Developing Your Social Media Aesthetic

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Like first impressions in real life, your social media aesthetic matters.

I get a lot of compliments for the Cyber Patterns branding and my social media aesthetic. So I'm going to show you how to develop your own aesthetic.

Your social media profile is your first impression to other creators. Make it count.

Choose a style. Stick with it.

Startups spend $1000s on branding and design.

So you should spend 20 minutes thinking about your aesthetic.

You should have a set of rules across platforms around options like:

• Colorwave

• Instagram filters

• TikTok cover title colors

• Font style on Twitter

• Profile pic and cover photos

You want your aesthetic and vibe to be standardized across the web.

It sounds silly, but it's crucial for creators.

Stick to the same aesthetic for a long period and you'll see compound results.

Good aesthetics are leverage.

"Paradoxically the strength of a brand is measured by what you don't have to say," tweeted designer Jack Butcher.

Butcher's right. Your aesthetic is leverage, building your reputation and working as a salesman for you at all times.

Through Butcher's website, courses, and socials, he sticks with the black and white aesthetic. Every new black and white design is another piece of proof in his consistency.

Because Cyber Patterns is heavily focused on technology, I wanted a vaporwave cyberpunk aesthetic: blue, purple, and glitchy.

I came up with a mockup in Figma then paid a designer from Fiverr to make the cover photo below. To match the aesthetic cross-platform, I then glitched out my profile pic.

The cover photo speaks for itself. You don't even have to read my work to know that my blog is for the tech world. The imagery is leverage.

It should be the goal of every creator to have a recognizable aesthetic.

Andy Warhol had his aesthetic that is still recognized today.

I was at an art show last week in NYC and I saw a painting I knew was Warhol's before I even saw his name on it. That should be the goal of any creator.

Marty from Poolsuite built an entire business based on the summer aesthetic.

That includes a radio for summery music, pool-themed NFTs, a sunscreen brand, and a newsletter called The Palm Report.

The man is capitalizing on summer like no one else.

The point

"Don't judge a book by its cover" is bullshit advice.

You should 100% judge a book by its cover and name. If it's a boring cover and name, there's a good chance it'll be a boring book.

Think about a marketing book with a generic name like Digital Marketing in the 21st Century versus a books I just read: Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands. Which sounds more intriguing?

I implore you to judge a book by its name and cover.

The same goes for social media profiles, websites, and newsletters.

If someone hasn't put any thought into their aesthetics, there's a good chance they haven't put any deep thought into their work either.

Your first aesthetic doesn't have to be perfect.

Think of it like a minimum viable aesthetic, a first draft that you can iterate over time. Like a startup pivoting and iterating on their minimum viable products, you can always iterate and rebrand your aesthetic in the future.

The point is if you're serious about being a creator, you should be serious about developing a standardized social media aesthetic.

Open up Figma, figure out a colorwave, and start building your personal brand.

Shoot me a DM if you need any help on branding stuff, always happy to chat.