Allen Klein, an award-winning expert keynote speaker, once remarked that 80% of what people learn is through social media posts.
We all know that social media images are a vital element of any blog or social media post.
Besides the fact that they might be compulsory in some formats, they also make your post more charming and attractive.
They are a crucial part of content marketing, as people tend to look at the image first and then decide if they will read your headline (and what else comes after it).
We live in the age of the “camera in everyone’s pocket.”
With more than 2.5 billion camera phones in use, we are entering a new dynamic era around image creation and content.
Marketing firm MDG Advertising discovered that content paired with an image attracted 94% more views on average than content without visuals.
To get such a result, you need to edit photos. This involves tweaking colors, saturation, brightness, shadows, and other parameters.
Also, a picture is still worth a thousand words, but today it’s also worth a thousand pins on Pinterest or hearts on Instagram.
Today, people have a concentration span of fewer than nine seconds or even less than a goldfish.
As a result, social media images are more powerful than ever.
After analyzing 8,000 different posts from B2C and B2B companies, Hubspot also reported that Facebook statuses with images had 53% more likes and 104% more comments than statuses that were text only.
A huge part of the brain is directed on social media visual processing, allowing humans to treat images at an incredible speed.
The human brain can remember a familiar object in only 100 milliseconds, making images the ideal way to communicate in today’s short-attention world.
Every day, 300 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook. Instagram has an average of 95 million photos uploaded daily.
Using relevant social media images allows you to earn attention, build loyalty, deliver vital information, and improve engagement.
If you desire to stand out, develop a social media visual brand identity as accurately as you prepare your sales pitches.
When you stay constant and connect images with your marketing message, your brand will have more staying power.
Images Get Your Audience’s Attention
Because our brains reply quickly to pictures and colors in contrast to other types of information, an image is an almost invincible draw on social media.
Of course, to get the concentration you want, you have to share images that matter to your target audience.
You need to find out what social media visuals matter to your followers and fans.
Varied Images Keep Audiences Interested
When you switch image types from time to time, you dodge having a social media feed that shouts “Same old, same old.”
You won’t control the risk of losing fans due to monotony and repetition.
Whatever you do, avoid selfies.
Your social media demeanor should be about your audience, not about yourself!
Images Help Your Audience Remember Your Message
Research shows that people only remember 10% of what they learn once 72 hours have passed.
However, if you pair a fitting image with your content, people can retain 65% of the information after three days.
If the social media images you add don’t look expert-level, they’ll hurt your brand image.
That’s why I distinguished these seven tips to increase your social media visuals and marketing photos.
There are plenty of online sources where you can find great images for free. And all that you will need to do is to search for it in their library and download your favorites. Here are some options for you:
- MorgueFile
- Pixabay
- StockSnap.io
- Unsplash
- Visual Hunt
- Picjumbo
- LifeofPix
- SplitShire
- Negative Space
- Creative Commons Licence on Flickr
- Reusable Images in Google’s repository
Even though they are free, you might be asked to credit the photographer or digital artist who creates the image, for your social media posts. So read the instructions carefully and check if any attribution is required, so as not to infringe anybody’s copyright.
If you are looking for professionally taken/created images, or if you need a high number of them, you might have to consider a paid stock image service instead. Many online companies are offering great options for you, such as:
- Fotolia
- iStock
- Getty Images
- Shutterstock
- Designer
- Dreamstime stock
- DepositPhotos
- Bigstock
- Corbis Image
- 123RF
On these websites, you will find high-resolution social media images to use. You can either pay for those you need or buy a subscription if you think you will need to have access to new options regularly. We highly recommend going through these suggestions by expert designers to make the most out of stock images!
Creating Your Own Images
If you already have something to start with, such as your own pictures, you can try to use one of the online and offline tools and software available to make the necessary adjustments, so they look more professional:
- GIMP
- Canva
- PicMonkey
- Visme
- Fotojet
- Snappa
- Piktochart
All the options above are very intuitive and come with several features free of charge.
If you want to manage a successful social media image campaign, you need to converge more attention on the quality of your marketing photos.
All you require is some necessary photography skills to get you started on the right path.
After that, decide what types of photos will speak to your target audience on these platforms.
Use this guide as an inspiration for your future marketing photos.
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