Introduction
Creating amazing visuals to increase social media engagement is important for your blog or website. Images or visuals are better able to express complex abstract concepts that cannot be conveyed by words. Using good color combinations with good image can help you connect deeper with your audience. You should always use photos, charts, illustrations and infographics for better engagement on social media.
How to incorporate visuals?
Following are the details:
Make sure the visual relates to your audience
Identify your target audience. It’s important to identify who you’re creating your visual content for. You need to understand who they are and what they want so that you can tailor the visual content to them.
Use personas. Personas are fictional characters created to represent a product or service’s target audience, based on market research about the customer and online behavior patterns.
The more realistic these personas are, the more effective they’ll be for targeting customers because you can imagine what someone like them would enjoy seeing. And who doesn’t love looking at pictures of smiling babies?
Think from an empathetic perspective: Consider what will make your intended audience laugh or cry, cringe or smile; think about how their day is going and how this visual will fit into it.
Think psychologically: What kind of motivations do your audiences have?
Why would they respond well to this image?
Use a call-to-action: Encourage your audience to engage with the visual by asking them a question or providing a link where they can give feedback or learn more information.
Create a mix of visuals that tap into different senses.
Create visuals that will engage one or more of the five senses. The senses to consider are scent, taste, touch, hearing, and sight.
Come up with visuals for your social media channels that tap into all 5 senses: graphics, video, audio clips, interactive elements like polls and quizzes, and even texture (using the Facebook 3D Posts feature).
Focus on the senses that are most relevant to your brand.
For example, if you’re a restaurant owner it makes sense to focus on taste while if you sell make-up then sight is likely an important sense to highlight.
Don’t be too repetitive with your content.
Don’t repet. While you want to create a consistent look for your brand and post about similar topics, being too repetitive can lead to decreased engagement. The key is finding the right balance between consistency and diversity.
You’ve probably heard the old adage “practice makes perfect.” This is an important thing to keep in mind when posting on social media, but it’s also important not to get too comfortable with one type of content.
For example, if your business posts only sunny photos of colorful drinks at happy hour on its Instagram page, followers will become less engaged over time because the images are no longer interesting or new.
Post a variety of different images that represent your brand in order to keep followers interested and engaged!
Always create visually appealing & engaging audiovisuals.
You want your visuals to be appealing and engaging for viewers.
Appealing means attractive and interesting, while engaging refers to something that draws you in and makes you want to continue.
Professional quality is crucial. there’s nothing worse than a blurry or pixelated image or video. All of these factors are important for promoting your brand and keeping people interested in your content.
Include high-quality images and videos.
Use the highest resolution possible for photos.
Make sure that the images are large enough to avoid pixelation, as well.
This depends on which platform you’re posting your content to:
Instagram posts are 600px by 600px.
Facebook posts are 470px by 470px at their minimum size and 828px by 462px at their maximum size.
When including videos, make sure the sound quality is excellent so that people don’t feel like they need to turn up the volume.
Include only relevant visuals in your post.
If you’re promoting a blog post, share a screenshot rather than a photo of someone’s face or of a law library.
Certain types of images will be more popular than others
For example, If you’re promoting an article about freelancing tips for writers, you may want to include screenshots from your article rather than a picture of an office building or chair because those types of photos might not get as much engagement as other visuals would.
Use a visual social media strategy.
When you’re looking for a surefire way to increase engagement on social media, it’s essential that you have a solid visual social media strategy.
This involves more than just posting content on your accounts, you need to ensure that you are posting the right content on the right platforms. And good understanding of your target audience.
By applying visual strategies, you can engage with your audience and keep up with the latest social media trends.
One visual technique that stands out for better engagement is: Videos.
With this type of content, you can speak directly to users through narration or voice-overs, and users will be able to follow along with what is being said by watching the video instead of reading it off of an infographic or blog post.
Create brand-specific images.
The best way to do this is to create your own brand-specific images. Whether it’s a shot of your staff, your office, or your products—take the photo yourself.
If you must use stock photos, try tailoring them by using Canva or a similar online editor to add custom text and fonts that match the rest of your branding.
If you’re posting stories on Instagram, be sure to use the same filter on all of them so they look more consistent and uniform. This will help make the content feel more like it’s part of a collection and therefore make the viewer feel like they’re missing out if they don’t keep watching.
Choose the right image size.
The first step to creating engaging visual content is to choose the right image size.
Every social media platform has its own image dimensions, so you’ll save yourself a lot of time if you plan ahead. If you’re using images for your blog posts, the ideal size is at least 800 pixels wide, but there are many advantages to going even bigger than that.
For example, if your blog post gets shared on Pinterest and you’ve used a horizontal shape, that whole picture will be visible in someone’s feed—which leads to more clicks.
When it comes down to it, using the same image on multiple social media sites with different size. This requires some forethought and intentionality about the layout of your post or page. But the effort will pay off since the right visuals make all the difference in building engagement.
Pay attention to the visual details in your images.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it also has to be of good quality. Keep an eye out for the following:
Image dimensions
Make sure that your visual content fits the dimensions of the platform you’re posting on, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. You don’t want your photos to be blurry or distorted.
Grainy images
Grainy images are inherently unappealing and often scream “amateurish”.
Color scheme and font
Use color schemes and fonts that make sense for your brand.
For example,
- If you are trying to create positive experiences with clients, use warm colors like red or orange to appeal to emotions.
- Avoiding gray since research shows the color is associated with sadness, negativity, and rejection.
- Pick a simple font so that people can read what you have written clearly!
Use only high-quality stock photos.
Make sure there’s good contrast. Even if you’re using an image as a background, it’s important that the text stand out from it.
Use only high-quality stock photos. Using images that are too small can affect the quality of your post or tweet. You want readers to be able to see your content clearly, so make sure you’re choosing only high-quality images that will display well on social media platforms.
Check the photo’s license. While many sites provide royalty-free stock photos, it’s important to double-check the license before downloading and posting your image.
If you don’t have permission to use any image on social media, it could get taken down by copyright infringement laws—and that would be a real bummer!
Avoid stock photos that look fake.
You might not think much about it, but the photos you use are often the first impression people get of your business. If image looks amazing, viewers will subconsciously assume your business is too.
To avoid that, choose images where:
- The lighting is realistic and natural
- The subject has good posture but doesn’t look stiff or posed
- Background elements aren’t distracting
- The mood feels authentic to your brand
- Repurpose old visuals in new ways.
Update your visuals on a regular basis.
There are ways to make your job of creating a new image almost every day easier, though.
Canva is another excellent tool that allows you to easily create your own images and social media banners without expensive graphic software.
Repurpose old blog images with new text or interesting captions.
This helps keep your visuals fresh and also increases engagement by offering readers something new every time they visit your page.
Use visuals to get more engagement on your social media posts and blog posts
You know the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words?”
Well, it’s true.
Images and visuals are so powerful that they can completely change how people perceive your brand. In fact, according to one study by Buffer,
- Tweets with images get more retweets on average than those without.
- Adding an image to your blog posts has been reported to increase engagement by 94%.
But why is this?
Because visuals make the content stand out and attract attention. They help make your message more memorable and clearer in people’s minds. And they’re more engaging too!
So use visuals on social media and on your blog and use following tools
Tools for visual
Photopea
Photopea is an online tool that can be used to edit Photoshop files.
It’s free, works in your browser (so there’s no need to download anything), and has a ton of useful capabilities.
Plus, it includes interactive tutorials and detailed explanations if you get stuck. While it doesn’t have every feature you’d find in the full version of Photoshop.
This tool supports layers, masking, blending modes, color adjustments.
Krita
Krita is an open-source painting program and one of the more robust options available.
Its interface may take some time to adjust to, but it includes a large number of effects that can be used for both digital paintings and concept art.
Once you get the hang of it, Krita is a powerful tool for creating illustrations that stand out from the crowd.
Vectr
With Vectr, you can use either the existing templates or start from scratch with the help of basic shapes and lines.
You can also share your creations with other users through the platform or export them in different formats!
Canva
Canva is the most popular online platform for creating both simple and complex graphics for use on social media, within emails, and in presentations.
Through the use of their design templates and builders, you can create graphics that can be posted to social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Save time by setting up a template that uses less text (more space), and then customize it so your image has the right format.
For example, if you wanted to upload an image of your new puppy to social media with only a few lines of text to accompany it, then a “Text Only” template would work just fine.
You can also use Canva videos for presentations or business proposals.
Crello
Crello is a handy tool that lets you create animations and even animated GIFs.
It supports both static and animated formats, so you can use it for a range of purposes on social media. That being said, if you stick to the free version of Crello, you won’t be able to access some of the best features.
If you’re willing to pay for the premium version, then Crello is a great tool for creating visual content that will engage your audience and make them think twice about scrolling past your posts.
Easel.ly
We’ll get to the tools soon, but first I’d like to take a moment to talk about visual aids.
Some people have a natural eye that’s nearly impossible to teach, but for the most part, there are several strategies you can use to work on improving your drawing skills.
RelayThat
RelayThat is a visual marketing tool designed for social media, web pages, presentations, and other purposes.
It has a variety of predesigned templates and designs that you can use to create images and visuals for your business in seconds.
You can also choose from a variety of color palettes to match the style of your brand.
Snappa
Snappa is a graphics tool that lets you create beautiful images for your blog, social media, and other online platforms. It’s easy to use, fast, and best of all—free.
You can use it to make visual content for any occasion or need.
Snappa has everything you need to create professional marketing designs for social media posts, blog post covers, infographics, and more.
DesignCap
DesignCap is an online graphic design tool that anyone can use to create professional designs for free.
It’s easy to use yet powerful enough to help you make infographics, posters, flyers, cards, and more.
DesignCap lets you choose from thousands of high-resolution images and uses a drag-and-drop interface to add them to your design.
There’s also a vast library of templates for different kinds of projects – like the ones shown below – that make it easy for beginners to get started.
Desygner
Desygner is an online graphic design tool that helps you create professional designs without any prior experience.
You can use it to create social media graphics, presentations, and newsletters.
You can choose from over 10,000 ready-to-edit templates or start from scratch. Desygner also provides stock photos, fonts, and icons to help you design beautiful graphics that stand out in minutes.
Use right tools to can create appealing and engaging visuals
With the right tools, you can create appealing and engaging visuals for any platform. If you’re a beginner designer, Canva is an excellent place to get started and will allow you to start creating your own graphics.
Other tools include PicMonkey, Pixlr, and Adobe Photoshop.
Regardless of which tool you use, remember that it’s not always about making perfectly proportioned images or graphics. You can get creative with how your images are displayed—one way is through collages or multi-photo posts on Instagram.
Conclusion
People find images more attractive than text. It’s also easier to digest information if it’s presented visually, rather than in text format. So using visuals to increase social media engagement is important.
I hope you like the blog post!
Check more blog post on visuals and images: