Do you know that our brain processes visuals about 60,000 times faster than text? No wonder all successful social media posts these days include an image, infographic or at least a video. As a result we have seen that users are around 40% more likely to engage with social media content that involves pictures. Not only that - photo posts generate 53% more likes than the average post and 104% more comments than the average post. On the other hand, however, according to the Marketing Maven's Guide to Facebook from 2014 almost 88% of posts already contain photos so you have to outsmart the others and make your custom social media images even more engaging and shareable. Here are 3 ways you can do that:
1. Go Easy With The Text
Having a lot of text on the picture can be overwhelming and the point is to let colors, image and shapes do the talking. Make sure to always insert your text within empty, clean spaces because that will make it readable and ultimately more sharable.
2. Create Variety
Visual content is the most engaging way to communicate with your fans but that doesn't mean you only have to post regular photos. There are other types of visual content you can try such as:
Quotes: You can communicate different brand values by quoting famous sentences or lines that resonate with your brand. People will recognize themselves in them and be more inclined to share them with friends.
Infographics: If you have an interesting piece of information to share think beyond plain text. All your business data will look more appealing if you present it using charts, graphics or simple visual talking points. If you don’t have an in-house designer there are several tools available out there, such as Piktochart, Visme or Visually. They are fairly simple to use, as you just need to search, drag and publish your infographic.
Photos: If photos are still your favorite type of content but you don't know where to find free and high-quality images for your Photo posts and Cover photos here are few great resources. Death To The Stock Photo is a cool name for great stock where in exchange for your e-mail address you receive, every month, a link to the new collection of photos that are free and high-res. What’s cool about this stock is that once pictures are out for the month they are out and you won’t find them anywhere else, which is great if you are worried that your competition will have the same photo. Some of other tools that will send you high-res photos on your e-mail are Little Visuals (7 photos every week) and Unsplash (10 photos every 10 days). You can also check out picjumbo for individual or e-mail downloads.
3. Be Consistent
People go through their newsfeeds in a matter of seconds so you have to make sure that all your visuals follow similar template that will build the consistency of your brand and make you instantly recognizable. Here are few elements you should pay attention to:
Logo: Create guidelines regarding size and placement of your logo and repeat it in your posts. Make sure to position logo in a way that will leave some empty space around it.
Color Palette: If your company doesn’t have specific colors associated with it try to think about your brand and how to translate that into colors. If you want to inspire creativity, fun or playfulness use dominantly vibrant or pastel colors like orange or yellow. If you want to inspire trust and reliability darker blues, grey or maroon type of colors should be more suitable. Here are few color palettes that can inspire you or you can just visit Design Seeds for more tips and inspiration boards.
Font Pairing: Personality of your brand will be felt not just in your color palette but also in the selection of fonts you use. It is recommended to use two or three fonts because more will make readers distracted and your message hard to read. In general there is no right or wrong font combination and Content Creator application will give you plenty to choose from, but if you are looking for some font pairing inspiration check this Pinterest board.
Let us know what you think about these ideas? Are there some other tips that you think should have been mentioned? For more ideas on how to improve your custom social media images sign up to Content Creator and start creating beautiful designs while saving time and money.