Trying to improve social media engagement with graphics?

Eye-catching visuals will help your brand to stand out from the crowd on social media.

For many businesses, social media can increase brand awareness, humanise the organisation, increase web traffic, boost sales, promote content and create engagement.

But it can be hard work to gain audience attention!

The use of visual content and graphics can be one important point of difference. Remember this quote, “A picture is worth a thousand words“… well, believe it or not, this was first used in the early 1900’s and it is still so true today. Images catch attention, increase click through rates and build engagement. They tell a story and can condense complex information into a simple visual.

We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.
BRAIN RULES BY JOHN MEDINA

After a lot of testing, Brian Dean from Backlinko highly recommends using eye-catching graphics to stand out in the feed. Even though it requires more time and effort, it is worthwhile and will help increase traffic.

But why are images so important?

Because our brains are wired to process images faster than a chunk of text. Vision trumps all other senses.

Here are a few interesting facts from the visualteachingalliance.com:

The brain processes visual information 60,000 faster than text. 3M Corporation, 2001

Ideas presented graphically are easier to comprehend and remember than those presented as words. Kliegl, R., Smith, J., Heckhausen, J. & Baltes, P.B. (1987)

A good infographic is worth a thousand words.

Visual aids in the classroom improve learning by up to 400 percent. 3M Corporation, 2001

Why bother with the time and expense of creating visual content?

Research conducted by Microsoft indicates that we only have around 10 seconds to gain a user’s attention.

However, we know that in general our audience is suffering from information overload. They are trying to process things quickly in order to separate the important things from the irrelevant.

This is where a key graphic can make all the difference—at a glance they can make a judgement as to whether this post rates more of their attention and whether it is important to them. They can choose to ignore, engage, leave a comment, or click through.

Tazi AW-stats — *Infographic created for Transitioning Well*

Quality graphics

A good first impression goes a long way
Make sure your profile image is clear and not distorted, especially if it is your logo. Graphics should be good quality, correct dimensions, include alt tags, keywords and tags.

Branding
It is important to keep your graphics, colours and typefaces cohesive so that your brand identity becomes familiar to users. The consistency will pay off—it only takes 5-7 impressions for people to build recognition. If your visuals have a different look and feel each time, there will be no cumulative recognition.

Copyright
Please be careful not to infringe copyright laws. Simply stated, if you create the image then you own the copyright. If you get it from another source then the copyright belongs to someone else so you will either need permission or a licence. Stock photo sites (yes), google (no).

You can create your own graphics using Canva or other online apps, but it can be time consuming and you may be better to outsource this to a graphic designer or use ready-made assets.

Types of social media graphics

Cover image
Profile image
Infographics to highlight stats
Announcements
Collages
WIP photos
Products in use
Video
Animations
Inspirational images
Funny memes and puns
Customer generated content & reposting
Themed images

Themed Images
Images that follow a theme such as a colour, style or a topic can help grab attention and create brand recognition. They can be used alternating with other posts to create variety. For example these sets of quotes would look good in a social media feed or on a blog:

Your social media strategy

Most organisations are aware that they need a social media strategy—this is about where the business is heading …

If you’re not taking advantage of social, you’re missing out on a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to reach almost half the world’s population.
HOOTSUITE

Who is your audience?
Who are your customers and what content do they want to see? Research demographics and competitors.

What is the goal?
Think about building brand awareness, sales, engagement, driving traffic to the website, humanising the brand … There are lots of ways to encourage engagement from running contests and giveaways, asking questions or advice, and using emotive visuals.

What to share?
Choose appropriate visuals that relate to your audience, content, brand and message. Use a variety of graphics to create interest—photos, infographics, screenshots, video, animation. You could include a behind the scenes photo, a video of a new product, team members in action, images from an event, or create a collage. Anything with baby animals is sure to be popular!

Where to share?
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are the top four. It is a good idea to have a complete profile on each of these as they can show up on Google search when people search for your brand.

Your social media plan

The social media plan is about how you’ll get there. These are the basic steps to help you boost engagement:

Create accounts
Set up a calendar (eg. weekly, monthly, yearly)
Choose content (include public holidays, special events, new products, industry events)
Source or create relevant images for each post
Write an appealing caption and add relevant hashtags
Proof-read the content
Schedule posts (I use Hootsuite)
Monitor comments and conversations
Analyse stats and measure engagement
Generate reports
Go to step 2 and keep repeating!

If you already have a social media presence but need to improve it, consider increasing your focus on the quality of the visuals. Try to incorporate a variety of different media to create interest.

Strong visuals will not only enhance your social media accounts, but build brand awareness and familiarity, keep your organisation at the top of mind, and ultimately help build sales.

Useful books on Amazon

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