Get Social for your Business | Part 2: Go All In on Imagery
In our previous Get Social blog, we went over what social media channels you should choose for your business. Whether you’ve gone with Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, now is the time to start thinking CONTENT.
What good is having a social channel without content?
Some businesses are very fortunate to have a digital marketing guru who understand best practices for each social channel. But for those who are doing it all themselves, let’s talk imagery!
First of all, images are focus pullers. You scroll through your feed so quickly, who actually bothers to stop and read all of that text? However, put an IMAGE in there, especially one that is visually appealing, has great colors and is eye catching and BOOM. Your audience will stop and see your content.
Even on sites that aren’t Instagram (which requires you to have a picture for your post), you should make an effort to attach something of visual interest to every post. It’s estimated that people are 65% more likely to remember your content if it comes with an image.
So let’s break it down!
Visual Strategy
To start with, this goes back to your overall marketing strategy and what you’re hoping to accomplish with your social channels. Is it purely informational? Are you selling your product or services? Your imagery needs to match your digital strategy and brand guidelines.
We all love stock photos. They’re easy (high-quality paid stock photo services include Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, while one of the best free stock photo service is Pixabay). But don’t overload your channels with nameless, faceless stock photos. Everyone’s got a high-quality camera in your pocket at all times. Pull it out, turn it horizontal and take great pictures of what your business does and who runs it.
Taking this little extra step to make your channel personal to your business and showing it in reality is crucial to building a great following!
If you haven’t already, start building a photo library. Segment it into folders, based on what works for you and your business. Transfer the photos from your phone to your computer, then take the time to file them properly. Rename them, so it’s easy to do a search for files. That way, you’re building up a library and when you need a quick picture for your next post, you don’t actually have to run out and take the image, because you’ve got it already.
Here’s a great primer to taking social photos
Best Practices
Now, we move on to a breakdown of best practices for each media. Once again, if you don’t have the time to do every social media channel, don’t. Pick the one that is right for your business strategy and roll with it!
- Profile image : 170×170
- Image : (landscape) 1200×630 | (portrait) 630×1200 | square (1200×1200)
- Cover photo : 851×315
- Profile image : 400×400
- Image : (landscape) 1024×512
- Cover photo : 1500×1500
Instagram*
- Profile image : 320×320
- Image : (landscape) 1080×566 | (portrait) 1080×1350 | (square) 1080×1080
- Stories: 1080×1920
*Instagram is very persnickety about images that are portrait (vertical). It must be within a 4:5 ratio for Instagram to show your entire image.
- Profile image: 400×400
- Image: (landscape) 1200×627 | (portrait) 627×1200
YouTube
- Profile image : 800×800
- Cover image : 2560×1440
YouTube is a wholly different beast than any of these other channels. Don’t be intimidated by content creators that post daily, because they have giant teams that do their video editing. Being on YouTube for some people is their entire full-time job.
Think of YouTube as a search generator. What do you want people to know about your business? Then go make that video. Every once in awhile, check out your channel and make sure it’s still relevant. If you’re showcasing a product or service you no longer offer, hide the video from your channel. Check your playlists and make sure they are up to date.
With these tips on best practices for releasing content, you can really get started on your social journey. Remember that a lot of social media involves a little bit of trial and error. Try out several posts spread out over a few weeks. Then check back on the analytics on those. Share them on your personal page, and encourage your staff to do the same. Once you find what works for your followers, then you will truly be on your way!
Check out other blogs from this series: