If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a meme or infographic must be worth a thousand likes, right? The use of visual content is crucial to the success of a social media marketing campaign and for encouraging fan engagement.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Every link I share comes with its own image, so I’m good.” While it is true that most links you share have a thumbnail image attached, that is not enough to capture the attention of someone scrolling through their Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn feed.

According to Inc., “81 percent of people only skim the content they read online.” How do you get readers interested in your content? VISUALS! From the same Inc. study, they found, “Posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts,” and “Posts with videos attract three times more links than text-only posts.”

Keep reading to discover tips for stunning social media images and more advice on how to make different types of compelling visual content.

4 Tips for Stunning Social Media Marketing Visuals

Here’s how to include compelling images in your social media marketing campaign.

The use of videos and images across all social media platforms is crucial, especially since, “People process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, which explains why 93 percent of the most engaging posts on Facebook include images” as Inc. noted. Don’t you want to be a part of that 93 percent? Here, another Inc. article shares four tips for stunning social media marketing images:

Be Consistent with Color

If your business already has a color scheme picked out, keep using those colors. Those two to four palette options should reflect your brand’s personality and be used throughout your social media pages and any other platforms or sites you use. The consistent use of colors will help establish your brand and allow for consumers to become familiar with it.

Show Personality Through Typography

Like the choice of color your brand picks, the type of font used for your company’s branding helps determine the feelings evoked in consumers. Your brand will need to pick three types of font:

You likely already have these fonts established on your website. As you create visuals, use the same fonts (or very similar ones) to give everything you create the same overall look and feel.

Choose the Right Imagery and Filters

Though imagery offers the flexibility to be different from the color and font rules, it should still be consistent to your brand’s theme. Whether you are using professional software, free tools or filter options from Facebook or Instagram, carefully pick which one fits your brand and does the image justice.

Don’t Overlook Positioning

While most social media marketing platforms have specific locations for images, keeping the different channels as uniform as possible is important. This means Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest should all have the same profile picture and cover/banner image. The sizes for each platform might be different, but consumers will have no problem recognizing it as your page if you always use the same pictures.

This positioning goes beyond your profile picture and cover/banner image, too. As you create and share visuals on your various social pages, think about how they’ll appear on each one. If you need to slightly modify the image to look cleaner and crisper, do it!

4 Common Types of Visual Content for Social Media Marketing

The four most popular types of visuals for social media marketing are images, videos, infographics and memes.

Using Images for Social Media Marketing

Follow these guidelines for your social media marketing images.

Most article links you share on your social media marketing pages include a small image, but that is not enough to stop users from scrolling right on by to a bigger, brighter image. Check out these tips to attract readers to your content through compelling images.

Using Video for Social Media Marketing

Follow these guidelines when using videos in your social media marketing campaign.

As explained above, videos get a lot of clicks from viewers; but that’s not all! According to Renderforest:

Here’s how to create simple videos for your brand.

Not sure you want to be in a video? There are other options too! For example, you could use a program like Adobe Spark to make a slideshow video.

Using Infographics for Social Media Marketing

Here’s how to create infographics for your social media marketing campaign.

One of the most efficient ways to share content and visuals is through an infographic, or a collection of information and facts displayed in an image. Infographics can be used to display all sorts of details, from important health information to comparing basketball stars or displaying the history of your favorite reality show. The possibilities are endless with infographics.

While infographics are extremely effective, especially when shared as part of your social media marketing plan, they can be off putting if not created clearly. Here are three design tips for creating the best infographic for your brand:

Using Memes for Social Media Marketing

Consider using memes as part of your social media marketing.

A meme is an idea, thought, topic, joke overlaid on an image that all (or most) members of a culture understand. From Bad News Brian or Grumpy Cat to Condescending Wonka, these memes have become internet sensations because most of the time, everyone is in on the joke, which leads to shares. Here are some rules to follow to create the next viral meme:

Get Posting!

Are you ready to add effective visuals to your social media marketing campaign? Knowing the rules of visual content and how to create your own puts you way ahead of businesses that are just putting anything on their social channels.

With a strong background in writing, organization and creativity, Emily loves getting the word out about small and mid-sized businesses! She enjoys helping owners and entrepreneurs publicize their companies, and is happy to share her expertise with those managing marketing themselves. In addition to overseeing and running social media and blog… View full profile ›

This article originally appeared on Three Girls Media and has been republished with permission.
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