Are your social media updates not getting attention?
Are you looking for some new ways to boost engagement?
Capturing people’s attention is difficult. Do you know the average human has the shorter attention span (8 seconds) than goldfish (9 seconds)?
Social media has become an essential part of your business. ⅓ of the world uses social networks regularly.
There are 2.8 billion active social media users. (Hootsuite)
So, you can’t afford to miss this giant media channel. But a million dollar question is, how to grab the attention of people?
Visuals can be your friend.
The Importance of Visuals
Visual content is like a song.
Have you ever heard this saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
So TRUE!!
Visuals have a high power of communication.
What is visual communication?
“Visual communication describes the conveyance of information and ideas in the forms that can be read or looked upon.”
Image via: Buffer
According to Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication by Paul Martin Lester,
“There are strong indications that the status of images is improving. We live in a mediated blitz of pictures. They fill our newspapers, magazines, books, clothing, billboards, computer monitors and television screens as never before in the history of mass communications. Something is happening. We are becoming a visually mediated society. For many, understanding of the world is being accomplished, not through reading words, but by reading images.”
90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and approximately 65 percent of the population are visual learners.
The brain processes the 90% of the information. Really?
Image via: Mammoth Infographics
Today, social media has transformed to visual social media. Successful businesses became successful because they understood how important visuals is in grabbing attention to their social media marketing and building relationships with their followers.
People are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures than any other media. If you are still wondering how important visuals are, go ahead and check out these statistics.
The Power of Social Media Visuals
According to Venngage 41.5% marketers said that infographics and other original graphics had the highest engagement.
Infographics are shared and liked 3x more than any other type of visual content. (MassPlanner)
Start using images in your tweets because Tweets with images received 150% more retweets. (Buffer)
Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without pictures. (Hubspot)
Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Marketo)
On Facebook’s top 10 brand pages, photos and videos drive the most engagement. (Buffer)
Photo and video post on Pinterest are referring more traffic than Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Google+. (Source)
Pinterest and Instagram are leading the visual web pack. Pinterest has just recently become the 2nd largest driver of traffic worldwide.
Image via: Jeff Bullas
So, whenever possible use visuals to share your message. Don’t just tell if you can show!
There are some tools out there like Bannersnack which help you to create awesome social media visuals and graphics.
Are you ready to enter the world of visuals? Here Are some ideas for engaging visuals to use on social media. Enjoy!
14 Compelling and New Ideas for Engaging Visuals on Social Media
1. Images
Images can take your social media marketing to the next level. Images process quickly in a human mind.
Instagram and Pinterest are the great examples where you can communicate totally with images. No words required!
See how Hubspot uses high-quality images on Instagram.
2. Infographics
Infographics can become the vital part of your visual content strategy. Infographics are the great way to present complex data or statistics in more compelling and beautiful visuals.
Pinterest is the great channel to share your lovely infographics. See this infographic from Lifehack on Pinterest.
3. Slideshows
Slideshows are the great way to guide readers through a visual presentation. Keep the text minimum and focus on colors and design.
Research suggests that presenters who use visual aids are 43% more efficient in persuading audience members to take a desired course of action than presenters who don’t use visuals. (Source)
See this beautiful presentation by Officevibe:
4. Videos
How-to videos, product explainer videos, and testimonial videos are the great way to build the trust with your customers. The video is the best channel to solve the problems in the more entertaining way.
Image via: Mammoth Infographics
5. Charts
Let your audience know what’s going on with charts. Charts and graphs play a crucial role when you’re presenting and explaining some statistics or data. See this twitter update with a graph.
6. Quotes
Quotes have the great power to evoke positive emotions. See what Aaron Lee, a social media influencer said,
“Quotes work well because in general, people can easily relate to them, because of that, they get liked and shared easily compared to more targeted content.” (Source)
See the quote shared by Hubspot on their Facebook page:
7. Live videos
Live streaming video is the new concept to your audience. Live videos can increase customer loyalty and engagement.
Image via: Social Media Examiner
8. Work culture images/Behind the scene
Recently Zappos shared theirs behind the scene pictures on Twitter. See here:
9. Memes
Memes are the great way to make people entertain and show your humor. It will help you to get ahead of your competitors.
10. Screenshots
Share screenshots of your product and services on your social profiles. See how Bannersnack shared a visual on their twitter page.
11. Facts and stats
See how Officevibe shared interesting statics on their twitter account.
12. Repurpose content into short graphics
Repurpose your most successful content into little graphics. It allows you to work smarter instead of harder.
See this example of repurposing content which got a good engagement.
13. Make a photo collage
Pictures are the great medium to convey an idea. A photo collage is an excellent way of summarizing and exhibiting the collection of pictures.
14. Polls
You should consider polls in your social media marketing strategy. It will help you to gain a better understanding of your customers and community in real time.
Marvel Entertainment hosts a weekly Twitter poll:
THANK YOU for reading this post. Do you use visuals on your social media channels?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!
