5 ways to maximize the impact of your visual content

Enough has been said on how visual content is one of the most powerful tools that a brand can use to engage fans on social media platforms.  But are your visuals as effective as they can be?  While your visuals are quick, attention grabbing and re-usable, do they sustain a fan’s enthusiasm and help you garner attention across platforms?

Here’s how you can make sure that they do the aforementioned magic –

Optimize your visuals to suit the needs of different social media platforms
Every social media platform has its own requirement of image dimension and a general visual tone that will go with it. While the same creative maybe used across multiple channels, optimizing it will not only enhance visibility but also talk of the attention you pay to details and the value you give to users’ time.  For example images on tweets are often visible as links, while facebook cover pictures need horizontally elongated images.Making sure that they look right in a user’s feed will help make your creatives worth the effort.

Present data using infographics.
You spend hours gathering the right content and the right pictures but have you tapped the potential that they exhibit when used together? Infographics are easily readable, often share-worthy and let your fans know that you are well-informed about the subject. Studies claim that using infographics grow in traffic 12% more. The key to great infographics is to minimizing the use of texts, adding interesting icons and using colours that help your creative stand-out.

Use a mix of photographs and designs.
We also know how good photographs can recreate the moment /experience for fans and when used over a period of time can help get them to stand up and take notice of you. But, mixing the right photograph with right design will build a unique visual tone and create a sense of distinctiveness to your brand identity online. Filters, logos, colours texts and memes are some ideas to bring design and photographs together.

Use humour to stand out.
When armed with the right humour, you can conquer pretty much anything and your social media visuals are not any different. However, humour is tricky and must be of good taste and reflect on the values you believe, as a brand. Also, if you can take humour on yourself, there is nothing like it. Humour gives your brand a dimension of human interest while making it share-worthy. However, humour should never be overdone and at times, it may not be relevant to your brand.

Create visual posts for hashtag campaigns.
Hashtag campaigns boost user engagement essentially because they are conversational. In order to maximise the chance of getting your content shared, create visual posts around a theme and assign hashtag to it.  A visual that is symbolic of the hashtag is often the best way to get users to notice and internalise your hashtag. But keep it simple, daily-life centric and beautiful.

Go on and make sure that the thousand and odd words that your images speak are both effective and relevant. You will surely reap great benefits in the little time and effort that you invest in making sure that your visuals look right.