Sharing visual content on your social media platforms is an excellent way to increase engagement. It makes your platforms look visually appealing, helps you stand out from other brands and provides an easier way for people to absorb information.
What’s more, 91% of consumers now prefer interactive and visual content over traditional, text-based or static media.
To help you tap into that audience, we’ve pulled together 6 advanced techniques designed to improve your social media presence.
The role of creative content
Creative content has more of an impact than we realise. As children, we’re given picture books to inspire our visual thinking and help us understand what we’re reading. We don’t stop enjoying this as we grow into adulthood; we don’t suddenly prefer to absorb information in harder ways – simplicity is always preferred whatever our age.
For example, if we’re given a list of statistics in both an article and an infographic, most people will remember more of the infographic by nature.
See this data in Adzooma’s recent survey
51.2% of people have purchased from a brand because of the way they spoke online.
What’s more, 57.5% of customers said they are more likely to buy from brands with strong personalities.
29.9% of people have said that they wouldn’t be influenced either way, and just 12.7% of people have said they would be less likely to buy from brands with a strong personality.
Example A – A quote from the survey
With Example B, it’s easy to glance and take away important information with a greater understanding of the other results. Example A does a good job of telling us what we need to know but will be harder to remember amongst the rest of the data.
Images like these also have a better chance of being shared on other sites, which can increase engagement alone.
Compared to standard pieces of text, bold images and videos on social media increase views and interactions. They give you a way to produce immersive experiences and memorable content in just a few clicks, making your audience instantly feel more engaged.
What’s more, with platforms like Pinterest and LinkedIn launching new story features, you can use visual content to attract a unique audience across all of your platforms.
6 ways to boost engagement through multimedia
Using these techniques won’t only make your social channels look more appealing, but will help you gain loyal followers who consistently engage with your posts.
1. Utilise user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) refers to the text, images and videos created by social media users. Brands often share the content on their own accounts to show that real people buy from them, making it an excellent tactic to increase customer loyalty and longevity.
Take this example from Five Guys:
Almost all six of these have been reposted from their following, helping Five Guys build their brand, improve the quality of their feed and attract new customers. They also average at around 2,000 likes per post, as consumers are 2.4x more likely to view this kind of content as authentic.
If this doesn’t work for you or you’re a SAAS platform, you can also share reviews or what other people have said about your brand. Here’s what Larry Kotch, founder of The Brains Marketing had to say about ours.
2. Create a visual language
By the term ‘language’, we’re talking about the way your visual content ties together and the feeling it gives your audience. It’s a small move that will make people remember your brand, look forward to what’s coming next and start to trust you.
For example, if you’re a fitness brand, you might use features such as Instagram TV (IGTV) to show your workouts and encourage people to interact. In addition, you might decide to publish snappy eye-catching videos like Hootsuite, but with daily inspirational quotes. It’s easier to be creative if you think of it as a guide rather than a strategy, kind of like a tone of voice document for your multimedia.
At Adzooma, we tend to use:
- Screenshots of the platform to show how easy it is to use and what the different features look like
- Team photos and videos to show behind the scenes at our offices and that we are a group of real people
- Videos created by our design team showcasing the Adzooma brand, typically as announcement posts
Whatever your industry or brand, a strong theme will make you recognisable to both new and existing followers. If you’re struggling to get your brand out there to begin with, one of our highly-qualified Marketplace agencies can get your business off the ground.
Find your perfect match here, using our updated ratings and review system to help you make the right decision. You can even send quick, personalised messages to be sure exactly what the agency is offering. It’s designed for you, for your business and for your success.
3. Become an expert at the basics
If you want to ramp up your engagement, you need to know what makes excellent visual content. You don’t have to be a fully-qualified artist or designer to know what looks good.
This includes:
- The rule of thirds. This photography rule helps you centre your shot. You imagine every image is split into nine squares and the centre of your image should land on one of four points for maximum impact.
- Natural light. If your image or video has terrible lighting, no one will interact with it. Take product shots, team photos and everything else in natural light with as little shadows or distractions as possible.
- A clear focal point. If your images feel crowded or your videos confused, they probably are. Split your content into different posts to make sure each one has a clear message.
- Adding text, illustrations and logos. A great way to boost engagement is to make your content your own. Test different tools, see how animations work and which font best suits your brand.
- Little editing. In most cases, the original shot is much better than the edited one, particularly if we’re talking about obvious social media filters.
Following these principles won’t only help you create content that looks good, but will subconsciously draw people to your brand.
4. Make sure all your content has a purpose
You should use visual content to engage your audience, not to fill gaps on your platforms. Everything you post should add value, educate people, entertain them or inform them about something new. If you’re unsure, use Adzooma’s social channels for inspiration.
Here’s an image we posted to showcase our brand personality:
And here’s a video we posted to help customers navigate the Adzooma platform:
And here’s a video we posted to help customers navigate the Adzooma platform:
In the first instance, a stock image of a dog saying our office dog Dexter is in the office wouldn’t have made sense. For the video, the same information would’ve been much harder to follow and understand if it was listed in a static image. It’s about what makes sense for the post, and if it feels like a relatable GIF, go for it.
5. Make use of stories
Stories are an excellent way to involve your followers with something you’re doing at that exact moment. Not only because platforms like Instagram have more than 500 million daily Stories users, but because you can use them to add a personal touch and enhance your visual language.
For example, if you own a bakery, you might have visualised posting drool-worthy content all over your platforms.
But, posting repetitive stock updates, reminding customers of opening times and complaining about people not collecting their goods actually takes up the majority of your posts. For new followers in particular, it might not be the best for engagement.
Making use of stories, on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, helps people to connect with you and show that you aren’t always in strict business mode. It’s content people want to see more of, even if it’s just you trying the baked goods yourself or teaching younger siblings how to bake. Social media influencers are big for this exact reason – people are interested in other people, so content that invites other people into their lives always performs well.
You can also repost content from your feed to drive more engagement, give people a teaser of what’s coming soon instead of a written post, and increase interactions with ad-hoc polls, quizzes and questions.
6. Make visuals part of your strategy
Visual content is as good as the planning behind it. If you have a detailed strategy, you’re much more likely to engage with your target audience and gain followers that will become loyal to your brand.
For example, if you update your Instagram story with behind-the-scenes product launches, can the same content be posted on LinkedIn? If there’s a risk it might get lost between millions of posts on Facebook, how are you going to adapt your content? It’s these questions that will help you increase engagement across all of your social channels.
Likewise, you want to think further than just posting content at peak times.
Will animated content work better around certain holidays? Are people less likely to watch longer videos during the festive period? Planning ahead will ensure you can provide as much value as possible at the exact times your audience is using social media.
Adzooma Marketplace is fuelled with digital marketing agencies who can help improve your strategy. With one onboard, you will have a clear idea of exactly who your visuals are tailored towards and how to make them have the most impact.
Find the expertise you need to grow here.
Using multimedia to your advantage
If that isn’t enough to convince you, we’re 65% more likely to remember information if it includes an image. So if you’re trying to increase awareness, grow your following and boost engagement, it’s time to tap into the world of multimedia.
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