This article focuses on discussing what a social media kit is, why you should create one for your brand (or small business) and few tips to create the perfect one. Therefore, at the end of this week’s blog post, you should have a good knowledge about what social media kits are and how important they are to your business.
I’ve done a pretty good research about social media kits and noticed there’s a ton of writers and content creators who are not completely sure what a social media kit really is. It’s not a bad thing though as this term (social media kit) can be looked at from two (2) different perspective; we’ll discuss these in today’s short article but before that, why not subscribe to our weekly newsletter where we notify you whenever there’s a new blog article published here.
First Off, What is a Social Media Kit?
Given the fact that you’re on this blog page, you most likely just came across the term ‘social media kit’ and how it can help you (or your company) but the question remains; what really is this ‘social media kit’ thing, how useful is it and how do I create a social media kit for my small business?
Basically, a media kit (or press kit) is a promotional document that includes information about a brand, company or even a person which is passed around for press (or promotional) purposes.
Now, you may be wondering, what then is a Social Media Kit?
Is it similar to a ‘Press Kit’ or has a different take?
Is it also a document which includes information about your brand’s social media pages for press or promotional purposes or it’s a simple document that includes your social media templates for easy social media scheduling and management?
Here’s the thing…
It’s safe to say a social media kit is a document which includes information about your brand’s social media pages for promotional purposes. Think about it as a ‘Press Kit’ but just for your social media marketing.
What is it used for?
Primarily to make money or monetize your social media pages. Today, I see a quite number of bloggers and small business owners use a promotional social media kit to showcase their followers, reach, fans and other relevant stats on their websites.
Here’s a good example of a social media (press) kit:
Get the idea now?
What else could be described as a social media kit? Here’s the best way to put it out for you;
A social media kit is a digital kit which comprises the different sizes, designs and templates needed for all your social media activities and processes. This is often also referred to as a ‘Social Media Template Kit’ and would usually include;
- Twitter header image
- Tweet Image template
- Facebook share template
- Instagram posts templates
- Pinterest template and many more.
Basically, this helps you save tons of hours each week by designing and saving all the needed templates for your social media in one place. Talking about how important a social media kit is, let’s look at the 2 basic reasons you (or your brand) should create a social media kit to help with your social media processes.
For the benefit of today’s guide, we’ll be focusing on the later, ‘Social Media Template Kit’, why it’s important and how to get yours in minutes!
Simon zaku, @S_zakuu
Why DO YOU Need a Social Media (template) Kit for YOUR Business?
There are several reasons you may have to get a social media kit for your business. I’ll be highlighting some of these so you would get an idea of how it can help your social media brand. Some of these are;
To Save Time Creating Similar Images Repeatedly: When you have a social media kit which includes social media templates for your brand then you could save hours each week from social media management. A social media kit would have your twitter, facebook, pinterest and even blog templates all in one place. What this means is that you literally only need to change texts when posting a social media update; you do away with frequent fresh designs, dimensions/size optimizations and many more.
Research shows that 64% of social media marketers spend an average of 6+ hours every week on their social media platforms; that’s a ton of time!
Having this kit would save you time and energy while managing your social media platforms. Also, to ensure you save as much time as possible, you need two (2) things. Here are they;
Thing #1: A great social media management tool that’s cost effective.
Thing #2: A social media strategy (I like to call it system) to help with your social media automations.
With my 5+ years experience in the digital marketing world, I’ve learnt that a strategic mix of these two (key) things can help you cut down social media management time from 6 hours to just 2 hours weekly and that’s where UniclixApp comes into play.
Basically, we created uniclix as a solution for social media marketers and small businesses out there to solve their ‘social media time’ problems. Personally, I love how simple the Uniclix dashboard is and how easy it has made social media management.
On our free plan, you can schedule and manage your social media posts with just a few simple clicks.
Here’s how Uniclix works in 3 quick steps;
Step 1: Sign up for Uniclix beta (you’ll be the first to know when Uniclix is fully ready).
Step 2: Add (and authorize) your social media accounts.
Step 3: Begin scheduling and start shedding off hours each week on social media.
GET STARTED WITH UNICLIX FOR FREENow back to the second reason you should have a social media kit.
Brand Consistency: Branding is a crucial aspect of any business (online or offline) in today’s world; in fact it has been this way for decades. Huge brands like Nike, Apple and Microsoft take branding seriously which helps set them apart.
As a matter of fact, effective branding can decide how successful your business or company is and can break your business if not done well.
These well branded companies get to charge double or more for their products. How does a good social media kit help your branding?
You may be thinking; “but Simon, branding isn’t about social media designs or images”.
Well, you’re right but consistent design is a crucial aspect of branding. Think about your social media images, logos, blog images all matching your brand style and users can easily spot your images on social media when they see one. Now that’s branding!
With a social media kit you can have all your social media images look almost the same but optimized for different social media platforms. It simply makes your branding processes on social media a lot easier.
Let’s see how Mary Fernandez of Persuasion-Nation.com incorporates this;
Below are screenshots of Mary’s social media profiles. Pinterest, twitter and even her blog images.
Consistent and effective branding. Now we know it’s most likely a persuasion-nation social media update when it’s purple and has a touch of white and yellow with some creative texts on it.
Knowing fully what a social media kit is and how important it is, let’s talk about how to get one for your small business. Besides, you came here not only to learn what it is but also to be able to get one for your brand afterwards.
How to Design the Perfect Social Media (template) Kit for Your Social Media Needs
To get a social media marketing kit for your small business, you need to know how visual graphics (images, videos…) work on each social network. You should what type (and dimensions) of images work best on each social network and how to design them.
For instance, long vertical images perform best on Pinterest while short, horizontal images are best published on Twitter and Facebook. Each social media network has its unique image size and type for better performance.
What I personally did for my personal blog, simonzaku.com is I found out the various image dimensions for each social media platform I wanted and created a one-time template for each of the social networks which is saved in a desktop folder on my computer and also saved in my free canva account.
This makes creating branded social media images for me really easy and within seconds, I can create any social media image with any hassle.
Social Media Image Sizes (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, & YouTube)
Let’s break down the various social media sizes and dimensions for these social media networks;
- YouTube
Twitter Image Sizes:
Header image: 1500 x 500, Profile image: 400 x 400, In-stream image: 440 x 220.
Facebook Image Sizes:
Cover image: 820 x 312 (minimum 400 x 150), Profile image: 180 x 180, Shared Post Image: 1200 x 630.
LinkedIn Image Sizes:
Banner image: 1584 x 396, Profile image: 400 x 400 (min: 200 x 200), Company Cover image: 1536 x 768 Shared image: 350 pixels wide.
Pinterest Image Sizes:
Profile image: 165 x 165, Board cover image: 222 x 150 (min: 55 x 55), Pinned image preview: 236 pixels wide.
Instagram Image Sizes:
Profile image: 110 x 110, Image thumbnail: 161 x 161, Shared photos: 1080 x 1080, Shared videos: 1080 pixels wide, Instagram Stories: 1080 x 1920 (min: 600 x 1067).
YouTube Image Sizes
Channel cover images: 2560 x 1440, Channel icon: 800 x 800, Video thumbnail: 1280 x 720
Gotten your social media image sizes and dimensions right? Let’s move on to designing your templates in minutes using canva (what we use).
Use Canva to Get Your Templates in Minutes
I use canva to create all my social media and blogging images because it’s pretty easy and the free version allows me to do exactly what I want.
Since you already have your social media image sizes and dimensions, what you want to do is to create separate templates that matches your brand’s taste in canva. You could use canva’s already optimized dimensions for some of the social media images like the ones above (Instagram Post, Facebook Post, Facebook Cover…) to create your templates.
For templates that are not available on canva’s ‘templates-mine’, creating your social media templates is really simple. To begin designing, click on the ‘Custom Dimensions’.
This will allow you create custom dimensions for your images.
This should take you to a new tab where you can design your image to your taste. Using 1500 & 500 (Twitter Header Image) dimension, let’s make a quick design.
In less than 30 seconds, we got this image below which is a perfect fit for our twitter page.
GET STARTED WITH UNICLIX FOR FREEPick 2-3 Fonts & Colors to Maintain All through
To maintain consistency while creating your templates, pick 2-3 font types that match your brand style and walk with them all through. Also, you must use only a select number of colors (3 colors are recommended) to keep to your brand style too.
With canva, you can easily pick your preferred fonts and colours for consistent branding when designing your social media images. Here’s how to do it;
From your canva dashboard, select the ‘Brand Kit’ tab [premium feature].
Here, you can pick colour palettes and fonts (you can even upload your own fonts) that match your brand style and save.
This way, all your social media images will look almost the same but with different sizes and dimensions.
Learnt How and Why YOU Should Create a Social Media Marketing Kit for Your Small Business?
Just as I’ve mentioned, research shows that majority of social media marketers out there spend more than 6 hours on social media. Creating and designing social media graphics and images add to this time problem too but having your own social media image kit could save your business a ton of time.
Instead of having to start fresh designs every single time you want to create a social media image, you can just head to your ‘social media kit’ vault and make a few changes and boom, it’s ready to be published on any of your social media accounts.
How great is that?
Now why not start helping your business save as much time as possible by doing just these two (2) tasks I have for you;
TASK #1: Sign up for Uniclix beta (our social media management tool) by clicking the button below.
TASK #2: Download the social media image & dimensions file and get your social media templates ready quickly (NO OPTIN REQUIRED).
GET STARTED WITH UNICLIX FOR FREEDon’t have a canva account? Don’t worry, it’s free to sign up and takes minutes 😉
