Some things bear repeating, and this is one of them. I'm sure you've been told before how important images are to success in social media. If you haven't, you should question your choice of friends and/or business associates. My two cents.
Anyway, even if you have been using images a lot more you still may not be using them well -- for maximum impact, in other words. You may not know that articles with relevant images and social posts with thumbnail images for links get 94% more views than those without. Or that images in posts on Facebook and Twitter more than double the shares of those without them.
Social media dashboards have also started incorporating image tools right alongside posting and scheduling. Sendible tightly integrated Canva into their dashboard last year, and Buffer just launched their own integrated image tool called Pablo.
So even though we've been waiting like two years for something to come along and replace images as the next big thing in social media, it's still in the spotlight because it's not going away, and it works. So let's look at some things you can do if you aren't already.
Release Your Inner Creative
Or hire somebody, whatever's more efficient. Just don't stick to posting pictures from the company picnic or purely shared images originating elsewhere. Nothing wrong with that, but make sure that you're creating some of your own (or hiring someone to). "Picture" pictures are great, you don't have to avoid them, but a cool image will draw more attention.
Check out this image I made with Canva. It took roughly 90 seconds, and I'm slow.
Enticing, no? I had the picture in my files (I took it with a smartphone out the car window on a bridge), the "button" at the top I just chose from Canva's presets and slightly tweaked it (switched the background and text colors and deleted a word), then I typed the bottom part, changed the font and color, centered it, and viola!
I even inserted a link in the bottom text, which may surprise the site managers when they see a sudden uptick in traffic from this. The point is, it's an image that's likely to get clicks if not likes and shares, and it took less than two minutes to make. You can do it too.
There Are Plenty of Quotes to Use
And people love them. Especially on Pinterest. If you can't paste a quote on an attractive background and change the font, you definitely need to hire someone to manage these things for you. So there's really no excuse for not creating some images of your own. Free tools and easy work, and it's effective.
Events and Announcements
This should be a no-brainer, but it's not. When you're announcing something in the real world - say, a flyer for a new store opening - you use images and graphics. Why would you stick to text on social media? If you have an announcement or an upcoming event, make a virtual version of what you might print for it. Except that cost won't be nearly as much of an issue, if it's an issue at all, so you can make much more extravagant designs.
New product release? Speaking somewhere? Your mom's birthday? Create an image with text in it to let people know what's going on. They'll pay more attention.
Various and Sundries
Quick instructions or recipes, endorsements and testimonials, blog post links, whatever you can post with text you can enhance with an image. If you're not using great images on a very regular basis, you can bet you aren't getting near the engagement you could be.
Do yourself and your business a favor and kick your image game up a notch. Your engagement level will rise correspondingly.
The post How Well Do You Use Images in Social Media ? appeared first on Real Social.