How to Use Customizable Social Media Templates For a Consistent Online Presence
Imagine a consistent presence on one of the top social media platforms in the world for your business, Instagram. Your brand's visual identity is floating around the internet, reaching the screens of more and more people in your target audience daily. Sounds like a dream, right? But the amount of time it would take to have the perfect online presence is less than ideal.
Enter customizable social media templates: the busy entrepreneur's best friend and the secret weapon you can use to show up online without spending hours trying to think of a way to stand out from the competition, attract the right people, and look good online.
Psst! New to the world of templates? Shop our moody and modern templates for Instagram stories and posts – perfect for the photographer who wants to show up without spending hours creating content. Shop now by clicking here!
Templates can take your social media game to the next level with the click of a button, but there's even more you can do to customize your templates for a consistent social media presence. And don't worry! None of these small tweaks take much time. Just follow along with these four tips and open up your Canva account so you can follow these suggestions as we go!
Navigating Canva Like a Pro
Canva is an Insta-girl’s best friend. It allows you to design unique posts by arranging your photos, text, and brand elements in ways that captivate your audience and have them hitting that “follow” button.
Canva allows you to upload your logo files, fonts, and color palette for easy access whenever you create a new design. Adding your branding assets to Canva can help you save time, maintain consistency, and turn your templates into something special. And the best part is? While Canva does have a paid membership option, you can do almost all of these things for free!
Haven't used Canva before? Create an account by clicking here!
Gather all your files and then follow these steps to upload your branding:
Log in to your Canva account and click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen.
Select "Brand kit" from the dropdown menu.
Click on the "Upload a logo" button to upload your logo files. You can upload multiple versions of your logo (e.g., full-color, black and white, etc.) to make it easier to use in different designs.
To add your brand colors, click on the "Brand colors" tab and either choose from Canva's preset color palettes or enter your own custom colors using the color picker tool.
To add your brand fonts, click on the "Brand fonts" tab and either choose from Canva's selection of fonts or upload your own custom fonts by clicking on the "Upload a font" button
Customizing Colors, Fonts, and Photos
Now that you have all your brand elements at your fingertips, it will be so much easier to integrate them with your templates! To use them, simply open up your template and click on whatever element you want to change.
If it’s a background, click on the colored square in the top right to change the color to one from your Brand Kit
If you’d rather set a picture as the background, click the “Uploads” tab on the left menu and either choose a photo or upload a new one of your own. Once it’s been added to your design, right-click and choose “Replace background”
If you want to change one color to another throughout your design, select your color, then at the bottom of the color menu, click “Change all”
To change fonts, click on the box of text you want to change, then the font name in the top left. In the menu that pops up, scroll down to “Brand Kit” and choose from the brand fonts
If you have custom fonts (which we totally recommend, by the way), then you can upload them to Canva so that the same fonts your brand designer suggested to compliment your custom brand identity can be used across your social media! A custom font typically has attributes that catch the eye and are unique to the brand narrative you want to weave – meaning that when used alongside your brand photos, templates, and color schemes, you'll make the most memorable impact on your audience!
Adding Your Captivating Content
The real star of the show isn’t the template, it’s what you choose to do with it. Share anything from new services, your availability, your latest project, a client success story, or an educational piece of content by adding your own words and duplicating pages to make aesthetic carousel posts! The templates we've created, which you can shop here, have designs intended for you to use to...
Market your services, offerings, & availability
Highlight a portfolio project or testimonial
Share your brand's mission & vision
Quotes & motivating content
Educational content and so much more!
Brand photography, along with a consistent theme that aligns with your brand identity, will also help you to increase the impact of your social media presence. Photography that's been customized to you highlights your values, brand color schemes, and the face behind the brand – all of which contribute to a more personalized and professional Instagram account.
The Final Touch: Making It Pop
Now you can call it good or take things to the next level! Add final touches to your posts with:
Brand patterns, textures, and stickers to increase brand recognition
Add gifs for some dynamic (and relatable) movement
Add overlapping images to multi-page posts to keep people engaged
Making these changes will help your brand show up consistently online, while also allowing you to stand out from others. If you haven’t found the perfect template to help you elevate your social media posts, then browse our shop! Before purchasing any social media template, it's important to have a strong and custom brand identity. But this doesn't have to take very long either! Learn more about branding in a day, brought to you by a professional brand designer by clicking here.
