Images always capture attention and it’s time for social media to move into visual media. Put the best images for each of your posts!
How powerful are images in social media? When social media guru Dan Zarrella examined the top 10,000 most-liked Facebook pages, he found photos generated the most likes and the most (by a long shot) shares of all types of posts. Facebook, in its own research, found photo albums generated 180 percent more engagements than other types of posts, and individual photos 120 percent more. In a list of 19 key statistics about the importance of images on the web, HubSpot noted the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, that user engagement with image and video posts increased by 65 percent in just the first month Facebook introduced Timeline for brands, and that publishers who post infographics see 12 percent more traffic growth than those who don’t.
The data points clearly to how marketers should incorporate images into their social strategies. But it also introduces a potential problem: The amount of time required to create or search for images, then post them across all the major social media platforms. The challenge lies in maximizing the reach and engagement of each image, to make those images work efficiently and effectively across multiple social platforms.
Here’s a quick and easy five-step visual marketing strategy through which marketers can create real “social synergy” starting with their Facebook Page.
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Start with an easy-to-share tab created with an image on your Facebook page.
Engagement app tabs by TabSite are powerful tools that are designed to encourage users to share content. An image shared in such a tab should be 810 pixels wide, to fit the full Facebook tab width and capture the attention of users. The tab can promote your business in general, a special offer, an event, or whatever else you see fit. TabSite, offers a Friend Share tab for Facebook, which incorporates a tool though which fans can access their Facebook Friends list and share a message on a friends’ Timeline that links directly back to the tab. If a referral comes from a friend and not from an unsolicited ad, it carries particular value, so this tool offers value for free!
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Pin the image from Facebook tab to Pinterest.
Pinterest is all about images, and if you capture the imagination of Pinterest users, they can take your images and re-post them to their networks on other social media sites, which is easy through this ever-growing platform. The click-through rates on Pinterest demonstrate its users are particularly inclined to click on the images they like to learn more about them, which makes the network a powerhouse of referral traffic. All marketers should take the opportunity to post any images they share on Facebook to their company or personal Pinterest accounts. The free Friend Share TabSite app offers Pinterest social sharing button on its Friend Share tab as is, whereby you can automatically post to Pinterest the initial Facebook image, and through which Pinterest users will be directed right back to your Facebook tab. Use this and now we have an image on Facebook that can be shared easily and on Pinterest where it can be repinned.
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Incorporate Tweet, Like and +1 tools to your tab.
With these simple tools, which are available by default in the Friend Share tab, fans can share your image via Twitter and Google + — and can encourage their friends to Like the tab, increasing exposure to all of their Facebook friends. These tools allow your fans to do introduce it to so many new sets of eyes. Take a moment to tweet a message with a link back to your tab, like and G+ it yourself, adding a comment.
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Create a Facebook Timeline Image post with the same image from the tab.
You can do this yourself, or with a service like Buffer, Hootsuite, Sendible, or Plan Your Post. Add a text description about the image that fans will see on their News Feed. Include a smart URL to the tab in the description. Check your page insights, and schedule the post for a time when you will get maximum viewers.
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Post to Instagram.
Grab your mobile, go to Facebook, find the Timeline image, click and save it at full size, open Instagram, load the image, and post it. A simple description and #hashtag can help categorize the post. Since Instagram incorporates sharing features for a variety of social networks, you can repost the picture to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr and others.
A holistic visual strategy can empower a marketer to efficiently capitalize on an image via social media by extending its reach across many social media platforms. This strategy can create a ripple effect of ever-increasing reach for the image, additional traffic back to your Facebook page, and excellent potential for viral sharing by fans and followers on all social platforms. The power of images and the reach of social media unite through this tool for visual marketing social synergy.