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Today’s audience has trouble focusing because of their hyperactive, commotion-ridden environment. Everyday, people are exposed to more webpages, TV shows, social media posts, instant gratification technologies and data. The Attention Economy records how one Sunday New York Times edition presents more factual data than 15th century readers could access in their entire lifetimes! According to new research, social media marketers are turning to visual content to get the job done. The power of visual content marketing isn’t a new concept. Graphic designers have always had a role to play in marketing and advertising, even on traditional media like TV and newspapers....
If you’re working to build up your social media presence, you know that images are essential to boosting your online engagement. In fact, content with images gets almost twice as many views. If you’re not sharing images your audience loves, you’re missing out on serious engagement.
You need visual content, but figuring how to get it can be a challenge.
- Which images are best for your business?
- How can you find or create them?
- How can your images stand out among the avalanche of others on social media when Facebook alone sees more than 300 million images shared every single day?
In this post, you’ll get three great tips on how to up your social game so you can get more clicks, likes and follows. You’ll learn the elements of shareable images, what works on each platform, and design tips to create engaging images for social media....
Small pictures can make a big difference in a mobile-driven world.
Quite often other photographers tell me “I don’t have time for another social network and I don’t need Instagram.” Yet they spend hours posting on Facebook, 500px and Flickr where almost zero potential clients will see their work.
They’re basically getting followers, likes, and comments coming from other photographers. Instagram can be useful in ways you might not have thought of before, and it shouldn’t take you too much time to build a presence on it.
In this article, I’ll try to share a bit of my experience on this social network as a photographer (@zellersamuel 12k followers) and how it benefits my work....
Whether you promote content that is fresh or seasonal, evergreen or topical, your endeavor will be meaningless if it doesn’t make your readers sizzle and pop with excitement. How do you capture the attention of your audience without crafting content from scratch?
Perhaps all you need is a high-quality photo. Not a bland, lifeless image, but an attention-grabbing picture — one with a story behind it. Maybe you need a series of compelling images if you’re marketing a lengthy content piece.
Research shows that:
- Color visuals increase a person’s willingness to go through a content piece by 80%.
- Posts or articles with images receive 94% more views than posts or articles without images.
- Understanding of content jumps from 70% to 95% with the integration of images....
While GE has consumer-facing boards on Pinterest, it’s the company’s B2B boards that get the lion’s share of attention—especially its Badass Machines page. It features the “biggest and baddest technologies produced by GE.”
What’s sparking this major attraction? In a word, visuals. GE creates epic behind-the-scenes photos of everything from jet engines to gas and wind turbines. While GE’s products may not seem to be inherently visual, like food or fashion, close-up images of powerful machines are awe-inspiring. Which is why people can’t get enough of them. So much so that GE also posts the images on its popular Instagram page.
Anything that you post on social media (article links, pictures, videos – everything) is essentially a part of your content, much like the written words in this article. Like any other content, your social media posts absolutely need to be of high quality and provide value to your audience. This is the first and most important thing that you need to keep in mind.
To make all your posts crystal clear for search engines, try to make use of semantic markup every time you share something on social. Semantic markup is the name for putting a HTML tag on your content (like a description for articles or alt-text for images/pictures) that tells search engines what exactly your content is about.
Use a clear, catchy description and mix in a few keywords here and there. For example if your post is about making pancakes and includes a pancake image, you can use something like “Ever wondered how to make the most delicious pancakes at home in just an hour?” and make sure you pay attention to the image’s alt-text, which should read something like “the most delicious pancake recipe”....
What if you wanted to place text or an arrow on your Facebook cover photo without it getting covered by the profile photo? And what about the shared link thumbnails on Facebook or in-stream photos on Twitter ... how big should those be?
If you're looking for a detailed guide to social media photo sizes -- including recommended dimensions, minimum and maximum dimensions, image scale, and more -- then this is it.
The infographic below from Jamie Spencer of MakeAWebsiteHub.com is a great reference to bookmark or keep close-at-hand the next time you're creating an image for your social media profile.
Great infoSocial media is an ever-changing beast. You almost can’t have a business in this day and age without a presence in the online world and specifically, at least, one of the big eight social media sites. Gone are the days where only teens frequented MySpace to chat with friends. Social media is here to stay, and people are looking online for your business so you’d better present your best.
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
Not only is visual content integral to how we process information, but it also drives increased engagement from our audience.
What does this mean for brand storytellers? We should be investing just as much time and creativity into our visual content as we do for our written content. And yet, visuals are often treated as an afterthought rather than one half of the storytelling duo.
Visual storytelling doesn’t come naturally to many of us design-impaired marketers (myself included). Luckily, there are some established dos and don’ts we can follow to ensure that our visuals are relevant and effective. Here are four best practices for visual storytelling....
How much more memorable are visuals compared to text?
One oft-referenced answer is that people remember visuals 6 times better than text—an answer referenced in Buffer’s article on the anatomy of a perfect blog post and an answer that led to a lot of great discussion. After reviewing the original research, it’s clear that pictures are more memorable than words. So the next question became:
People remember visuals better than text. But which visuals exactly?
I’ve spent some time collecting the best research and science on pictures, images, infographics, and more, and I’m excited to share with you what I’ve found—along with some specific ways to use these insights in your marketing!
Want to create better social media graphics?
Or learn how to design visuals that capture attention and drive traffic?
Sure you do. Because you know that the right graphic can put your content on the map.
So where do you go when you want to learn a new skill? Straight to the best!
And that’s exactly why I chose this group of visual marketing pros.
Each one knows how to create attention-grabbing visuals. But more than that, they know how to create images with mass appeal. Follow these 26 visual marketing experts to see how you can crush your next visual campaign!...
If you're in the business of selling food products -- or drink products, for that matter -- then it's incredibly important to know how to take appetizing pictures. Today's consumers expect you to use visual platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to promote your products, offer recipe ideas, announce events and promotions, and show off the human side of your community and culture.
But what does a great food brand Instagram account look like? To give you a little inspiration, we've found 15 food and drink brands that are getting noticed on Instagram. Check them out for examples of how to use the visual platform to and gain fans, followers, and loyal customers....
If you’ve been looking to supercharge your social media strategy, you probably know a lot about the benefits of using images.
But, how much do you know about actually creating scientifically shareable images?
Turns out, there’s tons of actionable, research-backed advice on how to create social media images that get shared—the ideal colors, fonts, text, and more, all leveraging what we know about design, psychology and the Internet to get more shares and engagement.
By the end of this article you’re going to be fully aware of how to make images that your readers can’t help but share. All backed by science....
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These days, it’s no secret that high-quality images are important for any marketing strategy, particularly when it comes to social media. Images not only help brands stand out in busy social news feeds, but they also boost engagement and build brand awareness—and their importance is growing.
According to a WebDAM infographic, 84% of all communication will be visual by 2018. So, there’s no better time than the present to ensure you’re creating and sharing top-notch imagery. And that starts with following sizing best practices for each channel.
To help you do just that, below is a quick cheat sheet for sizing your images for optimal impact, complete with dimensions and some examples. In addition, you’ll also find some helpful tools that can help your resize, edit or create images....
In a study published by the Content Marketing Institute last month, 70% of B2B marketers stated they will produce more original content in 2017 than they did in 2016, and 39% plan to increase their content marketing spending over the next year.
Meanwhile, user-generated content is also expected to explode. The global Internet population grew 62%, from 2.1 billion to 3.4 billion, in just the last four years.
All this means that the amount of content online, including visual content, will only increase exponentially with time–not decrease.
So, with so much noise out there, how can can you still create unique visual content that stands out?....
It’s no secret that visual content is powerful. Numerous studies show that our ability to recall information increases significantly when it’s presented as an image rather than plain text.
That’s why infographics, despite the fact that they are everywhere, are still effective when done well.
Infographics are still effective when done well says @sujanpatel. #contentmarketing CLICK TO TWEET
What that means, as summarized by Jeff Bullas, is that an infographic (and visual content as a whole) should:
- Blend seamlessly into the user experience
- Fit the platform used to share it
- Offer genuine value — never an aggressive attempt to sell
- Be bite-sized — quick and easy to consume
- Relate to the things your audience cares about
- Be consistent in style and tone
Fun fact of the day: the human brain processes imagery 60,000 times faster than text. Despite this, we’re still seeing lots of professional sites whose only image content is their header and ads.
Visual spectacles like Tumblr and Pinterest are simply taking advantage of how the human brain works, making them not only extremely popular but also significantly more engaging than your average blog.
Don’t get me wrong, people are clearly using visual elements. The larger problem is that a lot of people aren’t investing in their image content because they either think their copy is good enough or they really don’t realize they’re costing their site.
Finding the best visual content for your site starts with understanding how powerful an image is, acknowledging your mistakes and finally moving in the direction to make better image choices....
This past year, we've seen the importance of visual content emphasized by the changes that occurred across almost every major social network, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. At the same time, both video and infographics have become powerful tools for brands looking to communicate more easily with their readers.
To help you keep pace with these trends, let's take a look at some statistics that demonstrate the impact visual content has on reach, engagement, and sales....
Visual Content really matters. Unlike in previous years, people nowadays make split decisions on whether to read through your article based on the images you provide with your content. That’s why the selection of the different visuals you will use must be as carefully planned as the actual content.
Good thing though that technology is really evolving. It gives you all sorts of apps and tools that you can use to create wonderful visual content that will make your readers take notice.
Yes, raw pictures are still okay but you can enhance them in such a way that you can make them look like world class photographers took the picture. You can even create graphics that will help you explain your entire article with just one image. Below are 5 tools that will help you create the most engaging visual content...
A picture is worth a thousand words, and most brands have found them to be worth even more in engagement. Leading global brands have turned to visual storytelling to craft distinct brand identities, develop an emotional connection with customers and fans, and improve sales. With popular social networks like Instagram and Facebook becoming increasingly visual, there’s no better time to rethink how you’re reaching your consumers.
Today we’re thrilled to announce Pablo 2.0, the simplest way to create beautiful images that fit every social network perfectly.
We’ve expanded Pablo’s functionality to work with all social media networks – on top of Twitter, you can now create images with the perfect size and format for Facebook, Instagram, and even Pinterest. You can create the visuals, share them across all platforms and then analyze them with Buffer’s analytics to know how well they’re performing. ...
The full infographic we designed to highlight the many reasons why you should rely on visuals to create impactful design, no matter the project.
Just what do we see in GIFs? Like emojis and emoticons, they’re a way to quickly transmit information or emotion to a population that’s inundated with content and favors image-based communication.
Part of the fun is that there seems to be a GIF for any social situation you might find yourself in.
But GIFs increasingly have a more serious side, too—they can be a way to tell a story, explain a piece of information with more depth, or (yes, really!) conduct a conversation. For example, NASA uses GIFs of satellite imagery to transit important information, and Buzzfeed recently used GIFs to explain Greece’s debt crisis.
If you’re ready to add some GIFs to your online personality (or just up your GIF game) here are 10 social media moments to give GIFs a try....
It’s only August, but voting is already underway for the March 2016 South By Southwest (SxSW) Interactive conference. Long thought of as the breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies, we can gleam industry insights from the SXSW Interactive Festival. This year, I decided not to wait until the conference to delve into the veritable buffet of groundbreaking panels vying for festival space. This year’s PanelPicker interface received more than 4,000 proposals, which is an all-time record!
While a quick search of infographics yields only 11 results, a mere TWO actually have the word “Infographics” in the title. The industry discourse has shifted away from “how-to” models to “how to do it right.” Infographics have become a key format of the larger conversation: Visual Storytelling.
A quick search for “Visual Storytelling” yields over 200 talks in PanelPicker, along with hundreds more for “data visualization” and “visual content”. Infographics are now used as one of many effective tools in the Marketer’s toolbox, and an accepted part of the larger conversation happening in the content marketing industry.
Visual storytelling is vital to content marketing success. The following types of visual content are at the forefront of the proposals for next year’s SXSW Interactive Festival.
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Check out 16 types of visual content that can ramp up your readership.