Ride the visual roller coaster

Consider the roller coaster – There’re ups and adrenalin loaded downs and just when you get used to the ups and downs there’s a sharp curve and you’re wondering when the next surprise will be. You are captivated, you are engaged in the process.

On social media, we are exposed to a constant cycle of messages on a daily basis. How do you keep your customers entertained and break through all the clutter?  Why not take your customers on a visual journey with twists and turns ups and downs? Visual imagery triggers an emotional response and boosts engagement. It is not a coincidence that the fastest growing social networks such as Pinterest, Instagram and SnapChat focus on visual content.

It’s important to include how you are going to use images as part of your social media strategy. Be aware of the vast array of images and messages on social media, audiences are becoming desensitised therefore it takes extra effort to get engagement.  Attention grabbing, eye-catching graphic design provides a visual route to impress your audience. Well-designed images give your business a more professional persona and can strengthen the brand.  Branded images displayed across several social media networks fuels brand recognition and awareness. 

With the constant stream of messages and images, it is important to post regularly and consistently. At Concise Digital and Concise Training, we have focused on developing a strong consistent, visual brand to reach as wide an audience as possible and retain their interest.

This year we have made an effort to promote a new theme each month with branded headers across all our platforms and related content to retain and grow our fan base with interesting, useful and fresh ideas. Our fans are recognising and engaging with our content that is easily identified by our consistent, high-quality images.  

What have we learnt from the exercise?

1.  Consistency is the key to creating branded content:

• Use a consistent colour palette
• Choose images with a consistent theme, this can be a tonal range, background, genre or perhaps choice between using vector or bitmap images.
• Stick to a few fonts that reflect your brand personality.
• If using text to relay a message, make sure that it is easy to read

2.  Take time to ensure the image sizes are correct

1. • Each channel has its own unique image size both for status updates and ads.  Make sure the images you create are produced in various sizes.
   • Sizes for ad images are different again – make sure you know what the image is going to be used for.
   •  Images on mobile devices might appear slightly differently. Don’t put writing too close to the edge to ensure your message doesn’t get cut off.

3.  Use your own designed images

1. • Stock images are OK – but is it obvious they are stock images and therefore, may not represent your brand.
   • If you are going to use stock images, make changes to ensure they are branded with your colours, style and fonts. Please also check whether you need to attribute the image to the source. 
   • Create template ‘cards’ like our Wimbledon version which you can use in a number of ways by adding small text questions, tips or facts.

4.  Minimise text

1. • Don’t allow your words to crowd out the image, people won’t take the time to read a lot of text.
   • Watch the use of fonts – make sure they can be easily read when fans are scrolling through their feed.

5.  Variety

1. • Use a range of visual content, people don’t want to see the same thing over and over again. try screenshots, infographics, quotes and try adding your own photos for a personal touch. 

Do you want to improve the social media images you share? We can offer you images for our Business e-learning course, or we offer a package to design and create branded digital images for you.