I was attending a Post Planner webinar presented by Rebekah Radice and Peg Fitzpatrick.Both are social media experts and addicts I would say.On top of that they are great personalities and very friendly individuals.
By following their actions on Twitter or Facebook you can learn a lot of new things and apply techniques that they use to engage with their audience.
Why Visual Content Matters?
According to a survey social posts including eye-catching images receive 94% more engagement.
This is very logical , we live in an era of over information , we are bombarded everyday with written content , we need a brake and when we get socialised online in mediums like Facebook , we want our eyes entertained.That is why we skip the long content messages and we stop in the images that are attractive.
Additionally images are being consumed easier by human brains and therefore there is no time to read everything that is posted.
The 3 P’s of Facebook success
Personal – Purpose – Promotion
When it comes to business we should consider posting from time to time some personal images in our social accounts.Photos of the team members in an event , in facilities .. something to make our audience understand better who we are and so that they get connected with us in a friendly way.
Our content will not attract audiences if we don’t have a purpose , one that showcases our business and our brand as an authority.
The promotion is the highest target within our shared content but it has to be limited and not every post we make on our Facebook fan page , and other social media channels , should be promotional.Additionally the promotional posts should provide value.
Brands that can intrigue their fans to respond and participate in their posts , polls , quizzes , images , videos or infographics are far more likely the ones that will attract new followers and expand their social status.
Interesting Statistical Data
- 95% of B2B byers prefer short content when making a decision.
- The amount of videos posted on Facebook increased by 75% in 2014.
- A survey of 30,000 Facebook fan pages shows that the posts with images received the 87% of all interactions.
The trends are showing increased demand on Videos inside Facebook , the old method of leaving a link to YouTube is almost obsolete.
Live streaming videos are becoming popular and they believe that is the future of social media.It’s really obvious that people are looking for entertainment.
Neil Patel , a famous blogger , experienced higher levels of audience interaction on his Facebook page when he empowered Visual Content Marketing strategies.
How to Improve Your Visual Marketing
Look at companies in your niche that create relevant and engaging content for inspiration.
A lot of marketers use “Quotes” in a creative way through images.People are always hungry for motivational content and they respond to beautiful artwork.
The Facebook search strings can provide very important data about your audience.You can search for people that liked your page , what other pages they liked or you can define by demographics.
Intelligence Software Tool
This is a free tool to search inside Facebook for people using certain criteria.You add an extension to your Chrome browser and you can perform a search in any page that you visit.It will open a new tab and will display the corresponding results.
This is a very cool feature that as described by his developer it can be proved an essential tool for recruiting purposes.But in our case it can be used to track competing fan pages and to spot their social activities.
For example … I searched for people that “Liked” the term ..“make money online”.. and the tool gave me awesome results … How can I tell?…Through the results I spotted many bloggers that I know.
You can define your search by name , like , current job and other criteria.Very useful.
Moreover under everyone’s name along with your search term results some other interesting data appear , showing the habits of these members and their interests.
Likealyzer
Another brilliant application can be found in the Likealyzer website.You insert a Facebook page URL and the tool analyses and gives you data concerning the performance of this Facebook page.
The most important feature is that it gives you recommendations on what to improve according to their algorithm.
As I don’t have a Facebook fan page yet , I checked for a well known entrepreneur.Even on his page , which is a page Liked by thousands of people , still the tool suggests
- Ask more questions to your fans
- Like other pages and interact with them
- Improve your timing … and more.
Further the tool provides information about the certain page , its performance and other very interesting statistical tables and it compares the page to other similar pages.
It additionally lists pages in your niche and can sort them by “Like Rank”
You can get a ton of ideas to implement on your own Facebook page
As you can clearly see Social Media is not only about our brand and our website and offers.Is about the interaction with other business owners , competitors and fans.It is not only self promotion.The entrepreneurs that only promote themselves soon will disappear , people are searching for value and entertainment.
The Traits of Highly Shareable Content
- Unique
- On Brand
- Correctly Sized (especially for Facebook) … Canva can help you with the dimensions
- Includes a Call to Action
- Motivating and Inspiring – Relevant to Audience
Final Take
These are the latest trends on Facebook and the Social Media generally.There are more useful material in that webinar but I will cover that in a future post.
Times have changed and Marketing always evolves , as everything does.We , as bloggers , should stay updated and follow the latest Visual Content Marketing principles.We don’t want to be left behind.
I am thinking of creating my first Facebook page , what you think?..Any ideas on the topic that I choose?…I know I ask a lot but I thought I will take my chances.
As always , I am waiting for your comments and thoughts.Do you think that these tips and tools will help you mature your point of view as concerns Facebook and the social media?…Till next time , your online partner.
Related Resources
PostPlanner Review
Hello there,
I’ve read so many articles about how visual content improves engagement and just draws attention to itself. Like you said, it makes sense since we the humans like to imagine things and isn’t that done the best through pictures and seeing stuff. I’ve decided to implement that strategy on my website and on my social accounts. Do you have any suggestions on what program should I use to create Pinterest images ?
Hi there Dejan, visual content is always interesting and adds a different tone to written material.
I use many tools, like Canva, BeFunky, Fotojet, Ribbet, Snappa. You can set dimensions and most of them come with presets so you can find the most suitable for Pinterest.
Good luck with your visual marketing..!!..Thank you for dropping by with a cooment.
Hi there! I just read your article on using imagery within your marketing and totally agree with what you are saying here. You have some really good tips and this will really make me think about taking things a step further on my website.
I know the importance of visuals. When I started out I used large blocks of text that were way too big. Since cutting down the text and increasing the amount of images within my posts I have really seen an increase in engagement. I have used sayings and quotes within my work too and it really helps to break things up and make them more interesting.
I have been looking for some software for some time that will allow me to make fancy graphics and images for my site. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Andrew, I agree with you, long text content is hard to read and therefore visitors do not engage as they do with beautiful images.
There are many solutions but if you are asking for my favourites these are BeFunky, Canva, Snappa, Ribbet
All include free memberships…Additionally you can check more here
Wish you the best of luck with your designs..!!
Hi Tasos
Another great post. I loved all the facts and information you shared here. Interesting that the trend now is that people on Facebook prefer Facebook videos to Youtube, I thought Youtube was the way to go and what I started with.
Thanks for sharing these resources I’m going to check out what they say about my Facebook pages!
Welcome back Lynne , you are very kind and you always support my posts.I am so happy seeing you satisfied.Yes , we have to be alerted as concerns Facebook and the social media in general.People are watching videos on Facebook and as you might noticed Facebook is not allowing images to get pinned or anything shared in other channels easily.Some even say that Facebook is stealing video rights from You-Tube owners.
We have to be present and active in both domains.I am preparing my first Facebook page and I wish you and me good luck.It is not an easy game.
Thank you for this visit and for sharing your thoughts , I am going to reach you on Facebook soon..!
This is such a great article, full of so much information I had no idea about! I shy away from too many images on posts but always try to add some in there. I do struggle with keeping up with social media. I know this article is focused on Facebook, would you say FB is the main source of media to focus on? Sammi
Welcome back Sammi , you don’t have to put a lot of images , one or two per post might be ideal , depending on the length of course.
Social media is the second most important road of traffic and is becoming more crucial as time goes by.Besides you can not always rely on the search engines.Additionally if you engage with your audience on social then you increase your authority and build a strong presence.
Facebook is only a medium , and every platform hides huge opportunities.I am preparing for Facebook right now as I am thinking about the subject for my personal page.
I am so glad you found some value on this article and wanna thank you for this visit and for your participation in the comments.Good luck with your social campaigns.
yes, this is a no brainer. Pictures, videos, and anything that is visual will be much better for marketing over anything else. That being said, you can literally focus entirely on it. These days it doesnt matter what you post on social media, they only really respond to the pictures. whether its a personal facebook post or a tweet!
Matt TheDopestMatrix
Totally agree Matt , social media is an arena of super fast information.With all those posts published every second it is almost impossible to read , not even the short tweets.
Thank you for this visit and your support.Good luck with your visual campaigns.
I definitively love good visual content. As our attention span is a little lower than a gold fish, visuals really helps you catch things faster and remember longer.
I’ve never heard of the Intelligence Software Tool but it seems pretty good for market research so I’d definitively give it a try.
Thanks for all the information.
Cheers!
Welcome back Anh , very interesting observation on comparing humans with gold fish.I definitely agree , as we are bombarded with written content , our eyes can only get caught by something that is appealing.
I am glad you found these resources helpful and I hope you enjoy that tool.Thank you for this visit and for your participation in the discussion.
Hello and thank you for the article,
The tools and tips you provided will be put to good use. I agree but have not always applied visual content in all my promotions in the past.
94% more engagement while using eye-catching images, I have been missing out.
I do have a question however, what exactly is a B2B buyer?
Thanks again.
Welcome Jason , B2B marketing refers to “Business to Business” , are sales and transactions between companies and organisations (businesses) instead of sales from companies directly to consumers (B2C).
I am glad you found the tips and tools useful and thank you for this visit and for taking the time to participate in the conversation.Good luck with your visual projects.
This is one of the most useful things I’ve read in a long time. Thank you very much for this post! As an artist, I do have a Facebook fan page and have been trying to figure out how to promote it more, so this is really great information. I actually took notes lol! I will be using the tips you have here and will be referring to them often as I build up my page and my brand.
Welcome Donna , that’s great.You can start by using some of these tips with your fan page and see how it goes.Social media is a very tough arena with strong competition , we have to work really hard on this.
Good luck , thank you for visiting my blog and for your kind words.
Tasos,
Great info. I have a fan page that I use for promoting myself as an artist. A lot of what you say is important and I already do on my page but know I have lots to learn still. That was really interesting to see what likealyzer found for the person with the thousands of likes. It is definitely an ongoing job to keep one’s posts balanced between promoting, sharing something personal and sharing info. I am going to check out both of the tools as soon as I finish commenting to you about how much I enjoyed your post.
Do you know if there are any tools that help us keep up with the constantly moving target of social networking. Do you think that instagram is one that must be included?
Welcome Judith , nice to meet an artist with a fan page on Facebook.I believe social media in general is an area of consistent work and interaction with fans and followers.You have to stay alerted and provide value , entertain and help.Tools like those mentioned can ease our efforts and maximise our targeting results.
I have not got involved with Instagram yet , but is a very popular network and I am looking forward to create an account as soon as possible.
Any social media tool if used correctly can be proved worthy.Besides you build your brand name and get recognised.
Thank you for visiting my blog and your kind words.Good luck with your Facebook page and your other projects as well
Nice job , I’ve see some guy talks about social media weeked skills , SM is so powerful than we can imagine , its pretty good work , work on a text , I’m reset realy nice job , and the picture on the top is so cool , you have you think for a change
Welcome Denis , you are talking about Gary , a fellow blogger .Yes social media is so powerful , that we have to focus some of our time to this direction.
Thank you for your kind words and for stopping by.Good luck.
Hi
This page has some very interesting, useful information & I will definitely be trying the tools you have mentioned. I have not yet set up a facebook page for my website, but have other business fb pages.
Most people are very busy and respond better to visual images which may then lead them to read the associated information. I am guilty of not reading information when there is a lot of it as I, like so many of us these days, am time poor.
You should definitely start your own fb page on your entrepreneurs club. It will be a great place for people to walk through around ideas, tips, trends and discuss relevant topics.
All the best with your journey.
Welcome Faye , nice to meet a fellow female entrepreneur.So , you know about Facebook and you already run some FB pages , now it is time to expand on your website , I guess.
You are not guilty , as no one is , times have changed a little bit , it was inevitable , if we consider how technology marches on.Could you really imagine 20 years earlier that people will use hand watches to make business or use internet?
Thank you for visiting my blog and your kind recommendations , yes , the idea of that club is growing up in my mind.
To your success.
Thanks for sharing this. I agree that our eyes don’t want to read much, and images that can immediately convey what we want to say is good. However, am not a big fan of videos. Aside from taking up so much space and, thus, loads a bit slower, I’m always in a hurry, so I just want to browse through content quickly and does not have the patience to watch the video. Just my 2 cents worth 🙂
Welcome to my blog Mylu , great to meet someone that don’t prefer videos , that is another proof that all humans do not behave equally.You are into visual content , I can easily understand how valuable is your time.
You are right , sometimes videos take too long to load and this is time lost.I do the same and abandon such videos.I really believe that videos should not last over 3 minutes , even less.
Thank you for dropping by your 2 cents , have a great day.
I do agree that readers get tuned out or bored from long content. So it makes sense to include images or videos to break up the monotony. I like your article because it includes links for resources or tools to use. Thanks for sharing information with visitors so they can improve their own content.
Welcome Tina , totally agree but sometimes we can not avoid long content.But we may try to keep the majority of material short.Social media on the other hand is an area of speed and action.That is why platforms like Twitter are so popular.
Thank you for this kind visit and for discussing the subject with me.
Social media is one of my weakest skills. I just stumble all over the place.
I learned a lot from your visual content marketing tips and have bookmarked the page to revisit the next time I’m trying to do something on social media.
Thanks too for your many examples and for suggesting some software.
How are you Gary?.. I know , social media is often overlooked and it is very time consuming but … they say that if you insist for a long time you will be rewarded.This is a road that leads to authority.
You can take it in a slower mode.
Many thanks for another visit and for sharing your thoughts.Good luck with your social campaigns.
As somebody who is relatively new to the world of online marketing this is a really important advice. A lot of people when they’re starting out focus a lot on their written content and it is very easy to neglect the visual size of your website. When confronted with a long webpage of pure text the vast majority of readers are not going to bother to crawl through it. However, if there are some eye-catching pictures, as you say, the likelihood of them engaging with the content and enjoying it is much greater. I wonder if you could give us some advice about the best places to obtain images from that we can legally use on our websites?
Welcome to my blog Mark , I am very glad to see you interested in the visual structure of your website.I can point you to read my article on “Royalty Free Images” and another useful resource to create images on your own is Canva.More design resources can be found in the main menu or here.
Thank you for this visit and for your participation.Good luck with your work , if you need anything I am always here.