Images are a vital part of getting out your message on social media and in any marketing effort. They can (and should) be branded, if you’re in business. They grab people’s attention much more quickly than plain text posts. And when used properly, for instance with a social media growth service similar to SidesMedia.com, they can definitely enhance your presence, your persona and your business. By the same token, they can also tank your best efforts.
One of the top social media mavens in the world, Kim Garst of Kim Garst Boom Social says recent Twitter statistics indicate that tweets including images have a 5:1 better engagement ratio than plain text tweets.
That’s a pretty compelling argument to include images in all your social media. Plus, if images are appealing, it may attract new followers to your pages as well! If not, you could always use sites like Nitreo to attract new followers for you.
But I look at some of the images I see today on social media and wonder, “What on earth were they thinking?” They use images that are so busy the eye doesn’t know where to look. The type blends into the background. The type is too big or the wrong color or too fancy or faint to actually read.
The list is virtually inexhaustible.
I learned about design during my newspaper career and while newspapers today are considered quaint anachronisms by today’s Internet standards, the lessons I learned then are still true today.
Image failures on social media
Here are some of the biggest boo-boos I see in social media post images today.
- Form over function. It may look pretty, but if it doesn’t do the job, why do it? Here’s one of my favorite illustrations of that point. How in the world do you actually stay in one place in a chair like this? Sure, it may look cool, but the silly thing has 10 legs! The question is: Does it do the job? That’s the same question you need to ask yourself about your own images.
- Too busy. There are some gorgeous, heart-stopping images out there, but a pretty picture is just the beginning. How will type look superimposed on it? What about color? Those things need to be taken into consideration, too.
- Wrong typeface. Type can be extremely evocative. A nice bold, san serif typeface (like an Arial) without all the little doo-dads on the ends of the letters connote strength and sureness. A fancy, curlicue typeface is feminine and soft. And then there are the novelty typefaces that look like chalk, Broadway lights, the Wild West and so on. These can work, but they need to match your content, what you’re saying with your images, and your intent — the point you’re trying to convey. Is your message casual? Funny? Thoughtful? Fun? Serious and business-like? Pick the typeface that helps drill home your message.
- Wrong type size. Just like the typeface you use, the size of the type is important, too. The smaller the type, the stronger it should be and that will generally mean going with a san serif type.
- ALL CAPS. Most everyone knows that online, all capital letters in the body of a post mean you’re yelling. Placed on an image, all caps can be effective, especially if you want to add emphasis. But please — use all caps only for one or two words. The rest should be caps and lower case.
- Wrong color. Be watchful of the colors that you use. They should complement and contrast with the colors in your image, not get lost — or make your eyes bleed. If one color looks great, except it fades against a color in the background, change the color of that one word.
Other tips
What if you have an image that you’re absolutely in love with and would be perfect for your message? You can put a frame around it large enough to add your comments.
What if you can’t find an image and you’re pressed for time? If you have the Microsoft Office Suite, open a Word document. You can simply create a text box, add a fill color and type away. These can be striking in their simplicity, but you can get fancy if you want, adding WordArt, frames of different sizes and colors, changing your text directions, and more. Save first as a PDF, then save the PDF as a high-resolution image.
Publisher has a number of different templates you can use to get started, or open a blank document and begin. Follow the same steps as above, but you can save a Publisher document directly as an image. It’s easy to insert a photo into a text box in Publisher, so you can create your frame there as well, if your photo does not lend itself to a type overlay.
PowerPoint is one of my favorites when I want to create a bold statement using only text and color. Open a new presentation, click on “Design” and up pops 40 templates that you can further modify with your own color scheme. PowerPoint also allows you to save directly as an image (you can create videos from your PowerPoint presentations as well).
I use PicMonkey for creating all my images. The free version works very well and has lots of options. If you don’t have time to mess with it, use Quozio, which has about 30 pre-selected images. All you do is type in your text, pick and background image and you’re good to go.
What have you learned about images that works well for you? Please share in the comments below.