It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. From time immemorial, people have always loved how pictures depict scenarios, situations, character, and places. It’s little wonder that more people are predisposed to reading content with colored visuals. 
Consider the wisdom of John Medina. As he states in his book Brain Rules, as well as his blog of the same name, most people are likely to recall only 10 percent of what they read after 72 hours if there are no visuals. With the use of appealing visuals, this increases to roughly 65%. That’s how much difference images make. So, how can you take advantage of this?
Use Catchy and Impressive Images
It’s not enough to just post any image on your social networking feeds, you should post those that people would find engaging. As a rule, aim to inspire, inform, and entertain. As is often the case, you are best served by putting yourself in the place of your own demographic, asking yourself “what would I click on, what would I share?”
Take Advantage of Instructional Images
Images with how-to instructions tend to get a lot of engagement when used correctly. They are very effective at depicting whatever you want people to do. In fact, most people prefer seeing what they want to do as against reading about it because it’s a lot easier.
Use Infographics
Infographics are so important that companies like Infographics World regularly consult with Fortune 100 companies on their imagery. Go figure.
Not only are they pretty cool and innovative, they are a great way to present your data, information, tips and ideas in image form. The great thing about this is that people love
infographics.
Unsurprisingly, most people would prefer an infographic to spending 2 hours going through 50 pages of data. So, if you have important facts and figures to throw around, try publishing them as infographics as well as in a white paper release and see what happens.
Optimize Your Images and Use Alt Text
Image optimization has become increasingly important for search engine optimization and rankings. Not just that, having an alternative text on your image can enhance your message.
If you have ever seen those images with captions on them, then you know how popular those can be and how much they are liked. Take advantage of this by optimizing the images for the keywords –usually renaming the image should do the trick- and then add your message to it. It’ll give you the double whammy effect of increased search rankings and rabid engagement on social media.
Try Making a Collage With Multiple Images
Do you have a few images that you don’t quite know how to leverage? Try using a collage — they are very easy to do and can be a fun representation of your brand.
For instance, end of the year celebration pictures may not do anything for your brand directly, but creating a collage and uploading it can lend personality to your business, and make it one that people can relate to. This can help increase your likeability factor which is often important for brand loyalty.
Go With What Works
Finally, don’t forget to take a look at what other people are doing. Your competitors, for one, may give you an idea of what works (or what doesn’t) and submission contests can likewise generate content that can be easily used in your marketing, but also give you an idea of how your respondents think about your business or industry.
Influencers, or established social media personalities, can also be invaluable assets. Whether you engage in influencer marketing through a managed service or a SaaS solution like NeoReach’s Influencer Marketing Platform, or are simply looking for tried-and-true methods of social engagement to use on your own social pages, popular influencers can be very effective tools to consider using, or, at least, learning from.
Oscar King is a freelance writer and small business owner who contributes articles and insights into the business world and marketing trends, both for the business expert as well as the aspiring entrepreneur.
Internet Minute Infographic courtesy of Intel Free Press. All other images sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
