No doubt you've heard this before, but visuals are important in social media marketing. Tweets with photos get 313% more engagement, Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without, posts with images on LinkedIn result have a 98% higher comment rate. And that, of course, is before we even talk about video, which has seen a massive rise in popularity in the last 24 months.
But while visuals themselves are important, it's also important to be using the right images, moving in line with wider trends to ensure you're creating the most compelling, attention-grabbing content you possibly can.
So how do you find out about the latest visual trends? That's where Shutterstock's annual Creative Trends report can help.
The data is based on searches and downloads conducted on Shutterstock's platform over 2016 - and with nearly 1.5 million users downloading an average of 4.7 images per second, Shutterstock is certainly in a good position to ascertain the most important visual shifts.
They've combined their latest findings into the below infographic - worth considering in your content process.