Anyone in the field of social media marketing wants the same thing- to stand out among the noise. By now, it's pretty clear that visuals are the key to engaging an audience and clearly telling a brand's story.
Why Visuals?
In the micro-content and mobile world we live in, our eyes move super fast and process things in lightning speed. Interestingly, our brain is able to process images 60,000 times faster than text.
Especially with swiping being the default way most users consume content, text simply gets lost. Visual content is the only way for a brand to truly stand out and deliver strong messages and tell unique brand narratives.
With so many great visual platforms, what are some of the best ones to use to boost engagement? Here are 5 that I use regularly with my clients that range from B2B to startups and small businesses to non-profits.
Infogr.am
Awesome infographic templates, enough said. Now, any company can boast significant data and metrics with a visual graphic. The easy user-friendly interface (plug and play) makes building the compact data-focused graphic a cinch. Infogr.am clearly deserves all of the awards and accolades it's received.
Canva
For many companies, Photoshop, Illustrator and any other graphic program somehow sink to the bottom of the list of priority expenses. The challenge is that graphics and visual content is critical but the cost involved in hiring a full-time creative staff is overwhelming. To those who are graphically challenged, or a looking to keep graphic costs down, Canva is the ultimate solution. Say so long to the days of Paint. Kiss the days of low-level crop-shop graphics goodbye because this platform has disrupted the industry big time.
The free templates for the most commonly used digital platforms (Twitter & Facebook headers, Google +), tons of free images or others for $1, basically make this a no-brainer for businesses in any industry.
For those companies who are nervous about using Canva, don't worry because this company is empowering their growing community of burgeoning faux artists by sending out excellent step-by-step tutorials on graphic design.
GoAnimate
In today's digital marketplace, engaging a consumer on a site is a challenge. Video marketing is clearly on the rise. But with the significant investment in designing, creating and producing a solid video, most companies are dragging their feet to integrate video into their digital strategy. While GoAnimate is not free, their price points are reasonable and eliminate the previous barriers of budget and time. They've simplified creating a solid brand video into a simple drag and drop interface. This tool is a great way for brands to tell their story quickly and easily. The whole user experience is fun and in some cases could save a company a nice amount of money in production costs.
With so many features it's hard to choose one that truly stands out. Recently, GoAnimate has enabled companies to transform the otherwise static infographic into a dynamic, visually appealing video. Telling a data driven story has never been easier. It's no wonder, GoAnimate is my go-to B2B/ B2C video creation platform.
Haiku Deck
Many companies have powerpoint decks that are missing that wow factor that keeps audiences engaged. Sometimes the information gets lost because it's simply overwhelming. Haiku Deck is restoring the notion that presentations should be focused, clear, and simple to follow. The high-quality images (all free) that are available in the search feature make building a brand narrative beautiful. It's time to rethink the negative associations involved in creating presentations.
Here's a great example.
As visually rich content continues to dominate marketing, it's time for brands to incorporate high-quality engaging content to help them stand out among all this noise. At the end of the day, boring content simply won't work anymore.
Have you used any of these visual platforms? Do you have others to suggest?