Research has shown that brands can increase engagement by including images in their posts across social media, blogs and even on their websites. We’ve put together this blog to explain how using images impacts engagement, and to help you to make more effective use of images in your online content…
We’re becoming more visual. This means people are responding better to posts that include images compared to text-only posts.
- One that looked at the effect of adding a photo, video, link or hashtag to a tweet, showed that posts including photos resulted in an average boost in retweets of 35%
- In 2014, showed that photos accounted for 75% of the total content posted by pages on Facebook
This shows the shift in direction away from text-only posts, towards more illustrative and interactive content. With so many new social media posts, articles and blogs being created every day, it’s more important than ever to create engaging content that attracts people’s attention.
Depending on your industry, target audience and followers, the type of images that you share will differ. But whatever and wherever you’re posting, follow our 5 top tips to use images to increase your engagement:
1. Use high resolution (hi-res) images
Whether you’re posting on your blog, social media pages or on your website, the quality of the images you use is important.
When people visit your website or blog, they’re looking for signs of trust and reliability. If the site contains pixelated or low-resolution images, people are not only unlikely to share the post, but it may give a negative impression of your site and cause visitors to look elsewhere. If you’re creating high quality written content, it makes sense to back it up with hi-res imagery, and this is sure to help make your content share-worthy!
Combining a hi-res image with a catchy caption on Facebook will increase the likelihood of people liking, sharing and commenting on your post. Likewise, adding popular hashtags and a link to your image on Twitter can further drive engagement by improving the visibility of the post and therefore of your brand.
2. Avoid watermarks
Much like low resolution (low-res) images, if watermarks appear on the images you share, it won’t fill people with confidence about the content you’re sharing. In turn, this could mean people will be less likely to interact with your posts, or it may even lead to negative engagement.
Watermarked images are often low-res, and the watermark itself not only shows the image is owned by someone else, but also distorts the content of the image. It’s best to steer clear of watermarked images from both a professional and legal standpoint, and the best way to do this is to use an image with a licence, or purchase your image from a stock image library like 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß.
3. License your images
The safest and simplest way to source your images is to purchase them through a stock image library like 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß. Not only will buying an image mean you have all the right permissions to use the image, but you’ll also have access to a huge variety of unique, hi-res photos, vectors and illustrations to perfect your project.
If you’re trying to increase engagement on your content, your aim is to have people notice your post and share it with their own communities – this means lots of people will be able to see the images you’ve posted, so making sure you’re legally covered to use an image will save you from any legal trouble down the line! 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß has put together some popular pricing packages to make your checkout process easier, and you can buy a Website License for the image you want to use online for just £29.99/$44.99.
4. Make sure your image is the right size
Images will appear differently across social media platforms, on blog posts, websites and in email campaigns, so it’s important to make sure the images you use are the right size.
You don’t want to stretch an image beyond its capacity as it may become pixelated and deteriorate the quality of the image. You want your image to be clearly visible and not too small or too large on the page. Anything too small will not help with engagement as people can’t see it clearly, and anything too large can be off-putting as people don’t want to do any unnecessary scrolling.
With such a huge range of social media sharing buttons available, it’s so easy for people to share your content on any social media platform, so you’ll also need to be mindful of the image that will appear when your link is shared – make sure the lead image is relevant to the subject, eye-catching and, more importantly, legal.
This great post from 123-Reg gives some handy tips on, and gives some examples of the best image sizes for different social media platforms.
5. Choose something relevant and interesting
Any images you share need to be relevant to your target audience, but relevant doesn’t mean you need to select the same old generic photos that have been used before.
Be sure to select an image that’s both eye-catching and interesting, but remember to keep it relevant and in-tune with the tone of your other posts.
Think about what your followers or target audience respond well to. For example, striking and unusual images can create intrigue, people can relate to lifestyle images as it’s easy to place themselves in that situation, and photos of people or of your customers or fans can add a more personable feel to your posts.
Check out our blog for tips on
New to buying images? Find out more about how to buy photos and images online