Creating a Social Media Campaign: What to Remember

Social media has become a more powerful tool for connecting and targeting large audiences. Businesses and public relations practitioners can use social media to share information and promote a company brand. By integrating social media skills into public relations practices, you can expand your audience using different communication methods based on the chosen media platform.

Image: UnSplash

Elements of Creating a Social Media Campaign

1. Creating a strategy for enhancing your organization's brand. Your social media campaign should utilize the strategy to effectively communicate the message.

2. Recognizing your target audience and defining your stakeholders. To define your stakeholders, you must first research your organization to understand what people may be interested in its mission and have corresponding values. More information on defining stakeholders and creating personas here.

3. Crafting design elements for your campaign: color, typography, logos, balance, unity, etc. You should aim to find a balance between functionality and creativity in your designs to communicate to your stakeholders.

Image: Canvas

Designing Campaigns for Social Media

Canva Template

Canva is a useful tool for designing social media posts/media. It also can be used for free (with the option for a paid version with premium features). Canva has a unique feature that allows users to use templates designed for specific social media elements. They have templates from various users designed for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms. The templates are fully customizable, so you are able to personalize them to match the brand and message.

Design by Lexie Oliver

To the left is my finished design of an Instagram post. I used the template above but customized it fully to match the elements of the Oklahoma Route 66 Brand. I used on-brand colors, typography and imagery. I incorporated the brand logo... which is so important to curate recognition amongst target audiences. I also created the design with a specific stakeholder in mind: tourists. All of these aspects are important to create a successful design for a social media campaign.