Why Visual Content Is a Social Media Secret Weapon

Over the past few years there has been a noticeable shift towards visual social media content online. The emergence and power of visual platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram have highlighted the need for businesses to think visually if they want to engage with their audience online.

Social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter, have redesigned their news feeds to place more emphasis on visuals. Photos on Facebook for example generate 53 per cent more likes than a text-based post. This means that if you are posting links solely featuring written text, it is unlikely that you will reach many of your followers.

Images have become ever increasingly popular with the ability for people to take photos and videos with their camera on their smartphone. If you haven't already, now is the time to start incorporating images into your social media strategy.

Why are images generating more engagement on social media? 
Images are attention grabbing pieces of 'snackable' content which users can understand and engage with ease. Images used in your social media are far more likely to evoke emotional reactions in viewers and can portray information more efficiently than text. 

As people are becoming overwhelmed with content, businesses need to start changing their social media strategy to engage with users in an inventive and exciting way. Think about what your audience wants to see on your social media channels and brainstorm the best way to interact with them.

How can you attract the attention of your viewers? 
The purpose of creating visual images on social media is to attract the attention of your audience. It is important to be original and make your content as interesting, brief, relevant and as focused to your target audience as possible.

Here are some of our ideas to attract audience attention using content as images, create:

• How-to ideas where you discuss a step by step system
• Quotes that offer inspiration and motivation
• Tips to help your readers with a common problem
• Checklists that simplify tasks and action steps

These images can be created using tools such as Canva or Picmonkey, which are easily shareable.

The images that you post on social media can help to tell your business' story and share a message. Don't be afraid to add personality to your content. People are more likely to engage and interact with a business that feels like a friend, particularly on social media. Taking regular, candid photos is an excellent way to do this and everyone loves behind-the-scenes footage.

Include images on your social media that:

• Promote your product: Every business and brand has a product to display so don't just talk about what your products are - show them off in images.
• Promote your workplace culture: Take regular pictures of your work colleagues and team events to share them with your audience on social media.
• Promote your fans: Shine the spotlight on your followers and fans. By creating a business hash tag and encouraging your fans to use it when they take photos of themselves engaging with your products, you have access to a database of images. Repurpose these images on your own social media channels and give your fans their 15 minutes of fame.
• Promote your business: Provide your followers with something they can't find anywhere else, whether it's exclusive photos, a big reveal or something they wouldn't normally see. It's a great way to let your fans know what is going on behind the scenes.
• Promote your events: Actions shots are often the best types of images to include on your social media platforms. If you are speaking at a conference, training in a seminar or hosting a brainstorming session, capture these images and share them with your audience.

Don't forget about video
Video is a great way to give your content strategy and overall social media program a boost. Using video can present unique storytelling opportunities for businesses. Videos can be used on almost all social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Use video to:

• Showcase your personality: Companies can show their personality through this engaging and interactive medium. 'Wow' your audience by demonstrating how your product or services can make a difference.
• Offer useful information: Give your users some helpful information and tips about your products and services. Think about sharing a 15 second 'how-to' video with your audience.
• Use testimonials: Customers are your brand's greatest advocates and are a great way to tell your company's story.

Don't just stop at one image -- create a series of images to help ensure that your business always has content to use. Consider putting these images into a content calendar, which is an excellent tool to help you manage your social media platforms and ensure you are posting high quality, interesting content.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/why-visual-content-is-a-s_b_7261876.html

Why use Visual Communication in your Content Marketing Strategy?

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Why-use-visual-communication-in-your-content-marketing-strategy-.png.png

Images are everywhere. In fact they’re probably in more places than you realise. We use images for signs:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/mark13.png.png

    

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/download164.png.png

 

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/stop5.png.png

To represent data:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_11.43.01.png.png

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_11.46.08.png.png

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_11.47.16.png.png

And, to present our brands to the world:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/twitter1.png.png

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/apple19.png.png

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/instagram19.png.png

There are two simple reasons for this.

One: images are universally understood. Even if there are a hundred different ways to say ‘no smoking’, there is one very easy way to say it that everyone will understand:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cigarette.png.png

Two: visuals are processed 60,000x faster than text:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_11.51.38.png.png

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_11.52.59.png.png

In this blog, we’re going to discuss the top three reasons why you should use visual communication in your content marketing strategy.

1. It’s Quicker

People are busy. They are definitely too busy to spend time reading your text-heavy banner ad, or to listen to you ramble on about how great your product is for three whole minutes. Take a look at the stat below:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_13.40.19.png.png

You need to use visual communication in your content marketing strategy so that your customers can digest your information quickly. The key to successful marketing is to make people’s lives easier, not harder.

This need to digest information quickly is something that is almost ingrained in us. Think about when you were at school, and you had a book or a play to read and write an essay on. Most students were much too cool to spend hours of their time reading a book or a Shakespearean play, especially when there was a movie to refer to instead. I love reading, but when you’re busy (or when you’re a high school student and you think you’re really busy), it’s a no-brainer, a two hour movie beats spending ten hours reading.

There’s another reason why we always watched the movies instead of reading the books, and that leads me on to the next point…

2. It’s Interesting

Visual communication is more interesting than any other form of communication. This is why it is a great way to present data, or to make a dry subject matter more engaging. Of course, visual content is not solely for making the uninteresting, interesting; or for simplifying your brand processes. You can tell your brand story visually, or basically any story that you want to increase the shareability of. Image-based social networks like Instagram are quickly becoming more and more popular, and marketers should be talking full advantage of this. Statistics show that:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_13.39.23.png.png

and this is proven when you look at the next statistic:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_13.42.08.png.png

These are staggering numbers by anyone’s standard, and just another reason why you must use visual communication in your content marketing strategy.

3. It’s Memorable

It is estimated that people are exposed to:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_13.50.02.png.png

That’s a lot of information to take in! But, of course, we don’t take it in do we? People have become so accustomed to seeing ads everywhere that we have practically become immune to them. In order to stand out from the crowd you need to make your ads memorable, and it’s a well-known fact that people are much more likely to remember images, over what they read and hear.

Take typical memory improving techniques as an example. A lot of memory training methods involve replacing words with images. So, if you need to remember to buy apples and milk from the supermarket you should think of images that will resonate with you when it comes to buying them a few hours later, like an apple with a caterpillar coming out of it, and a cow. This technique even has a name, it’s called the Picture Superiority Effect. The reason visual communication is so much more memorable is because:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen_Shot_2015-04-02_at_13.44.18.png.png

Closing Thoughts

Everyone loves visual communication, at least a little bit! As this blog proves, it allows us to digest information quicker, it’s more interesting than other communication methods, and, most importantly for marketers, visual communication is memorable!

It’s also really cost-effective to create visual marketing tools, especially when you consider how effective they are. In fact, 43% of content marketers agree that infographics are an effective tool. To learn more about infographics, or to get one of your own, click here.

http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/wyzowl/use-visual-communication-content-marketing-strategy-01199905

How to make free webinars using LeadPages & Google Hangouts

How to make Webinars for Free ? I use Leadpages to create my Webinars .

The 10 New Rules Of Visual Content Marketing

When it comes to visual content, your customers expect something very different compared to just a few years ago. It is now supercharged by mobiles and visual social media networks.

It used to be OK to have a static website gallery, post text to your social channels, and use corporate photos and videos online. Now, readers depend on visuals to figure out whether your content is worth their time.

Expectations of consumers have changed too. They no longer have time to click through to an image or link to see what your content is about. They make split-second decisions based on the visual content provided.

So whether your content is being consumed within social channels or on your website, visual content remains a powerful tool – but only if done correctly.

Recommended for YouWebcast: The Art of Community Development: Turning Brand Awareness Into Sales

In short, the rules of visual content have changed.

Why should you use visual content?

Just take a quick look at these 3 snack size facts about the visually wired human. In a visual content format :)

Source: Visual Website Optimizer blog

Below are 10 new rules of visual content marketing. Break them and you risk losing your customers.

1. The law of the recent

When we go online, most of the content we consume is from today, or at best yesterday.

Content from last week is practically unreachable unless you’re looking for something specific. And content from last year has become history so ancient, it might as well be obsolete.

Skeptical? Test it.

Go to your favourite social network. Open it up and take a look at your home feed. Can you find a post from last week in the first 25 updates?

Notice something else? The only way you can tell how recent a post is, is by the time stamp on them. Posts from today will either have the time they were published visible or tell you how long ago the post was made. E.g. an hour ago, five hours ago, yesterday.

In order for your content to be relevant, it has to be recent. The best way to do that is by time stamping your content or featuring topical events.

Honda has created a social hub on their website where they curate and display recent customer content.

2. The law of authenticity

People are more likely to trust a referral from a friend or relative than a company.

In fact, research has shown Millennials are even more likely to trust a complete stranger than a company. It’s why user-generated content is considered far more compelling than any content a brand produces.

Photos and videos from your customers tell the real story of your brand and are far more effective.

NZone is an extreme sport (skydiving) company. Customers who share personal pictures of their experience increase authenticity and can instil trust for anyone considering making a purchase.

3. The law of credibility

The law of credibility states that your customers must be willing to stand by your brand by publicly aligning themselves with it.

In layman terms, if your customers are posting images and sharing their experiences, they should be linking back to you or tagging you in their social media updates.

Think about it. What would you trust more? An image or video shared by a company showing how happy and satisfied their clients are? Or the same thing shared by one of their customers?

Dole is an international brand which markets and distributes fruit including pineapples, bananas and paw paws. They often get their customers to share content from events or at home consuming the product.

4. The law of relevance

Visual content needs to be presented in context. It has to be relevant, informative and well organized.

So if you’re selling a product online, you need to provide corresponding visual content for it. Make sure you place relevant content in the right place.

For example if you are selling particular line of clothing not only do you need to place photos of that on the right web pages, you also need to place the correct user-generated photos on the right webpage, which in this case may involve your customers with those clothes in a real life situation.

Superette is an on-line retailer. They take care of this law by linking customer photos to their products.

5. The law of the caption

A picture may be worth a thousand words but a caption or headline can often bring it further to life.

There’s no denying that we process visual content faster than text-based content. But a simple caption is often required to tell a visual story more effectively.

A caption also helps you communicate your brand’s identity. For example if your brand focuses on making things easy and fun for your customers, then the caption can be humorous.

The Press, a daily newspaper, ran a photo competition and asked their readers to submit their best backyard cricket photos for a World Cup promotion. One user submitted the image below with a caption that made a photo infinitely more interesting.

Source: The Press reader

6. The law of social

Your customers expect to be able to interact with your visual content – whether it’s on your social channels or on your website.

Make it easy for them by providing them opportunities to comment on your content, share them easily on their preferred social networks, and even email the content to their friends if they want to.

The law of social doesn’t end here though. Your customers also expect you to acknowledge their efforts. If they’ve left a comment, reply to it. If they’ve shared on social media, thank them for it. Find a way to make it worth their while and they’ll continue giving your visual content the same attention.

Interislander – a ferry service ran a photo contest that asked their customers to share their favourite Interislander memory on their website or Instagram and tag them.

Needless to say, the competition was a huge hit!

7. The law of personality

For too long brands have been bland and boring. Think stock photos.

Thankfully, the recent developments in visual content make it easy to bring a brand to life.

The right visuals, including photos, videos, infographics, and e-books can add depth to your brand story and reinforce your culture.

One of the easiest ways to do so is to give your customers a “behind the scenes” look. Show them what goes into making or marketing your brand, post pictures from office events, maybe even how you brainstorm.

The more your customers know about the culture of your company, the more your brand’s personality will shine through.

The Queensland Opera does this brilliantly. From pictures of their costume designs, rehearsals, and makeup – they keep their fans and followers engaged.

8. The law of consistency

Apart from engaging customers, the role of visual content is to reinforce your brand. For that to happen, your content needs to have consistency.

This isn’t strictly a new law, but it’s worth reinforcing. We’re not referring to publishing visual content consistently. It’s more about elements in your visuals that tell your target market that the visual is from your company – even if you’re not linked or tagged in it.

You can do this by using the same:

• Fonts and colours as your website
• Images in your company’s social media accounts and profile page headers
• Design element like a background, banner, or logo.

Customers should be able to recognize the content is from your brand at a glance.

All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team, have their photos naturally branded. Whether their visuals are from their own team or from fans, they all include the All Blacks in one form or another.

9. The law of resilience

Content never sleeps and neither does your online presence.

Visual content is not a campaign that ends in a few days or weeks. It’s not a one-off thing. It’s an on-going strategy.

Make creating, publishing, and maintaining visual content a key part of your marketing strategy.

Jucy, one of tourism’s top content marketers, has created an on-going visual content, much of which is from their customers.

10. The law of quality

With cell phone cameras getting better and better by the day, customers have learned to take great photos and videos themselves.

And with the numerous filters available through Instagram and others, it’s possible to source high quality content from your customers

The good news is, you can use that content and combine it with your own in-house efforts to help with your marketing activities.

Dilmah, a renowned tea company, encourages its tea drinkers to share their best photos with them for a chance to win awesome prizes like a 10-day trip to New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

A photo submitted by one of Dilmah fans.

Source: Dilmah Tea in the City Photo Competition

Visual content – a vital part of your content marketing strategy.

There’s no denying it. Visual content is a vital part of any marketing strategy.

The days of the old website photo gallery are far behind us. When done right, visual content can drive traffic to your site, increase page views, lower bounce rate, and convert website traffic into sales.

Use these new laws of visual content to up your marketing game and grow your business. Ignore them and you risk becoming obsolete.

http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/10-new-rules-visual-content-marketing-01188589

11 of the creepiest Pinterest fails ever

You’ll never sleep again (Picture: Pinterest Fail)

Sadly we can’t all be Martha Stewart.

The hilarious blog Pinterest Fail chronicles the darker side of DIY. Novices around the world have been attempting to recreate the many baking and craft ideas they see on social bookmarking site Pinterest – with often-catastrophic results.

From demonic bunnies to evil beavers, these DIY disasters are definitely more ‘arghhhhh’ than ‘ahhhhhh!’

Here’s our pick of the downright creepiest Pinterest fails, ever. Be warned: you may have trouble sleeping tonight.

1. Please stop staring at us

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

2. I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve this

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

3. Straight out of a childhood nightmare

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

4. It’s all in the eyes…

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

5. We don’t even want to know

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

6. That’s what you get for not flossing

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

7. Donnie Darko-themed birthday cake, anyone?

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

8. They’re coming for you…

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

9. Rise of the planet of the apes

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

10. A batch of mutant frogs

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

11. Watch out, evil zombie rabbits are on the loose

(Picture: Pinterest Fail)

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/29/11-of-the-creepiest-pinterest-fails-ever-5125326/?ito=facebook