Why Use Photos for Social Media?
Social media provides an infinite amount of content to view and explore, and infinity is difficult to compete with. It is difficult to stand out, to make your audience stop and actually digest and engage with your content. While there are many components that contribute to social media, imagery plays a compelling role in establishing engagement. Social media photos and other media pictures significantly increase engagement. For example, “tweets with images get 150% more retweets than tweets without images, while Facebook posts with images generate 2.3 times more engagement than posts without them.”
Each social media site has distinct expertise and by understanding those differences, you can alter content to maximize the potential of the post. So what you share on Instagram should be different than what you share on LinkedIn because they each have unique objectives, audiences and presentations.
Social media and business are continuing to become more integrated. Your photos for social media are a huge contributor to the success of the business’ social media. While there is no universal rule for social media photos, there are consistent patterns of each that provide an outline of what images work well with what platform. This blog analyzes four main social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
1. Instagram Photos
Since Instagram revolves around photographs, they are the vital component of the platform. The site revolves around sharing and consuming diverse social pictures specific to the account’s purpose, initiating the question, how does one take good Instagram photos? In terms of a business, it presents the opportunity to visually showcase your products or services to give a sense of how your company is different and appealing, compared to relying just on words. It can also help in communicating your branding by posting lifestyle shots in addition to your products or services.
The photos need to be high-resolution, unique and appealing to the audience in order to captivate their attention and stand out among the countless other pictures on Instagram. Popular photographs include product photos, pictures of the staff, and resharing posts of people using products. Establishing your brand on Instagram, including your type of social pictures and editing style, can create a recognizable aesthetic that engages your target audience.
2. Twitter Photos
Twitter is famous for the quick snippets of information, and the shorter each post is, the easier it is to scroll past and miss the content altogether. Images give the opportunity to compensate for the limited text and provide that visual aid necessary to halt the scroll and read your content. Since Twitter is a platform for sharing information such as articles or announcements, the role of social pictures can act as both the primary focus or the piece to grab the attention enough for the audience to read or open the shared post. The social media photos used on Twitter should ultimately correlate to the information being shared and can be less formal.
3. Facebook Photos
Facebook is the platform used to stay connected with high school friends, have Aunt Jenny comment on every post, or in the business world, the place to share updates, news, highlights, and relevant articles with your audience. As a business, it is important to remember why your audience has Facebook accounts in the first place, to stay connected to friends and family. Therefore, your content should not be just business, but should have a touch of personalization. A great way to do this is through social media photos and images.
Use social pictures to share client highlights, experiences from a tradeshow, or to accompany your recent blog posts. Facebook is the stage for sharing multiple photos, instead of being limited to a single image, and add more personalized photographs. Facebook provides flexibility; there should be a balance between business and fun.
4. LinkedIn Photos
LinkedIn was designed for and excels at networking; specifically, this is where social media and business capitalizes on B2B strategies. LinkedIn is used to demonstrate your expertise in your field in a professional manner. Social pictures are used to strengthen the content, from announcing an award, sharing an industry-related article, or company news. These social media photos support the argument and emphasize the objective.
Social media photos play a variety of different roles depending on the objective and the platform. From showcasing your product on Instagram to accompanying a blog post on Twitter, social pictures are integral to increasing engagement. A goal that is especially important when combining social media and business.
Expand Your Social Media Strategy
Now that you understand what photos work best on each social channel, it’s time to take it to the next step. Our social media best practices guide explains the basics of building your social media business strategy. Get the results you want from social by understanding and applying the building blocks of a successful social media plan.
