The average amount of time a user spends on Facebook every day is 58 minutes. There are over 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook every day. With 49% of marketers rating visual marketing as Very Important to their marketing strategy, it’s more important than ever to perfect your brand images. Do you want to engage your audience when it comes to social media? Then this is the article for you. Read on and we will give you our expert top tips on improving your social media marketing content with photos.
1. Show a variety of images
Consider using all different types of images to help inspire your audience. If you sell a product, this could be on location, studio setting product shots or using models on set. If you have a service-based business, this could be showing you with clients, headshots and at work.
2. Use photos that your viewers will relate to
When creating photos for Instagram, put yourself in your audience’s shoes and so try to play to them by show images that they can relate to. The most important thing is vulnerability and honesty. People are on social media to connect—or at the very least—relate to others. Being open and transparent will go a long way to help you connect with your audience. Don’t be afraid to show behind-the-scenes photos or a less polished side of your life every so often. Remind your followers that your brand is made up of your people, it will make it easier for them to relate and connect with your content.
3. Consistency is key! Post regular content to keep users engaged
It’s key to keep your audience up to date with what’s going on in the brand so they can remain invested and continue to purchase your products/services. By posting regularly, you keep the brand fresh in the audiences mind on new products, offers or just what’s going on in the company. People love to buy into brands they are genuinely invested in, whether you’ve got some new product samples or a new member of staff, ensure you’re posting about this! Our subscription plan is the perfect way to stay consistent with your images.
4. Have a consistent style to images & video
To show you really take care of your socials and therefor the visuals of how your company looks online, it’s vital to create a theme that will continue throughout all socials and website linking everything together. Consistent branding is vital for professionalism! A great way to do this is through a specific colour scheme or even an editing style that you establish with the photographer to ensure the finished images are always the same ‘vibe’. This helps to make your brands images more recognisable online too. People may begin to recognise you on this alone!
5. Personalise your visual content, Stop using in-personable stock photos.
Post photos & videos with a purpose! Gone are the days of plain white backdrop stock photos, it’s now crucial to be capturing your product in both creative photo and video. Short videos, long form videos, different angle shots and different backdrops are all a MUST to stay current in the world of social media in 2022.
6. Use a photo on your profile photos to create trust
Don’t just use a plain logo image as your profile photos, consider adding a person or more creative image on your PP as this helps to build trust with potential customers for the get-go, people want to see more than just a logo to capture their attention and get them hungry to look further into your profiles.
7. Consider your brand colours by using props/ wearing clothes in brand colours or choosing a location that aligns with the brand
Consistent colour schemes are vital for branding. Consider adding glimpses of your brand colours in unusual parts of your photos; this could be small details like accessories, stationary or general props. It’s also key to make sure your people/products are getting photographed in relevant locations. You wouldn’t set this pizza shoot up in a swimming bath… But place it in a kitchen setting with relevant props like the beer and chopping board and BOOM you have a full, relevant set up. As you can see we’ve also added in the dumbbell free weight and sports towel to this shot as the product is a low-calorie high protein pizza, so we combined both vibes in one!
Where will your customers be consuming or using your product? This needs to be discussed and planned prior to shoot day!
8. Size matters. Consider the size of the images for each platform
Where the images will be used is a huge thing to consider when planning a photoshoot – will the images need to be shot in square format so that they can be used on an Insta grid? Are you looking for banner shots for LinkedIn? Make sure to consider this and exactly where your images will be used in your marketing prior to your photoshoot so that the photographer knows exactly what format to shoot in.
- Facebook profile picture: 170 X 170 pixels
- Facebook cover photo: 828 X 465 pixels
- Twitter profile photo: 400 X 400 pixels
- Twitter header image: 1,500 X 500 pixels
- Google+ profile picture: 250 X 250 pixels (minimum)
- Google+ cover photo: 1080 X 608 pixels
- LinkedIn profile photo: 400 X 400 pixels (minimum)
- LinkedIn custom background: 1584 X 396
- LinkedIn cover photo: 974 X 330 pixels
- LinkedIn banner image: 646 X 220 pixels
- Instagram profile picture: 110 X 110 pixels
- Pinterest profile picture: 150 X 150 pixels
- YouTube profile picture: 800 X 800 pixels
- YouTube cover photo: 2,560 X 1,440 pixels on desktop
9. Be Unique
Social media users love visuals so it’s vital that your content creation is up to date and creative. Ensure you’re showing personality through both images and captions so that it’s interactive, fun to look at and engaging.
When executed correctly, social media marketing is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for expanding your reach and driving conversions. When taking photos for social media, go bright, clear, lively, and original.
10. How does your feed look as a whole not just the images individually?
Finally, consider how your feeds will look with the next 5/6 images posted. Will the colours all flow and the images look appropriate next to each other? Consider using softwares that allow you to schedule posts in advance so that you can see how your grid will look once the weeks content is all posted. Do the colours and texts used all look visually pleasing when posted next to each other or should you consider shuffling the post around so that they look better visually on the grid? It needs to be considered! An aesthetic social media feed is a happy social media feed.
Summary
To conclude, use our top tips above to ensure you’re keeping up to date with socials and your social media marketing doesn’t get left behind! Professional photos are what will take your brand to the top, what’s the difference between the big brands you follow vs smaller brands that get less engagement? The quality of the images used consistently throughout for one!
Get in touch today and let’s discuss how we can help you upgrade your social media photography for the rest of the year.
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