social media, they’re wondering: “what’s in it for me?”

Make your social media graphics about your followers, your users, your customers, and their needs.

Getting Users to Stop Scrolling

In the end, this advice from top marketing and design experts is a great starting point to get users to stop scrolling through their feeds and pay attention to you or your brand.

But let’s come full circle here, back to tip #1 at the top of this post: follow the data.

Take this article and test, experiment, track, and review results. Then take what’s working and do more of it, discarding the ideas that don’t work.

You can also hone in on your own style and strategy for social media design with a little help! With Tailwind Create, you can generate hundreds of show-stopping designs personalized to your brand for your favorite social media platforms. From Pinterest Pins to Facebook posts and everywhere in between, Tailwind Create is here to help you start your social media designs from almost done. Try it out here!

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Want scroll-stopping images on your social accounts? 10 pro designers and marketers reveal what works best to boost image engagement and clicks.

Storytelling for Facebook: Creating Posts That Surprise and Delight

Sam Sied on June 3, 2021

An excerpt of a sponsored ad telling a story alongside a photo of the writer posed at her desk on purple background

Facebook offers a wealth of opportunities for businesses and marketers. The popular social network makes it extremely easy to target and reach almost any audience with your marketing message. 

But after seeing tons of targeted ads and advertising posts from other businesses, you might start to believe that sales copy is what garners attention on Facebook.

It can be easy for marketers and businesses to get caught up in their goals and forget that Facebook is about developing a social connection. 

Featuring stories on your personal Facebook timeline, Facebook Business Page, and Facebook Groups set your content apart. The secret to creating compelling posts is getting that customer to press the “Read more” button. But how do you keep your readers’ captive attention?

Take a note from old radio shows and serial stories to create surprising, engaging stories! Breaking up stories and adding cliffhangers can turn a casual reader into a lasting customer.

Here’s how you can create fascinating stories with your Facebook posts.

Why You Need Storytelling to Gain Fans Who Follow You Wherever You Go

Years ago, storytelling was the primary social currency on Facebook. Telling great stories and writing engaging posts was the only way to gain a following beyond friends and family on the social network.

But as organic reach dwindled, many marketers and businesses shifted their focus to Facebook ads, leaving their pages neglected or peppered with boring filler content.

As the ad market becomes more saturated and more expensive, many businesses are once again seeing the benefits of using storytelling to generate higher engagement. Even Facebook itself knows the value of storytelling on its platform. According to Facebook’s research, sharing your brand story before presenting marketing messaging can increase the likelihood that someone will buy from you. 

A compelling story is platform-agnostic. Creating strong stories on Facebook can encourage people to follow you elsewhere, too. That’s why storytelling is a great way to build your email list, strengthen your Instagram following, grow your Pinterest page, and more. 

Many brands avoid telling stories because they want to maintain a more professional image. But, that professional image doesn’t work well on a platform dedicated to human connection. Telling stories is a great way to show the humanity behind your brand and start a conversation with your customers.

Using Your Real Life and Your Clients’ Lives to Source Emotionally Relevant Stories

When you hear storytelling, you probably think of fiction. This misunderstanding of storytelling often stands in the way of brands developing a more nuanced personality online.

Even the best fiction is often a dramatized version of real-life events. That’s why you should look at your own life and your clients’ lives for inspiration to tell the best stories! 

The power of stories comes in tapping into your customer’s emotions. While lots of marketing messaging focuses on elucidating pain points, stories can focus on the humanity behind the brand and show a wider range of feelings for your customer to relate to. 

One of the best ways to garner new stories for social media is through interviewing. When you interview your clients or ask someone to interview you, ask questions like, “When was a time you felt overjoyed about your business?” or “Tell me about a time when you felt scared related to your business.” Don’t forget to record the interview so you get every detail.

When you hear the stories, they may not seem relevant to your product or appropriate to post on social media. But, when you go back to review the transcript later, you will likely find some nuggets of inspiration that you can share or expound on.

Authenticity is the secret to exceptional marketing. Avoid the temptation to censor yourself and allow your voice to shine through. Sharing these types of stories creates a lasting connection between you and your audience, so it pays to be as genuine as possible.

Breaking One Story into Multiple Pieces of Content

When we sit down to write a Facebook post, we often try to create content that works for the platform. But what if we created the story first, and adjusted it for the platform, instead? 

When you tell stories aloud during an interview, they may seem a bit long for a Facebook post. But, when it comes to storytelling, there’s no need to be quippy. Your goal is to pull people in, not to tell the whole story in one post. 

As you review the transcript of your story, look for the lessons or wisdom you can pull from it. Expounding on these details can help you turn one story into a week’s worth of posts. 

One of the things that helps your organic posts show up in the Facebook algorithm is a customer’s interest in your brand. Getting them to click the ‘Read More’ link can show Facebook that customers want to see your content more often. This is a great way to draw out stories across multiple posts and build your audience’s curiosity. 

In your first story, focus on the emotion of the story and pull out the basic storyline. Share these details and mention how you learned these major lessons or discovered these things from this experience. Include images that show your client or your business at that time. 

The first post serves as a teaser, showing the base of the story and the simplest breakdown of the lessons learned. At the bottom of your post, you’ll tell your audience that you’ll be revealing more of the story throughout the week. 

Then, pull out shocking or surprising details from your story to lead each post. Allow your experience to lead the way and serve as a relatable lesson to your customers. Tie these details back to the lessons you learned or what you discovered, but leave each post with a cliffhanger to compel your customers to keep looking out for your posts. Share a photo with each post to boost engagement. 

Resolving Cliffhangers using Stories, Lives, and Posts to Encourage Ongoing Engagement

One of the best things about Facebook is that there are so many ways to tell stories. Using Stories, Lives, and written posts can strengthen your digital storytelling. All you need to do is inform your customer where the story will continue.

Cliffhangers keep your story moving forward from post to post. A cliffhanger focuses on the information the customer most wants to know moving forward. It may be the next step of a story after a surprising twist, or it may be the secrets behind how you created $100,000 overnight.

At the end of a post, you can tell readers that you’ll be revealing those secrets on a Facebook Live in your group, a post in your Stories, or another written post at a certain time. Then, remind them to turn on notifications so they don’t miss the next part of the story.

Save some juicy details of your story specifically for your Lives or Stories, and don’t be afraid of going off-script. Your audience is already invested enough to tune in, so this is a great time to lean into the emotions of the story and share fun details that may not fit into your posts. Give your viewers an insight into your personality and pretend like you’re telling this story to your closest friend. Better yet – ask your closest friend to tune in!

Five Quick Tips to Creating Compelling Stories on Facebook

Making storytelling a regular part of your social media content strategy can help you turn passive leads into engaged customers. Here are some easy ways to make your stories more engaging on Facebook.

1. Focus on Empathy

Reflect on how you felt when you were going through problems your customer is experiencing. Trigger those feelings authentically and share from a place of understanding and compassion. There’s no need to be the expert in these posts.

2. Stay on Brand

Authenticity is key, but don’t deviate away from your brand’s values. If your brand is aspirational, a rags-to-riches story is perfect for your audience. The same story may not work well for a non-profit, though.

3. Go for a Soft Sell

The main focus of storytelling is to increase engagement, awareness, and interest in your brand. However, that doesn’t mean you have to avoid talking about your product or service entirely. Connect your story to your product, but avoid conversion-based sales language.

4. Keep Your Story Focused

Expand on your story without going on tangents. Stay focused and don’t draw out your story simply for the sake of drawing it out. Keep your goals in mind as you reveal the story.

5. Monitor Your Results

For some audiences, posts may perform better. Others prefer to hear a story on Facebook Live. Track your engagement and see what works for your fans.

Keep Your Audience Coming Back for More

There are many ways to connect with your audience on Facebook, and storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to take advantage of the platform. Use these tips to develop stories that help customers get to know you and your brand. 

How are you using Facebook to share stories? Will you be posting more often with these tips? Let us know in the comments!

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Storytelling is a key way to connect with your Facebook followers. Learn how to use this technique to make your posts come alive!

How to Use Memes the Right Way On Social Media

Sam Sied on May 24, 2021

Create and Cultivate Instagram Meme on orange background

As a social media manager, it’s tempting to jump on the bandwagon when you see a trend taking off. After all, getting a good joke or reference in early can dramatically boost your reach and let your brand ride the coattails of a trending meme. 

But more often than not, corporate SMMs find that they’re behind the 8-ball when they use memes on their accounts.

Nobody wants to come off as tone-deaf online, so it’s important to decide if memes are an appropriate addition to your social media strategy. Thoughtful design, a commitment to branding, good timing, and a great sense of humor all play a role in increasing your opportunity to go viral. 

Here’s what you need to know to use memes the right way in your marketing.

How Memes Can Help Improve Reach and Gain Followers

Memes are bite-sized, culturally relevant content that can engage a whole new audience in your brand. That is… as long as they’re done right. 

Meme culture is pervasive on social media, and it makes sense that brands would want a cut of that engagement.

Relevant and timely memes have a strong potential to go viral, which could quickly make your brand a household name.

However, most brands won’t keep the new followers a well-timed meme earns them unless humor is a fundamental part of the brand’s voice. 

One of the reasons memes are such a unique type of content is because they work on multiple platforms.

Once a meme goes viral, it can extend far beyond Instagram or Pinterest!

Creating a viral meme template can even lead to press features and links back to your social media accounts.

As tempting as those new followers are, it takes intention to start using and disseminating memes well. 

Brands that use memes well have an impeccable understanding of their audience: what they find relatable, what they see as funny or self-deprecating, and how familiar they are with existing meme culture.

These brands also know that this isn’t the time for heavy-handed marketing messages.

When a meme hits the mark, it’s a refreshing step away from overt marketing. It gives followers a feeling that you genuinely understand them and see their perspective.

We know that connecting with your audience is one of the best ways to grow your business and social following, and publishing memes can help you foster the connection you’re aiming for. 

Designing a Strategy Around Unpredictable Trends

There are three central ways to design new meme content: create a new meme, jump on the latest meme trend, or use familiar meme templates.

Many brands approach memes by aiming to jump on a trend when they see it. In these cases, social media teams need to be engaged in close social listening to hear the rumblings of a relevant meme that may be on the outskirts of their current audience. 

For example, following trendy creators outside your audience on TikTok and Reddit can help you find new trends or memes to explore on Instagram and Pinterest. You can also follow dedicated meme pages on Facebook to get a better feel for meme subtext.

Some audiences respond well to using tried-and-true meme templates. But, having a relevant, funny, and on-brand message is key here. Consider that your audience has seen this meme in hundreds of variations, so what makes yours stand out?

If you have the resources, creating a new meme template can be particularly successful. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that meme success isn’t guaranteed, so you may not see the ROI of creating a new meme. Creativity is the key when it comes to memes, so no need to map out a custom meme template with your whole team; instead, wait for inspiration to strike or have regular brainstorming meetings to find your brand’s unique sense of humor. 

As with any trend-based strategy, keep in mind that memes are a social risk. While these risks can deliver major rewards, they can also backfire, leaving your brand looking out of touch. Brand teams should start with social managers who already actively participate in meme culture and the latest trends to avoid missteps.

Considerations While Using Memes

Memes are constantly shared, so you may assume those images are all free and permissible to use. But, some memes are covered under copyright laws, so using them without authorization can pose a legal risk to your organization. 

Brands that use memes should speak with a lawyer or legal team before creating their strategy. A legal team can help you respond appropriately to a take-down letter or request for licensing fees. Plus, they can help you decide which memes are less risky to participate in and which memes to avoid. 

You’ll also want to consider informing customer service agents or people who respond to your social media comments when you plan to post a meme. Memes can generate a huge response, and whether positive or negative, you’ll want to be ahead of the curve to let your response team know when response volume might increase. Getting PR involved can help avoid or alleviate any missteps, too. 

Smaller companies may have an easier time adding memes to their social media strategy, but that doesn’t mean big brands need to avoid meme content entirely. Having a plan for dealing with meme response can help your team effectively manage an influx of attention. 

Tips on Creating Memes That Enhance Your Brand

Messing up with memes can be embarrassing, but the rewards of a well-timed meme can’t be denied. It’s hard to resist memejacking (or repurposing memes) when they can have such an explosive impact on your brand’s success. 

Here are 5 tips to help you do memes right.

1. Take a Risk

Memes often succeed when they have a more subversive or anti-establishment feel. Corporate, wholesome content can fall flat on younger audiences.

The best memes poke fun at a situation, so it pays to take a risk and explore the funnier side of your brand voice.

Think about how your brand voice would sound at happy hour. A small step away from a polished brand voice can be a fun surprise for younger audiences.

Brands that do well with memes have a tone that feels like someone has “taken over” the brand’s social media channels and is doing something their manager might not totally approve of.

A youthful, playful vibe goes a long way when you’re sharing meme content. 

2. Target Your Existing Audience

A campaign aiming to attract a whole new audience with memes often falls flat. Why?

Because you’re probably not looking at the young people already following your brand. 

Look through your followers and see the content your existing audience shares.

Get a feel for what they find funny. They already like your brand, so you’ll want to attract more young followers like them.

To do that, you want to make sure you target them first.

If you’re struggling to engage a Gen Z audience, consider finding a Gen Z influencer that can help create content and offer insight into what appeals to this audience.

Many traditional meme templates may engage a Millennial audience but leave Gen Z feeling like your brand is behind the times.

3. Be Timely

Memes definitely aren’t evergreen content, so they may play a different role from other social content in your strategy.

If you schedule meme content for a week later, you might discover that the meme you share is already outdated.

The best meme strategies are timely and relatively spontaneous – like Barkbox creating these memes in time for the Superbowl!

When you see an opportunity to engage with a meme, jump on it as soon as possible.

If you’re concerned about the potential response or backlash, you can add a meme to your Instagram Stories to test the response before including it in your grid.

Some weeks you may create the perfect meme and your audience will love it. Other weeks, you might not find anything on-trend that fits with your brand.

Don’t force meme content to fit with a posting schedule. Make it a valuable but irregular addition to your strategy instead. 

4. Make Sure You Understand the Joke

One of the benefits of memes is showing that you’re in on the joke. But without the right context, your brand can easily miss the point of the meme. 

If you’re using a more traditional meme, always check KnowYourMeme.com before posting to get a thorough understanding of the content.

For newer trends, find other creators using the same meme to confirm that your interpretation makes sense.

Doing your homework may take time, but it can save your brand a lot of embarrassment and help you avoid becoming a viral meme fail.

5. Stay on Brand

Introducing humor when it’s not a fundamental part of your brand voice can be tricky.

It’s crucial to keep your branding in mind to avoid losing followers when a meme flops.

It may help to separate your brand voice from your marketing messaging before you start adding memes to your social media strategy.

Once you post a meme, you’ll want someone with the same sense of humor available to respond to comments, too.

Your meme can be even more impactful if the comments section is full of on-brand, funny responses to comments.

Kick Your Social Media Marketing Up a Notch

Memes are a great way to add spice and variety to your social media channels. Adding memes to your existing social media strategy can take time, but a slow introduction can help you find the humor in your brand’s unique voice. Brands that use memes well have a huge opportunity to go viral and attract new audiences, so it’s worth the effort to use memes!

Do you use memes on social media? Share your tips in the comments!

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Memes are popular all over social media, and you may be wondering how to get in on the trend. Read our tips for incorporating memes into your brand content!

Do’s and Don’ts of Pinterest Pin Design

Stephen Siu on May 20, 2021

A Pin with 5 Graphic Tees Perfect for Spring with arrows indicating important parts of the design against an orange background

Designing Pinterest Pins is an art and a science. There’s no one right way to do it, but let’s be honest; there are plenty of wrong ways to do it!

If you want to catch the eye of your target audience while they’re scrolling through hundreds of Pins per minute, it really helps to know a little something about aesthetics and design.

But don’t worry, you won’t have to go to art or design school to learn the tricks you need to know!

Take a look at a few of our Do’s and Don’ts of Pinterest Pin design to help you find the most success when creating Pinterest Pins.

Pinterest Design Do’s:

1. Pay Attention to What Colors Go Together

If you’re unfamiliar with the color wheel, it’s time you get acquainted. The color wheel can help you when designing pretty much anything by showing you which colors go best together, and the different combinations you can use to make your own color palette.

Having this handy whenever you’re designing Pinterest Pins can help you decide which colors to use for your Pin (and avoid colors that don’t quite mesh well together).

2. Choose Fonts That Go Well Together

Just like colors, fonts have pairings that go very well with one another. You’ve just got to know which font pairings work well on Pinterest Pins, and which ones don’t!

But don’t worry, it’s not rocket science. In fact, here are a few to get you started! (And if you have a little extra time, check out our post on Font Psychology to learn more about each font family and what effect they can have on your viewer!)

A Pinterest template created in Tailwind Create featuring a woman walking on a beach with gray and blue details.
Created by Sea of Solace

Fonts that Go Well Together

Usually it’s better to pair San-Serif fonts with Serif fonts. The contrast makes the Pin look fresh and modern without distracting the viewer!

  • Open Sans Extra Bold and Libre Baskerville
  • Ubuntu and Lora
  • Playfair and Josefin Sans
  • Oswald Heavy and Merriweather
  • Montserrat and Cardo
  • Nunito Black and Lora
  • Oswald Heavy and Old Standard TT
  • League Spartan and Libre Baskerville
  • Open Sans Extra Bold and Lora
  • PT Sans Bold and PT Serif
  • Lato Heavy and Merriweather
  • Montserrat and Playfair Display
  • Raleway Extra Bold and Merriweather

Of course, you can always go the Serif/Sans-Serif Route, too. Take a look at some suggestions.

  • Cardo Bold and Josefin Sans
  • Merriweather and Source Sans Pro
  • Roboto Slab Bold and Open Sans
  • Lora and Source Sans Pro
  • Libre Baskerville and Montserrat
  • Roboto Slab Bold and Roboto
  • Playfair Display and Open Sans
  • Merriweather and Open Sans
  • PT Serif and Open Sans
  • Source Serif Pro and Source Sans Pro

Perhaps you want to use a script font, which is a popular choice for a lot of bloggers.

  • Yellowtail and Open Sans
  • Abril Fatface and Josefin Sans
  • Lobster and Arimo
  • Shadows and Roboto
  • Pacifico and Arimo
  • Sacramento and Montserrat Light
  • Lobster and Open Sans
  • Pacifico and Josefin Sans

3. Use High-Quality Images

One major aspect of Pinterest Pin design is the image. It’s all about the image on Pinterest. If your Pinterest images aren’t up to par, you won’t get nearly as much traffic as you could be getting.

Because Pinterest is all about images, you need to step your image game up and either take your own stunning high-resolution photos, or get some professional stock photos.

The best option is, of course, to take your own photos so that they’ll be unique and you know no one will have the same Pin image as you. You can even take amazing Pinterest photos on your phone!

But if that’s not an option, the stock photos are a great option. If you want images that not everyone has access to, consider using photos that require a license.

Just be careful about the ways you can use the photo. Make sure to read all of the requirements (like attribution requirements it might have) before you use it in anything. Otherwise, you could get fined or be forced to suddenly stop using the photo.

4. Use a Pinterest Template

If you know absolutely nothing about Pinterest Pin design, take a few pointers from the pros and use a template designed by an actual graphic designer. With design tools like Tailwind Create, you can find dozens of Pinterest templates that you can use to get you started.

Pick a few you like and play around with them until you’re satisfied with the way they look! You can filter templates by content type, industry and even number of photos!

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Pinterest Design Don’ts:

1. Ignore the Description 

While it might not seem like a part of the design, your Pin description is still crucial to your success on Pinterest. The best descriptions use keywords (think Pinterest SEO) and describe accurately what the Pin is about and what people will learn about or what they can get if they click on it.

Make it juicy, though. Hold nothing back because you’ve got a lot of competition. So bring your A game when it comes to writing the description!

Be descriptive, but playful. Let your personality come alive through the words you write.

2. Forget About Branding

Branding on Pinterest is just as important as branding on your website. Remember to add something that shows off who your brand is and gives people something to remember.

There are a few ways to incorporate branding into every Pin design without limiting the actual creative style of the Pin.

The easiest ways are to use your brand colors, and add your brand logo to your Pin. If you don’t have a logo, add your website somewhere on your Pin.

3. Be Afraid to Experiment

Pinterest Pin designs are going to evolve over time as new design elements become more popular and other ones fall out of fashion. For example, minimalist Pin design is a current trend!

A Pinterest template from Tailwind Create featuring luxurious loungewear and a shop now cta
Created by Tailwind

So, don’t be afraid to experiment with design elements and ideas you think might be making their way to the forefront of things. That way, you’ll already be ahead of the curve and people will look to you for inspiration. If you need inspiration, check out our 2021 Pinterest Trends Report!

How cool would it be to be featured on a list of Pinterest Pin designs that did it right?

4. Forget the Call to Action

Speaking of calls to action, don’t forget that either. Otherwise, what’s the point of Pinning on Pinterest? The goal is to get people to buy something, download something, or try something. So make sure you let them know exactly what it is you want them to do.

Some call to action ideas include:

  • Leave a comment if…
  • Share this with your friends
  • Pin this now
  • Make this
  • Click here to become a…
  • Sign up and discover how
  • Does this happen to you? Find the answers by clicking here…
  • Not getting the results you want? This can help…

If you want to create scarcity and urgency, here are a few more for you.

  • Hurry
  • Today only
  • While supplies last
  • Time’s running out
  • Are you doing this wrong? Click here to find out.
  • Last chance to get this
  • Only X days left
  • Don’t make this huge mistake – fix it by…
  • Act now
  • Fast
  • Immediately
A Pinterest template created in Tailwind Create featuring a woman using a face roller with a cta saying shop clean beauty
Created by Tailwind

5. Forget About Cool Design Elements That Boost Engagement

One design element that can boost engagement is an arrow that points to your call to action (CTA). Using one of these can drive up your click through rates.

Not only should you include a CTA in your Pin design, like “Get This Look!” or “Shop Now!”, you can also add design elements like arrows to draw the eye to the CTA.

Creating Stunning Pinterest Pins with Ease

Creating beautiful Pins doesn’t have to be quite the headache you imagine. In fact, it can be pretty fun and easy with the right tools, like, say, Tailwind Create. With Tailwind Create, you can create gorgeous Pinterest Pins that really pop. Go preview dozens of design ideas you can personalize and brand to make your own!

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When designing Pinterest Pins, there are some do's and don'ts to keep in mind. Find out what you should be doing to make a Pinterest Pin here!

Essential Guide to Pinterest Templates (Make Your Pins Pop!)

Susan Moeller on May 18, 2021

An image of an editable purple Pin template in Tailwind Create with a girl in a purple shirt sitting on a ledge

Pinterest templates are an incredible resource for marketers looking to promote their products, ideas and content on Pinterest without spending a ton of time branding and styling Pin designs from scratch.

This isn’t to say all your Pins should look the same; you should always be creating fresh Pins and content for Pinterest. However, a set of well-crafted templates can help you create beautiful Pins that showcase your photos and content while keeping your branding intact.

A good way to think about this is having a set of templates for every type of content you produce.

Whether you’re designing Product Pins, promoting a blog post, or sharing a quote, you should have at least 1-3 Pinterest template designs suited to that format. That way, you can customize a set design around your photo and content – not the other way around!

Plus, having multiple Pinterest templates available (for, say, promoting your blog post) means that you’ll have visual variety for your created Pins. If you have just one template that you use, your Created tab on Pinterest is going to look awfully boring!

Ok, now you know why Pin templates can really help your boost your Pinterest marketing. Let’s dive into the specifics of what to include in Pin templates. We’ll also go over where and how to make them!

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What to Include in Pinterest Template

One of the main advantages of creating Pinterest templates is that you have branded resources for promoting your content and products on Pinterest at your fingertips! And, they’re fairly easy to make!

Here are the main elements you want to include a space for in your Pin design:

  • Pin image
  • Pin Title
  • Subheading and room for copy
  • Background
  • Additional Design Elements
  • Branding 
  • CTA

You’ll also want to make sure that your branding is emphasized throughout your template.

This means incorporating your color palette, branded fonts, and a logo or website!

Created by Brooke Facjz

How to Create Pinterest Templates

There are a lot of design tools out there you can use to make beautiful Pin images, like Canva, PicMonkey and editable templates purchased from Creative Market!

You’ll simply choose a design you like, and customize the elements of the Pin to match your image and branding. In order to create a robust Pinterest template library, you may have to spend a few hours hunting for your favorite designs that work for your content types and then customizing each with your branding.

Or, you can start from almost done with Tailwind Create! 

Our smart visual designer will generate templates in one click based on your industry, branding, or even the color palette of your photo!

It’s a huge time saver, and helps you generate thousands of personalized designs for Pinterest (and your other social platforms!) in half the time. 

Here’s how to use a personalized Pinterest Template in Tailwind Create, step by step and save hours of design time:

Designing multiple Pin templates with Tailwind Create tool
  1. Add Your Pin Title
  2. Add the web address you want to pull your photos from or upload them from your computer
  3. Click Create in the bottom right corner
  4. Browse thousands of curated Pinterest templates generated with your images, title, and branding
  5.  Filter the list by photo count and/or category to find the perfect template for your Pin
  6. Click Edit to make changes to photos, text, color, or branding on any Pinterest template
  7. Select your favorite personalized Pin designs, and hit Review Selection in the bottom right corner when you’re done
  8. Download your Pin images or click “Go Schedule” to add them to your Tailwind Pinterest scheduler

It couldn’t be easier to create personalized social media posts in half the time with Tailwind Create. See what others have created with our tool!

How to Stand Out on Pinterest with Beautiful Pins

When building or using Pinterest templates, there are a few tips and tricks you’ll want to keep in mind on how to make your Pinterest Pins beautiful!

1. Choose a Professional-Looking Image

Image quality is key when it comes to Pinterest Pins. After all, would you click on a Pin with blurry, pixellated images, or snaps taken in low-quality lighting?

Clear, crisp images draw Pinners’ eyes, and showcase your products or topics really well in the busy Pinterest feed! They help tell a story – maybe even before your viewer reads the Pin Title – and can make or break the decision to click.

And, did you know that you can get professional-looking pictures for your Pins right on your phone? Check out our FREE phone photography webinar for more details!

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2. Choose Your Pin Background

Next, you’ll want to choose the background of your Pinterest template. Generally, when you create a Pin with a large block of text, you want to choose a background that doesn’t distract from the text or make it difficult to read – like a solid background color. Minimalist Pin designs work particularly well for this! 

Images can also make for good backgrounds to Pins without a lot of text. You’ll want to choose a simple photo for your background, with plenty of white space for your copy.

If your photo doesn’t have white space, consider adding a text overlay to your Pin so that the text is clearly readable. You should also make sure your text is high enough contrast to be easily read on a screen.

This not only helps your Pinterest audience, it helps Pinterest itself understand exactly what your Pin is about!

3. Draw Users in With Pin Titles

Pin Titles tell your users exactly what your Pin is about – and did you know they tell Pinterest what it’s about, too?

Pinterests’ visual AI tool can read the text on your Pin – well, some text. It really struggles with script and handwritten fonts, so even though these are cute, they don’t help Pinterest SEO.

And trust us, you really want to optimize your Pin designs with Pinterest SEO in mind. When the algorithm (and your users) have a clear understanding of what your Pin is about, it will surface in relevant search results for Pinners interested in that topic. That’s more eyes on your content, and more traffic to your site!

To make a design-friendly Title that hits the points of Pinterest SEO, include your main keyword or topic in your Pin Title, and fight the urge to make it too long. A short, snappy title doesn’t detract from your Pin image or take up too much space in the design, while getting the point across.

You can use up to 100 characters in your Pin Title! 

4. Include Your Branding on the Pin

If you think about it, the Pinterest feed is filled with hundreds of Pin images side by side, each inviting Pinners to click and learn more. If you’re interested in building engagement and a loyal following on Pinterest, subtle branding touches on your Pin can help!

If you have a brand logo, consider including it on your Pin in the corner, or at the bottom of your Pin. 

If you don’t have a logo, include your website address. This helps users know who made the content, and where to go for more things like it!

Want more information? Read our in-depth guide on creative best practices for Pin design!

Pinterest Pin Template Examples from Tailwind

How Often to Post on Pinterest?

You may be wondering how often to post on Pinterest, and looking for information on the best days to post on Pinterest. Well, we have some good and bad news for you here!

The bad news is there is no best time to post on Pinterest. The good news, is that any time could be a good time to post on Pinterest. The key is not posting at the right time and date, but perfecting your Pinning consistency. Here it is from Pinterest themselves:

It’s a good idea to save Pins regularly—consistent, daily activity is better than a once-a-week flurry. Be patient and stick with it.

Unlike social networks where all of your audience reach typically happens in the first 24 hours, the reach of your content on Pinterest will continue to grow over time as Pinners discover and save your Pins. Publishing consistently over consecutive months is the best way to build a dedicated audience.

Pinterest

Our recommendation is to look at how much time you have to commit to generating content to Pin, so that you always have a consistent flow of Pins to your boards.

“There’s no point in pinning 100 times per day if you don’t have the time and content to fill those slots from week to week. You want to be able to set yourself up to maintain a flow of relevant and quality content.”

Taylor Hall, Tailwind Customer Success

That’s where our Tailwind Pinterest scheduler comes in handy – so that you can experiment and find the pinning schedule and cadence that works best for your audience.

If you have the time to publish 10-15 new Pins every day, try it for a while and monitor your engagement with our Pinterest analytics tool. From there, you can make the choice to scale your Pinning rate up or down, or make changes to your Pinterest content!

The sweet spot may take some sleuthing to find, but you’ll be rewarded with more engagement on Pinterest and better performance of your Pins – and Tailwind is here to help!

Plus, our Tailwind Create tool enables you to publish all your freshly designed Pins to your Pin queue in one click of a button, saving you a ton of time! Curious? Try it out today!

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Everything you need to know to turn your Pinterest templates into traffic and generate interest in your brand is here in our guide!

How to Design Your Social Content for Accessibility

Sam Sied on May 11, 2021

A screenshot of a Tailwind customer video with captions on it on blue background

Inclusivity is an important goal for most companies in 2021, but you wouldn’t know it from their social media content. 

While most social media platforms have tools to improve accessibility, many creators overlook these essential resources. By ignoring accessibility best practices, you may be hampering your reach, going against your company’s values, and missing out on great engagement by not making your content more inclusive.

Lots of people assume that Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook aren’t set up to meet accessibility needs. Think again!

There are plenty of ways to make your content more engaging for those who can’t consume it as easily. These social platforms have committed to making their platforms more inclusive for all people, and it’s a great reason to do the same!

Here’s why accessibility matters in social media, how you can create a more inclusive online community, and tips for creating more accessible content.

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Why Inclusive Design Matters on Social Media

Almost every social media manager has felt the sting of lower reach after an algorithm change. However, many don’t see how they’re stepping over tons of potential viewers every day with poor design. 

Even with the most beautiful graphics, snappy captions, and on-trend videos, your design might not cater to your whole audience. Without considering people with limited sight, hearing, or reading capabilities, your content may miss the mark. 

Inclusive design ensures that everyone can reasonably engage with your content on social media. Considering that 61 million Americans alone have a disability, you may be accidentally excluding a ton of people from your online communities.

“It’s important to understand that making digital content accessible also means better marketings. As digital marketers, we naturally want to reach as many people as possible, and accessibility helps us do that.”

Alexa Heinrich, Digital Accessibility Expert and Social Media Manager

But designing for accessibility goes far beyond garnering more likes. Including all people in online communities is our social responsibility, and online community builders know how important it is to create a safe and welcoming space for customers and fans. 

As photo and video content expands across platforms, creators need to consider accessibility at every stage of the creation and posting process.

What to Consider When Developing Inclusive Communities Online

Designing for accessibility may take more intentionality than you’re accustomed to. However, a new section on a creative brief or a new box on your checklist can lead to an engaged audience you’ve never encountered before. 

Part of developing an inclusive community on Instagram, Pinterest, or any social network is thinking about how people with different disabilities access your content.

Platforms are beginning to develop equity teams to understand the needs of people with disabilities better, so the tools available to you are constantly changing.

Even so, those tools only help if you empathize with the experience of people with disabilities and understand how the tools work to enhance their experience. 

“Content creators should always consider how their followers—including users with hearing and/or vision disabilities—are going to engage with their content, especially visual elements like photos and videos.

If you’re going to post an image, make sure you write alt text for it so anyone using a screen reader can access it. And of course, videos should always be captioned to make them accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.”

-Alexa Heinrich

Social media platforms aren’t taking these recommendations lightly. For example, Pinterest took a big step in 2018 when they strengthened screen reader support, improved color contrast sensitivity, and added focus indicators to improve the user experience for those who are visually impaired.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram recently added automatic captioning to video content.

Still, the steps platforms are taking are not enough to absolve businesses from responsibility.

We owe our community great content that they can consume, no matter what tools or resources they use. This is especially crucial on primarily visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, where most content still may not be accessible for certain communities.

Creating More Accessible Content on Pinterest and Instagram

Designing content with accessibility in mind may seem complicated at first. However, it’s actually much easier than you think. 

According to Heinrich, there are three key elements to include in every piece of social media content to make it as accessible as possible: a visual component, an audio component, and a readable text component.

“You need a visual component for users who rely on their sight to consume content, an audio component for users who rely on their hearing to consume content, and a readable text component such as a written post or tweet, transcript, or image alt text for users who rely on assistive devices to consume content.”

“Readable text can also double as your audio component if a user is having their screen reader read the content aloud to them.

Flattened copy, such as text on an image or open captions on a video component, does not count because a screen reader cannot typically identify it as readable text,” says Heinrich.

Alexa Heinrich

Each component should have substance and tell a story accentuated by, but not dependent on, the other components. 

For example, many professionals use Instagram image alt text in a way that doesn’t support people with disabilities.

Instead of comprehensively describing the image for people using screen readers, some people use alt text as a duplicate image caption or an opportunity to add keywords.

This popular SEO practice can provide a bad experience for people with disabilities who rely on alt text to “see” the images in your social media post or on your website. 

Another example is using emojis in captions. Emojis have alt text connected with them, so a screen reader will relay an emoji as a word that represents the emoji. Thus, having emojis placed unexpectedly between sentences or as a substitute for bullet points can lead to confusion for those who can’t see them.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use emojis in your captions, however. Focus instead on using emojis at the end of sentences, or better yet, at the end of your caption! That way, screen readers still get your message without being stymied by random words like “tree” or “woman in lotus position.”

In cases like these, creating inclusive content involves breaking habits that we may have previously linked to higher engagement.

Three Quick Tips for More Inclusive Content

Creating more accessible content can take some getting used to. Examining your design process and adding new elements for better accessibility may seem daunting, but it can ultimately lead to a stronger online community and more successful social campaigns. 

Here are three easy ways to start designing more impactful, inclusive content today. 

1. Add Captions to Videos

All captions are good captions, right? Not exactly. 

Open captions, or captions embedded in the video file, aren’t as helpful as you may think.

As Heinrich mentioned earlier, these captions often can’t be identified as readable text. Instead, you can add the Caption sticker to your Instagram Stories to auto-caption your videos, or toggle the Auto-Generated Captions setting when you add an IGTV video.

Adding captions supports viewers who are hard-of-hearing while also providing readable text for screen readers. Plus, other viewers might appreciate your captions, too. Facebook reports that 85% of videos are watched on mute, so adding captions can pull in another audience who wouldn’t have heard your videos anyway.

2. Use Hashtags Wisely

As valuable as screen readers are, they can’t always be perfect. With hashtags, adding capitalization can make it easier for screen readers to decipher what a hashtag means. 

When a screen reader sees #tailwindapp, it will likely try to stay the entire hashtag as one word. Capitalization can clarify that the hashtag contains specific words and ensure it is read correctly for the user.

While we’re on the subject, adding 30 hashtags to the bottom of an Instagram caption or multiple in a Pinterest caption can provide a bad experience for vision-impaired users. Add hashtags to a comment, instead.

How to Add Hashtags to First Comment with Tailwind

Posting your Instagram hashtags to the first comment is a powerful tool for accessibility – and happens with just one click with Tailwind’s Instagram scheduling tool!

Here’s how you use it:

  1. Upload your photo or video to drafts
  2. Select the best time to post recommended by Tailwind’s Smart Schedule tool
  3. Write your Instagram caption
  4. Add your hashtags from the suggestions in Hashtag Finder, or add your favorite Hashtag List from saved Hashtag
  5. Check the box for “Post hashtags in first comment” (with Tailwind Auto Post enabled!)
  6. Click Schedule

It’s as easy as that! When it’s time to post, we’ll send your carefully crafted content to your Instagram, automatically populating the hashtags at the end of your caption into your first comment on the post. Presto!

A view of the Tailwind Instagram dashboard, showing the post scheduling recommended times, suggested hashtags for your post, and your caption bar with the Post hashtags in first comment selected.

3. Add Meaningful Text Captions

One word, quippy captions have become normal on Instagram and Pinterest. However, when users can’t clearly see an image, they have no idea what your post is about without meaningful context! 

Expand on the story in your image or video with a detailed, informative caption. While it may not follow the current stylistic trends, it will make a big difference in how people experience your content. Captions can be especially impactful on Instagram Reels, where video trends aren’t always the most inclusive.

For Pinterest, adding relevant information into dedicated fields (like a website address into the URL field) or details in your Pin description can ensure your caption stays easy to read.

Always focus on how content appears on the Pin before repinning other users or brands, and adjust content or formatting to match your accessibility goals. Adding clearly visible text overlays to your Pin with enough contrast to read is a great way to do this.

In fact, you can add clearly readable text overlays and appropriately contrasted color palettes to all your social media designs with Tailwind Create!

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Putting Inclusivity First in Social Media Communities

As social media managers, we interact with our communities every day. Our brand is so much more than just a company, and interacting with different people is often the best part of the job. That’s why it’s our responsibility to do better and expand our community to welcome everyone. 

Designing with inclusivity in mind may take a few extra steps, but it’s well worth the effort if it means everyone has the opportunity to engage. There are many benefits to accessible design for social media, but the main benefit will always be creating a rich, strong community where no one is left out. 

Do you have any accessibility tips you use for social media? Let us know in the comments!

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Does your social media pass the accessibility test? Find out how to create user-friendly designs in seconds with our easy guide!

8 Best Design Tools for Creating Stunning Social Media Content

Alisa Meredith on May 6, 2021

An image of a Pin design in Tailwind Create social media design tool with a text edit box open.

Social media marketing is a great way to promote your brand online. An online presence helps you potentially expose your brand to nearly 4 billion social media users. That’s over half the entire population!

Social media is a big part of an online presence. And one of the most important aspects that you need to take care of while growing your social media following is your content design.

Why is that so?

Most social media platforms are visual-first (like Pinterest, TikTok and Instagram). Some platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn, aren’t necessarily visual-first. But visuals play a huge part in content strategy and audience interaction.

That’s why nearly 63% of B2C marketers increased their use of images in 2019. And we think they’re on to something!

So in a nutshell, your visuals are important. Whether it’s your video thumbnail on Youtube, an infographic posted to Pinterest, or an image post on Instagram, you need to get your design right for maximum impact.

That’s where social media design tools can help you. These tools can simplify the design process and help you come up with professional-looking designs that your audience will love. We’ve put together our list of the best social media design tools out there to get you started on your way. Let’s take a look! 

Top Social Media Design Tools in 2021

Here are the best social media design tools that you can leverage to take your social campaigns to the next level.

1. Tailwind Create

Tailwind Create is the tool you need when you’re short on time… and design skills!

If you’ve ever stared at your screen for hours trying to think of new post ideas, or been stressed out by starting all your social media designs from scratch – let alone scheduling all of them to your platforms – Tailwind Create is here to help you breathe easy.

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You can start from almost done with breath-taking designs created for you by our smart designer. All you need are your photos! Tailwind Create instantly transforms your photos into hundreds of optimized designs for Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest with one click. Just choose from any of the “almost done” designs tailored specifically to your niche or industry!

The best part is, your brand styles (think: color palettes and fonts) are automatically applied to every post to keep your content seamlessly on-brand and matching the look and feel of your brand or business.

2. easelly

Pricing: Free Plan available | Student $2/month | Individual $4/month | Enterprise $5/month |

Platforms: Web

If your target is to create high-quality infographics for your social media audience, easelly should be your go-to design tool. The best part about this tool is that it’s completely free to use to start with  — you don’t even need to create an account to start using it. However, you do have the option to go for its paid plans if you want more features.

Easelly socialmedia design tool

All you’ve got to do is choose from one of the numerous infographic templates on its website and start customizing it to suit your requirements. And the best part is that easelly has a huge library of icons, illustrations, and charts that you can drag and drop onto the infographic design to further customize it.

3. Canva

Pricing: Free Plan available | Pro: $119/annual| Enterprise $30/month pp |

Platforms: Web, MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android

When it comes to social media content design, Canva is one of the best design tools to have in your back pocket. It’s got hundreds of thousands of templates that you can seamlessly edit using the drag and drop editor to come up with stunning designs.

Canva social media design tool

Apart from designing social media images and infographics, you can also create video thumbnails with ease. They already have the dimensions set for you for social media content and give you the flexibility to choose custom dimensions too.

What makes Canva one of the finest designing tools out there is also the fact that you can create social media videos using its editor too. 

You also get access to over 75 million premium photos, videos, and elements when you opt for its paid versions. But even in the free version, you get access to a big percent of them.

4. Adobe Spark

Pricing: Free Plan available | Team: $19.99/month| Enterprise: Custom |

Platforms: Web, iOS, Android

Yet another design tool that can help you take your social media designs to the next level is Adobe Spark. While Photoshop may be meant for professionals who have some level of expertise, Adobe Spark helps non-designers come up with striking content with ease.

This tool offers over 34,000 templates that you can modify to suit your requirements using the simple drag and drop editor. You can also upload your images and icons to further personalize your designs.

What’s more?

Just like Canva, Adobe Spark also simplifies the process of creating videos for your social media accounts. You can add icons, video clips, photos, transitions, and even your voice to develop your videos.

5. Pixlr

Pricing: Free Plan available | Premium: $4.90/month| Creative Pack: $14.99/month |

Platforms: Web, Android, macOS, Windows, iOS

Pixlr is yet another popular photo editor that doubles up as a social media design tool as well. Using this tool, you can seamlessly edit your photos to make them more attractive for your audience.

Pixlr Photo Editor

Whether its collages or removing backgrounds and adding layers, this tool can do pretty much what every professional photo editing tool does. 

It’s also got numerous design templates that you can edit using its drag and drop editor. While this editor may be slightly more complex than that of the other tools, it does offer a wide variety of features so once you’re used to the UI, creating designs will be a breeze.

6. Snappa

Pricing: Free Plan available | Pro: $10/month| Team: $20/ month |

Platforms: Web

No list of social media design tools is complete without the mention of Snappa. This all-in-one design tool helps you create eye-catching graphics for your social media accounts.

Snappa photo editor

Snappa removes the guesswork for dimensions by providing you with the right dimensions for all your social media designs. 

All you’ve got to do is start with one of their templates and choose from over 5 million stock photos. You can then add text, effects, and graphics using its drag and drop editor to make your design more attractive. 

One feature that’s particularly helpful here is its ability to remove backgrounds. Other tools offer similar features too but with Snappa, you can do it with a single click.

However, Snappa doesn’t allow you to edit videos. 

7. Desygner

Pricing: Free Plan available | Pro: $4.95/month| Business: $9.95/ month| Enterprise: Custom Plans|

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Desygner has everything that you’d want from a designing tool such as professional templates, royalty-free images, and a drag and drop designer. This ensures that you’ll never run out of images to use. 

Graphic design tools for non-designers

But what makes it really appealing is its automatic resizing feature. With a single click, you can resize your design based on the social media platform that you want to publish it to.

It also takes designing to the next level by letting you upload and edit PDF files as well. This makes it a powerful tool for even B2B businesses that may be looking to upload PDFs on platforms like LinkedIn. 

Be it infographics or video thumbnails, this tool helps you create all the designs you need for social without spending much time.

8. Venngage

Pricing: Free Plan available | Premium: $19/month| Business: $49/ month| Enterprise: Custom Plans|

Platforms: Web

Venngage, like easelly, is a powerful infographic maker that helps you develop colorful and engaging infographics for your social media audience.

Venngage social media infographics tool

It’s got over 7500 pre-made infographic templates that you can load into the editor and then start customizing. 

The drag and drop editor allows you to add photos, icons, and text to the infographic. One of the other features that comes in very handy here too is that of creating and adding charts to the infographic. 

Charts play a major role in infographics and Venngage does extremely well when it comes to them, and this makes the infographics even better.

9. Visme

Pricing: Free Plan available | Standard: $15/month| Business: $29/ month| Enterprise: Custom Plans|

Platforms: Web

If you’re looking for a design tool that can not only help you design infographics but also powerful charts and animations, Visme should be your go-to tool. 

This tool not only lets you create stunning social media posts but also makes it easy for you to develop presentations. 

Its charts feature, in particular, is pretty amazing due to the sheer variety of charts that you can create using it. From simple pie charts and trees to maps, you can work on a whole range of charts on Visme. 

These charts, in turn, can come in very handy for numerous social media posts, especially if you’re into the B2B space.

What’s more?

It’s also possible to create animated social media posts with motion so that you can further catch the attention of social media users.

How a Social Media Design Tool Helps Your Content

Visual content is an important ingredient for the success of your social media strategy. Be it images, infographics, or videos, all your social media posts need to have some sort of visual appeal!

That’s why it’s absolutely critical that you have a good designing tool in your arsenal to amp up your marketing efforts.

All of these tools can help you take your social media game to the next level and most offer free plans for starters as well -including Tailwind! And when you try Tailwind for free, you not only get access to a powerful design tool for all your social media posts, but the ability to schedule, visually plan your feed and craft attention-grabbing captions!

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Which design tool is your go to? Let us know in the comments below!

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Looking for the best social media design tools to level up your content? Here's a breakdown of our top 8 picks and how they work for marketers!