Each day customers are becoming increasingly self-directed, and are using search engines, content assets and social media to help guide purchasing decisions. Need proof? The average person now spends approximately 8 hours each day consuming some sort of media.
There is an enormous amount of opportunity for brands today to incorporate strong visuals as part of their overall digital marketing strategy. One of the biggest opportunities is on social networks.
Recent research has found that people only retain 20% of text that is read without visuals. What that should tell you is that in order to help your prospective and customers retain information, you MUST include compelling imagery.
In Social Media Images Part 1 we discussed the proper image sizing, best practices and tools. In part 2 we will explore inspirational brand examples and tips for uncovering imagery.
How to Use Visuals to Create Brand Recognition
Because of the amount of content that customers consume on a daily basis, you need to train their eyes to look for consistency in certain elements of your social media images. While seemingly minor, each of the tips below can help your ideal customers recognize your brand and stop their scrolling to investigate further.
Brand Guidelines
Even if you don’t have a set document detailing all of your brand guidelines, you should be aware of the logos, colors and other branding elements available to you. When publishing images on social media, work to ensure that your logo appears in the same place (if possible) for each image and that the colors and fonts you choose align with your brand standards.
Align Images With The Story
The images that you publish on social media should align with your brand story and the story of your customers. GoPro and REI are examples of companies that have done a great job of incorporating customer stories into their social media content.
Images that inspire and move your audience (yes even for B2B companies) assist in getting your audience invested in your brand and building a relationship.
Strive For Some Consistency
At first this may make some people do a double take. Why would you want to have consistency in imagery when the point is to stand out? The point is to create some predictability in the style or template that you use. Just as with the branding of your images, you should consider creating a few different templates for your social media images to create stronger brand recognition.
7 Brands That Are Creating Compelling Visuals on Social Media
The brands below are killing it on social media by using visuals to start conversations. I would strongly recommend following each of these brands as inspiration for your own social media marketing strategy. But let’s let the customer likes, shares and feedback do the talking.
Does Your Social Media Strategy Pass the Visual Test?
In part one and two of this series, we’ve discussed simple best practices, tools to help you along the way, ideas for creating brand recognition and brands we can learn from. If your brand is having success we’d love to know what you’ve learned. If you need help creating great visual content that is amplified on social channels, get in touch with us!
Header image via Shutterstock
Great article Ashley!
You make a great point, when you say “…you need to train their eyes to look for consistency in certain elements of your social media images…”. It is certainly consistent with the statistics article I just read from Christopher @ SEW
Thank you for the expert advice.