Visual content is a great way to attract audience and its impact cannot be denied. A website with stunning visuals is going to gain lot more followers than a website that lucks visual content. Look at the kind of impact Draftss creates by offering you to create your own customized website and the kind of design templates that are available to users.
Lets look at a few statistics to understand the impact of visual content
- LinkedIn posts that have images are ninety eight percent more likely to get commented on average.
- Tweets with visual content have three times more engagement.
- Any Facebook post with photos gets more likes and comments.
Fun fact: You are sixty five percent more likely to remember information with images than a bland text!
Your visual strategy must include
- Knowing what piques your audience’s interest. Research and try A/B testing on your content to figure of what works best for you!
- Every social media platform is different and unique in it’s own way. An Instagram story has a different set of audience while LinkedIn needs a more professional approach. You don’t want to be posting memes on LinkedIn and hire people on Facebook, wouldn’t that be crazy?
- If you are an oat milk company, then using relevant theme is important. Using a cow milk themed post for oat milk would be inappropriate right? So yes, choosing an appropriate theme is important.
- If you, as a business, are coming out with offers targetting certain festivals like Christmas or Diwali, your content should be timed accordingly.
There are some best practices for creating social media visuals
- Your image must be focussed on a single subject.
- Using natural light for your images. Too much exposure or too dark an image? Neither are good.
- An image with contrast provides balance and helps the audience since the content is easier to read.
- Your image and the message you are trying to convey must be easy to understand.
- Subtlety is good. Don’t use too many filters and animations on your content.
While keeping the above points in mind, it is easier to hire a professional to do your work. But you could still have budget constraints for which there are plenty of free online tools and resources to work.
Boundary Issues
While working with visual content, it is important that there are boundary issues to be kept in mind. What do I mean by that is the copyright issue. If you are want to use images from other websites, it is best to use pngtree or unsplash which have tons of free images. Some of them offer a download limit on the number of free images you can download.
While using free images that don’t have copyright issues is always a welcome, there are serious consequences for misuse of images with copyright. Read the fine print of the images, templates and inquire with the image owner wherever it is unclear.
Give credit wherever it is due
While posting images, do not forget on one thing…And that’s the size. Using the wrong size can be kind of a mood spoiler. The wrong aspect ratio or low resolution photos can be blown out of proportion by being stretched or even cropped.
You must use images of highest quality, not forgetting pixels and it’s resolution. There might be times when you want to post an Instagram image but the platform edits and crops out some parts of it. It is up to you to edit it and adjust it according to the platform that you are using.
Here are some image sizing hacks
- Different devices display different stories and vertical contents differently. Remember that!
- Always preview your visual content before publishing.
- Use Google Analytics to get insights into the kind of device your audience use.
- You can animate your content if it if doesn’t fit the room.
- On Instagram, you can use carousels to divide your image before posting it.
Since you are creating visual content, naturally you are bound to add some text occasionally.
The text should be clear, concise, and readable. The text that you add should make your image stand out and add meaning to it. It should add value to your message.
ProTips
- While adding text make sure to not commit any grammatical errors.
- Font affects your tone and legibility so choose it carefully.
- Mix fonts when needed.
- Write short sentences and not paragraphs on your visual content.
- Add pizazz to your text by animating it.
If you are a photographer by profession and need your work to be recognized, do add your signature at the bottom corner of your image. It helps in creating your own brand!
Diversity of Audience
When you are creating content, considering the diversity of your audience always helps. If you are a music company and have fans among the LGBTQIA+ community, representing them in your visual content shows that you are both considerate and sensitive to their cause. It shows that you encourage diversity.
If you are a company that encourages diversity hire, make a point to let the world know that you are open and appreciative. While keeping the above points in your mind, remember to add animation to your content. GIFs and videos ranging from high production to IGTV films narrate and add visuals to portray the subtle animations in your content.
Wrapping Up
There are times when a browser may not support your content. This is where adding an alternate text description will help. And in case your video is visible but not understood by your audiences since they belong to a different region, like Indian audience viewing Korean YouTube videos. Here adding subtitles will help along with a descriptive transcript in English. Most of all, do not forget to be creative. Creativity gets rewarded by likes, shares, comments, subscribers, sales and most of all loyal fans. The more creative you get, the more rewarding it will be!
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