Every Picture Tells a Story: The Importance of Strong Visuals on Social

Every Picture Tells a Story: The Importance of Strong Visuals on Social

Want to stand out from the crowd on social media? One of the best ways to do that is with powerful visuals. The right video or image can grab the attention of someone scrolling through their feed and stop them in their tracks. Even more important? The odds are good that someone who checks out your post will remember it: It’s said that people will only recall 10% of information three days later, but if the info comes with a visual, they’ll remember 65%.

The key, of course, is creating a library of great visual content. Poor-quality visuals—blurry photos, rudimentary graphics, videos with unintelligible audio—may make people remember you for all the wrong reasons. Companies should have professional-looking visual content that gets their brand message across clearly, without distraction.

Here are some of the key visual areas to focus on when developing content strategies:

Photos

Almost any post can be accompanied by a photo if you put enough creativity into it. Here are just a few examples:

  • Product images
  • Photos of store displays
  • Images of your team at work
  • Event photos
  • Pictures of influencers with your products
  • Images to illustrate inspirational quotes, industry data, etc.
  • Collages
  • Images from pop culture or current events

 

If you’ve got some aptitude, a high-end smartphone, and photo editing skill, then you can take images on your own. If you’re not sure your photography skills are up to par, you may want to invest in hiring a local photographer to come in and shoot images you can use for multiple posts. Another option is signing up with an agency for stock images, but keep in mind there are usually costs involved.

Videos

The popularity of platforms like Tiktok, Instagram Stories, YouTube, and others are evidence that video is a huge draw on social media. In fact, it’s estimated that the average person watches online videos 100 minutes each day. And there’s still demand for more: One survey found that 57% of people in two key age demographics (18 to 24 and 45 to 54) want to see even more video from their favorite brands.

As with photos, there are several possibilities for video, including:

  • Tutorials
  • Webinars
  • Interviews
  • Behind-the-scenes videos
  • Live Q-and-A sessions
  • Promotional videos for sales, contests, giveaways, and more
  • Brand announcements or new product unveilings

Infographics

Essentially, infographics present data in a visual format. They’re great for highlighting important points in an industry report, for instance. You can also take your blog content and see if you can pull information from the blog to create an infographic. Branding an infographic with your company’s logo gives you valuable visibility when the graphic is shared, and it helps establish your company as a thought leader.

Illustrations, GIFs, Memes

Pulling visuals from the Internet may seem like a simple solution when you can’t get photos or videos to go with a post. And the right GIF or meme can be a way to leverage viral trends, and attract the eyeballs of people who don’t want to watch a long video. However, you need to make sure the content aligns with your brand’s image and message, and speaks to your audience.

 

You may not have the time or talent to crop photos, edit videos, or design an infographic—but digital marketing agencies do. Perfect Partner Solutions has a team of experts at your disposal who can craft eye-catching original visual content for your specific needs. Contact us for picture-perfect social media content.