The importance of quality photos for social media marketing
Social media marketing has become one of the most important marketing channels for businesses. With the rise of social media, marketers are always looking for new ways to engage their followers and generate more leads and sales. One way that marketers can do this is by using high-quality images in their posts. A picture is worth a thousand words, and in the world of social media, an image can make or break engagement. Without engagement, your business will lose traction online – and that means reduced sales!
However, not every business has the time or resources to take professional photos, which leads them to use stock images or use their phone camera instead. This is perfectly fine when starting out on social media, but as your following grows, it may become more difficult to keep up with the demand for high-quality content. This is is why we offer professional photography with all of our packages, however we understand this is not in every small business budget.
If you are doing your own photography for visual marketing, here are some helpful tips so you can get the most out of your images.
Seven tips for creating successful images for social media
1. Creative basics are essential
It is a good idea to understand the creative basics when putting together images for social media. As we have said before, there are no hard and fast rules, but here are some best practices that we recommend.
- Don’t forget to KIS. This one is important! By adding too much to an image, you take away from the important message and subject. Keep it simple.
- Take advantage of natural light. Natural light is a great way to highlight the subject of your images. If an image is too dark, the subject won’t pop, or if it is overexposed, the subject will disappear into the background.
- Use the rule of thirds. Take a read of our previous post on this trick – it is a great way to draw the viewer’s eye to your subject.
- Isolate your subject. Having a clear subject in your image creates a focal point; having too much in a photo can create confusion.
- Resist overediting. You know the old saying, sometimes too much can be a bad thing. That holds fast in this situation.
- Contrast is key. Contrast is the best way to balance your photos, it makes your image easy to read.
- Complementary colours. Heading back to our primary school days and choosing colours that are on the opposite side of the colour wheel is a great way to create interest in an image.
2. Have a basic understanding of image copyright
To prevent any serious consequences for misusing an image, it is important to understand the image copyright laws. Always read the fine print when you are using stock images or if you hire a professional photographer, as it pays to understand their copyright agreements.
If it is unclear what the copyright is on an image, it is best to contact the owner of the image to clear up any confusion.
3. Understand the required image sizes
Understanding the image size requirements for social media is critical for great-looking, successful posts. In fact, it is so important that we have been developing new templates for Canva that are optimised for all platforms, saving you time on resizing, recreating and just messing around.
Images that are low resolution or have the wrong aspect ratio can be cropped or stretched out of proportion, which looks bad for your brand. Each social platform has its specs, such as the recommended Twitter image size, Facebook cover photo size, or Instagram grid layout.
Canva is a great tool to use to help you ensure your image sizes are correct for each platform. Simply choose a template and edit to suit.
Pro tip: Always aim to use the highest quality image possible to ensure it is clear.
4. Keep your text short
When you are creating images with text, it is often best to take a less-is-more approach. This goes for quotes, text overlays or stylised typography.
Always use a bold font to make it legible, and keep it concise. Always leave enough room between your image subject and your text, never overlap it.
Pro tip: Use the rule of thirds to take a photo with a blank background if you are going to overlay text. This will give you the space for the wording.
If you are adding text to your images, then make sure it enhances the image, not abstracts from it. The text also needs to count; if you are just adding text for the sake of adding text, leave it out!
Here are some more tips on adding text to your images:
- Always triple check your spelling and grammar (use Grammarly)
- Certain fonts are not as legible as others, choose wisely
- The colours green, red, blue and yellow are combos to avoid as they are more difficult to read
- Keep your line length short
- Don’t leave a single word on a line by itself, unless each word is on a line of its own
- The best way to make text stand out is to animate it
- Pick fonts that complement each other
5. Incorporate your logo
Building a recognisable brand is a solid social media marketing strategy, so wherever you can incorporate your logo into your images, we highly recommend you do. A good branding strategy is usually noticeable but not obtrusive, such as putting a small version of your logo in the corner of your social media posts. If your logo doesn’t go well with the content of the post, you can have a white or black version made as a ‘watermark’.
6. Animations help you stand out
With 95+ million posts being shared on Instagram daily, animation is a great way to set your content aside from the rest. Consider using videos or creating animations via a program such as Canva.
7. Make your posts all-inclusive
If you want to be seen as an all-inclusive brand, then this one is probably the most important tip.
Not everyone is able to experience social media the same; people who are blind, deaf, have learning difficulties or are dyslexic will all experience content differently, and there is content for everyone!
Optimising your content for maximum accessibility will help you go above and beyond your non-inclusive competitors, as well as help you reach loyal customers who otherwise would not have experienced your brand.
- Add in your alt-text descriptions. Adding alt-text to your images enables the visually impaired to appreciate them. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram all provide fields for inserting alt-text image descriptions.
- Add subtitles to your videos. Creating videos with subtitles is vital as it enables the hearing impaired to enjoy your videos. Subtitles also enable people to watch the video in quiet (sound-off) environments and can be beneficial for people learning your language. It has also been said that people remember more of your content if they watch it with subtitles.
You can take this to another level with descriptive transcripts too.
So, don’t be afraid of photography for your business. With a few little tricks outlined above, you can easily enhance your visual marketing and stand out online. Or if it is still too scary and daunting click the button below for more information on our services, including photography, and you will be surprised at how affordable it is.